We Keep Coding

Copy the contents of a JPanel onto a BufferedImage

On the first time through, I insert BufferedImages from a list onto my JPanel from my extended class:
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g){
super.paintComponent(g);
if (controlWhichImage == 1){
for (BufferedImage eachImage : docList){
g.drawImage(eachImage, 0,inty,imageWidth,imageHeight,null);
intx += eachImage.getWidth();
inty += eachImage.getHeight() * zoomAdd;
}
if (intx >= this.getWidth() || inty >= this.getHeight()){
inty = 0;
}
The next time I want to copy the contents of the JPanel to a BufferedImage:
public void recordImage(){
controlWhichImage = 2;
this.createdImage = new BufferedImage(this.getWidth(), this.getHeight(), BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
Image halfWay = this.createImage(this.getWidth(), this.getHeight());
//now cast it from Image to bufferedImage
this.createdImage = (BufferedImage) halfWay;
}
And then, take the modified BufferedImage and draw it back onto the JPanel:
if (controlWhichImage == 2){
g.drawImage(this.createdImage,0,inty,this.getWidth(),this.getHeight(),null);
}
This second time I get a blank panel.
I hope this is clear, any help gratefully received.
Sorry for my poor explanation. I will try to make myself clearer.
On each iteration the user is able to draw on the image in the Jpanel.
What I want to do is copy the user altered jpanel into a buffered image which will then be in the Jpanel to be edited again by the user.
This continues until the user selects print.
So apart from the code that I have put here are the controls for drawing by the user, at the moment I am struggling with putting the initial updated image from the original Jpanel into a bufferedImage and then back to the JPanel.
Hope this makes it somewhat clearer

To draw to a BufferedImage, you would do something similar to what you already do in your paintComponent method, but with your BufferedImage. Perhaps a method like:
// imgW and imgH are the width and height of the desired ultimate image
public BufferedImage combineImages(List<BufferedImage> docList, int imgW, int imgH) {
// first create the main image that you want to draw to
BufferedImage mainImg = new BufferedImage(imgW, imgH, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
// get its Graphics context
Graphics g = mainImage.getGraphics();
int intx = 0;
int inty = 0;
// draw your List of images onto this main image however you want to do this
for (BufferedImage eachImage : docList){
g.drawImage(eachImage, 0,inty,imageWidth,imageHeight,null);
intx += eachImage.getWidth();
inty += eachImage.getHeight() * zoomAdd;
}
}
// anything else that you need to do
g.dispose(); // dispose of this graphics context to save resources
return mainImg;
}
You could then store the image returned into a varaible and then draw it in your JPanel if desired, or write it to disk.
If this doesn't answer your question, then again you'll want to tell more and show us your MCVE.

How do you embed a resizable JPanel inside of a JTextPane?

There are many questions of the converse, inserting a JTextPane into a JPanel. This is not my question. I need to be able to insert a custom JPanel (with drag and drop, drag, and mouse click listeners) into a JTextPane, which is then put into a JScrollPane, and finally put into a JFrame for displaying. The reason is because I need to have an image with support for resizing by dragging it within a chat client, which is itself primarily text.
Conveniently enough, there is a relevant method in JTextPane: insertComponent(Component c), but whenever I use it, my components end up being squished to exactly one line of text worth of space (even though they report having a larger size). This is perfect for plain buttons, but if I need anything larger, I'm out of luck. I can insert images by themselves just fine, with ImageIcons, but images wrapped inside a JPanel don't work at all (plus I can't add any listeners to ImageIcons, since they're not GUI elements; overriding one isn't an option).
Whenever a user drags an image into the chat client, this bit of code inserts the custom JPanel:
private void sendImage(BufferedImage im, int cl) throws IOException {
if(output == null) return;
//Send the image itself over to your friend
byte[] toSend = toBytes(im, cl);
sendString(nickname.hashCode() + "image"); //Header for image
output.writeInt(toSend.length); //Tells how many bytes to read.
output.write(toSend);
//Let the user know that the image was sent
float linmb = (float)(toSend.length / 1048576.0); //Size of file sent
addText("\n" + nickname + " sent an image! (" + linmb + " MB)\n", Color.RED.darker());
//Show the image itself
DraggerPanel d = new DraggerPanel(im, true);
text.insertComponent(d);
d.repaint();
//Spacer
addText("\n");
}
This is the source for DraggerPanel, the custom JPanel that holds an image:
public class DraggerPanel extends JPanel {
private BufferedImage image; //The image we're drawing
private Point startingPoint = null; //Starting point for resizing
private boolean first = true; //Is this the first drag?
private boolean lockedDrag; //If true, then lock x and y to be proportionally dragged.
public DraggerPanel(BufferedImage image, boolean lockedDrag) {
super();
this.image = image;
this.lockedDrag = lockedDrag;
//The listener for dragging events.
addMouseMotionListener(new MouseMotionListener() {
private int inWidth = 0, inHeight = 0; //Initial height and width values
private double ratio = 0; //Ratio of height to width for locked drag.
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent m) {
if (first) { //If we're first, record initial position.
startingPoint = m.getPoint();
first = false;
inWidth = getWidth();
inHeight = getHeight();
ratio = (double)inHeight / inWidth;
} else { //Otherwise, change the size of the window.
if (!lockedDrag) {
int w = (int)startingPoint.getX() - m.getX();
int h = (int)startingPoint.getY() - m.getY();
setSize(Math.abs(inWidth - w), Math.abs(inHeight - h));
} else {
int w = (int)startingPoint.getX() - m.getX();
int h = (int)((double)ratio * w);
setSize(Math.abs(inWidth - w), Math.abs(inHeight - h));
}
}
repaint();
}
public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent m){
}
});
//Lets us know when you're not dragging anymore.
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter(){public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent m){first = true;}});
//Set appropriate size.
if(image != null) setSize(image.getWidth(), image.getHeight());
else setSize(200,200);
//We're live, baby.
setVisible(true);
}
public void paint(Graphics g) {
if (image == null) super.paint(g);
else g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight(), null);
}
}
Update 1: I followed #camickr 's advice, and updated the DraggerPanel to use setPreferredSize instead of setSize, as well as overrode paintComponent() instead of paint(). Now, the image has the proper height, but is stretched to the width of the JTextPane (which seems like what it was doing before). Furthermore, resizing doesn't seem to matter- the image doesn't change its size at all. Mouse events are definitely going through, but not affecting the size. It seems as though the original problem isn't fully resolved, since the JPanel's size isn't what I need it to be, and the solution to that will also lead to a solution to the resizing issue.
Update 2: I did it! I finally did it. To the future time travelers who have this issue, I basically yelled at the JTextPane by not only using setSize() in my overridden JPanel, but also setPreferredSize() and setMaximumSize(). The preferred one works well with height, and the maximum sets the width (God knows why). Thanks for your tips, #camickr!

my components end up being squished to exactly one line of text worth of space (even though they report having a larger size).
I would guess the size is not important.
I would think you need to override the getPreferredSize() method of your DraggerPanel to return the preferred size of the panel so the text pane can display the panel.
Also, custom painting is done by overriding the paintComponent(...) method NOT the paint() method.

Repainting a BufferedImage in Java does not change contents of panel

Long story short I am drawing the Mandelbrot using a BufferedImage that I put in a custom JPanel. I have already done the zooming in the set but have problems with repainting when unzooming. When unzooming I change the value of the image to that of the previous state of the image(I keep every state in a Stack) and repaint the panel. Problem is that the last image in the stack gets popped off but it is not drawn.
These are my instance variables
private BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(500, 500, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
private Stack<BufferedImage> zooms = new Stack<BufferedImage>();
private boolean unzoom = false;
This is how I zoom and push the image that I want to save on a stack
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e)
{
zooms.push(image);
<some code for zooming that works>
repaint();
}
Now I want to unzoom by scrolling
class WheelZoomListener implements MouseWheelListener
{
public void mouseWheelMoved(MouseWheelEvent e)
{
unzoom = true;
//this is how I assign the current image to be the one before the last zoom
image = zooms.pop();
repaint();
}
}
Finally this is my paint method
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
super.paintComponent(g);
Graphics2D g2d= (Graphics2D) g;
//if it is not unzooming draw the mandelbrot set normally by
//dealing with every pixel of the Buffered Image separately
if (!unzoom)
{
for(int i = 0; i < SIZE; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < SIZE; j++)
{
int iterations = getIterations(cnSet[i][j]);
if (iterations == noIterations)
{
color = Color.BLACK;
}
else
{
color = cols[iterations%noIterations];
}
image.setRGB(i, j, color.getRGB());
}
}
}
//zooming or unzooming always draw the image in its current state
g2d.drawImage(image, 0, 0, this);
unzoom = false;
}
FIX: It turned out that I don't need to keep the last image and create temporary images every time. Instead now I only keep the coordinates of the complex plane in a stack. That is all I need to repaint the old image again.

This:
private BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(500, 500, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
Instantiates a new BufferedImage and stores a reference to that object in image.
This:
zooms.push(image);
Pushes the reference to that single BufferedImage you created onto the stack.
As long as you keep using the same BufferedImage, all you are doing is pushing multiple references to the same object onto the stack; so changes to the object's data are reflected in every reference you've placed on the stack, because every item in the stack points to the same object.
The high-level effect is you are changing every previous state to the current one every time you render.
You'll want to create a whole new BufferedImage for each state; so that each reference you stick on the stack points to a unique object.
Take a look at this nice little article about how references work in Java.

Java: how to do double-buffering in Swing?

EDIT TWO
To prevent snarky comments and one-line answers missing the point: IFF it is as simple as calling setDoubleBuffered(true), then how do I get access to the current offline buffer so that I can start messing with the BufferedImage's underlying pixel databuffer?
I took the time to write a running piece of code (which looks kinda fun too) so I'd really appreciate answers actually answering (what a shock ;) my question and explaining what/how this is working instead of one-liners and snarky comments ;)
Here's a working piece of code that bounces a square across a JFrame. I'd like to know about the various ways that can be used to transform this piece of code so that it uses double-buffering.
Note that the way I clear the screen and redraw the square ain't the most efficient but this is really not what this question is about (in a way, it's better for the sake of this example that it is somewhat slow).
Basically, I need to constantly modify a lot pixels in a BufferedImage (as to have some kind of animation) and I don't want to see the visual artifacts due to single-buffering on screen.
I've got a JLabel whose Icon is an ImageIcon wrapping a BufferedImage. I want to modify that BufferedImage.
What has to be done so that this becomes double-buffered?
I understand that somehow "image 1" will be shown while I'll be drawing on "image 2". But then once I'm done drawing on "image 2", how do I "quickly" replace "image 1" by "image 2"?
Is this something I should be doing manually, like, say, by swapping the JLabel's ImageIcon myself?
Should I be always drawing in the same BufferedImage then do a fast 'blit' of that BufferedImage's pixels in the JLabel's ImageIcon's BufferedImage? (I guess no and I don't see how I could "synch" this with the monitor's "vertical blank line" [or equivalent in flat-screen: I mean, to 'synch' without interfering with the moment the monitor itselfs refreshes its pixels, as to prevent shearing]).
What about the "repaint" orders? Am I suppose to trigger these myself? Which/when exactly should I call repaint() or something else?
The most important requirement is that I should be modifying pixels directly in the images's pixel databuffer.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.awt.image.DataBufferInt;
public class DemosDoubleBuffering extends JFrame {
private static final int WIDTH = 600;
private static final int HEIGHT = 400;
int xs = 3;
int ys = xs;
int x = 0;
int y = 0;
final int r = 80;
final BufferedImage bi1;
public static void main( final String[] args ) {
final DemosDoubleBuffering frame = new DemosDoubleBuffering();
frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowClosing( WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
frame.setSize( WIDTH, HEIGHT );
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible( true );
}
public DemosDoubleBuffering() {
super( "Trying to do double buffering" );
final JLabel jl = new JLabel();
bi1 = new BufferedImage( WIDTH, HEIGHT, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB );
final Thread t = new Thread( new Runnable() {
public void run() {
while ( true ) {
move();
drawSquare( bi1 );
jl.repaint();
try {Thread.sleep(10);} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
}
});
t.start();
jl.setIcon( new ImageIcon( bi1 ) );
getContentPane().add( jl );
}
private void drawSquare( final BufferedImage bi ) {
final int[] buf = ((DataBufferInt) bi.getRaster().getDataBuffer()).getData();
for (int i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
buf[i] = 0xFFFFFFFF; // clearing all white
}
for (int xx = 0; xx < r; xx++) {
for (int yy = 0; yy < r; yy++) {
buf[WIDTH*(yy+y)+xx+x] = 0xFF000000;
}
}
}
private void move() {
if ( !(x + xs >= 0 && x + xs + r < bi1.getWidth()) ) {
xs = -xs;
}
if ( !(y + ys >= 0 && y + ys + r < bi1.getHeight()) ) {
ys = -ys;
}
x += xs;
y += ys;
}
}
EDIT
This is not for a full-screen Java application, but a regular Java application, running in its own (somewhat small) window.

---- Edited to address per pixel setting ----
The item blow addresses double buffering, but there's also an issue on how to get pixels into a BufferedImage.
If you call
WriteableRaster raster = bi.getRaster()
on the BufferedImage it will return a WriteableRaster. From there you can use
int[] pixels = new int[WIDTH*HEIGHT];
// code to set array elements here
raster.setPixel(0, 0, pixels);
Note that you would probably want to optimize the code to not actually create a new array for each rendering. In addition, you would probably want to optimized the array clearing code to not use a for loop.
Arrays.fill(pixels, 0xFFFFFFFF);
would probably outperform your loop setting the background to white.
---- Edited after response ----
The key is in your original setup of the JFrame and inside the run rendering loop.
First you need to tell SWING to stop Rasterizing whenever it wants to; because, you'll be telling it when you're done drawing to the buffered image you want to swap out in full. Do this with JFrame's
setIgnoreRepaint(true);
Then you'll want to create a buffer strategy. Basically it specifies how many buffers you want to use
createBufferStrategy(2);
Now that you tried to create the buffer strategy, you need to grab the BufferStrategy object as you will need it later to switch buffers.
final BufferStrategy bufferStrategy = getBufferStrategy();
Inside your Thread modify the run() loop to contain:
...
move();
drawSqure(bi1);
Graphics g = bufferStrategy.getDrawGraphics();
g.drawImage(bi1, 0, 0, null);
g.dispose();
bufferStrategy.show();
...
The graphics grabbed from the bufferStrategy will be the off-screen Graphics object, when creating triple buffering, it will be the "next" off-screen Graphics object in a round-robin fashion.
The image and the Graphics context are not related in a containment scenario, and you told Swing you'd do the drawing yourself, so you have to draw the image manually. This is not always a bad thing, as you can specify the buffer flipping when the image is fully drawn (and not before).
Disposing of the graphics object is just a good idea as it helps in garbage collection. Showing the bufferStrategy will flip buffers.
While there might have been a misstep somewhere in the above code, this should get you 90% of the way there. Good luck!
---- Original post follows ----
It might seem silly to refer such a question to a javase tutorial, but have you looked into BufferStrategy and BufferCapatbilites?
The main issue I think you are encountering is that you are fooled by the name of the Image. A BufferedImage has nothing to do with double buffering, it has to do with "buffering the data (typically from disk) in memory." As such, you will need two BufferedImages if you wish to have a "double buffered image"; as it is unwise to alter pixels in image which is being shown (it might cause repainting issues).
In your rendering code, you grab the graphics object. If you set up double buffering according to the tutorial above, this means you will grab (by default) the off-screen Graphics object, and all drawing will be off-screen. Then you draw your image (the right one of course) to the off-screen object. Finally, you tell the strategy to show() the buffer, and it will do the replacement of the Graphics context for you.

Generally we use Canvas class which is suitable for animation in Java. Anyhoo, following is how you achieve double buffering:
class CustomCanvas extends Canvas {
private Image dbImage;
private Graphics dbg;
int x_pos, y_pos;
public CustomCanvas () {
}
public void update (Graphics g) {
// initialize buffer
if (dbImage == null) {
dbImage = createImage (this.getSize().width, this.getSize().height);
dbg = dbImage.getGraphics ();
}
// clear screen in background
dbg.setColor (getBackground ());
dbg.fillRect (0, 0, this.getSize().width, this.getSize().height);
// draw elements in background
dbg.setColor (getForeground());
paint (dbg);
// draw image on the screen
g.drawImage (dbImage, 0, 0, this);
}
public void paint (Graphics g)
{
g.setColor (Color.red);
g.fillOval (x_pos - radius, y_pos - radius, 2 * radius, 2 * radius);
}
}
Now you can update the x_pos and y_pos from a thread, followed by the 'repaint' call on the canvas object. The same technique should work on a JPanel as well.

What you want is basically impossible in windowed mode with Swing. There is no support for raster synchronization for window repaints, this is only available in fullscreen mode (and even then may not be supported by all platforms).
Swing components are double-buffered by default, that is they will do all the rendering to an intermediate buffer and that buffer is then finally copied to the screen, avoiding flicker from background clearing and then painting on top of it.
And thats the only strategy that is reasonable well supported on all underlying platforms. It avoids only repaint flickering, but not visual tearing from moving graphic elements.
A reasonably simple way of having access to the raw pixels of an area fully under you control would be to extend a custom component from JComponent and overwrite its paintComponent()-method to paint the area from a BufferedImage (from memory):
public class PixelBufferComponent extends JComponent {
private BufferedImage bufferImage;
public PixelBufferComponent(int width, int height) {
bufferImage = new BufferedImage(width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
setPreferredSize(new Dimension(width, height));
}
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
g.drawImage(bufferImage, 0, 0, null);
}
}
You can then manipulate you buffered image whichever way you desire. To get your changes made visible on screen, simply call repaint() on it. If you do the pixel manipulation from a thread other than the EDT, you need TWO buffered images to cope with race conditions between the actual repaint and your manipulation thread.
Note that this skeleton will not paint the entire area of the component when used with a layout manager that stretches the component beyond its preferred size.
Note also, the buffered image approach mostly only makes sense if you do real low level pixel manipulation via setRGB(...) on the image or if you directly access the underlying DataBuffer directly. If you can do all the manipulations using Graphics2D's methods, you could do all the stuff in the paintComponent method using the provided graphics (which is actually a Graphics2D and can be simply casted).

Here's a variation in which all drawing takes place on the event dispatch thread.
Addendum:
Basically, I need to constantly modify a lot pixels in a BufferedImage…
This kinetic model illustrates several approaches to pixel animation.
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
/** #see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4430356 */
public class DemosDoubleBuffering extends JPanel implements ActionListener {
private static final int W = 600;
private static final int H = 400;
private static final int r = 80;
private int xs = 3;
private int ys = xs;
private int x = 0;
private int y = 0;
private final BufferedImage bi;
private final JLabel jl = new JLabel();
private final Timer t = new Timer(10, this);
public static void main(final String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.add(new DemosDoubleBuffering());
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
public DemosDoubleBuffering() {
super(true);
this.setLayout(new GridLayout());
this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(W, H));
bi = new BufferedImage(W, H, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
jl.setIcon(new ImageIcon(bi));
this.add(jl);
t.start();
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
move();
drawSquare(bi);
jl.repaint();
}
private void drawSquare(final BufferedImage bi) {
Graphics2D g = bi.createGraphics();
g.setColor(Color.white);
g.fillRect(0, 0, W, H);
g.setColor(Color.blue);
g.fillRect(x, y, r, r);
g.dispose();
}
private void move() {
if (!(x + xs >= 0 && x + xs + r < bi.getWidth())) {
xs = -xs;
}
if (!(y + ys >= 0 && y + ys + r < bi.getHeight())) {
ys = -ys;
}
x += xs;
y += ys;
}
}

Java2D Performance Issues

I'm having performance oddities with Java2D. I know of the sun.java2d.opengl VM parameter to enable 3D acceleration for 2D, but even using that has some weird issues.
Here are results of tests I ran:
Drawing a 25x18 map with 32x32 pixel tiles on a JComponent
Image 1 = .bmp format, Image 2 = A .png format
Without -Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
120 FPS using .BMP image 1
13 FPS using .PNG image 2
With -Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
12 FPS using .BMP image 1
700 FPS using .PNG image 2
Without acceleration, I'm assuming some kind of transformation is taking place with every drawImage() I do in software, and is pulling down the FPS considerably in the case of .PNG. Why though, with acceleration, would the results switch (and PNG actually performs incredibly faster)?! Craziness!
.BMP Image 1 is translated to an image type of TYPE_INT_RGB. .PNG Image 2 is translated to an image type of TYPE_CUSTOM. In order to get consistent speed with and without opengl acceleration, I have to create a new BufferedImage with an image type of TYPE_INT_ARGB, and draw Image 1 or Image 2 to this new image.
Here are the results running with that:
Without -Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
120 FPS using .BMP image 1
120 FPS using .PNG image 2
With -Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
700 FPS using .BMP image 1
700 FPS using .PNG image 2
My real question is, can I assume that TYPE_INT_ARGB will be the native image type for all systems and platforms? I'm assuming this value could be different. Is there some way for me to get the native value so that I can always create new BufferedImages for maximum performance?
Thanks in advance...

I think I found a solution by researching and putting bits and pieces together from too many Google searches.
Here it is, comments and all:
private BufferedImage toCompatibleImage(BufferedImage image)
{
// obtain the current system graphical settings
GraphicsConfiguration gfxConfig = GraphicsEnvironment.
getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getDefaultScreenDevice().
getDefaultConfiguration();
/*
* if image is already compatible and optimized for current system
* settings, simply return it
*/
if (image.getColorModel().equals(gfxConfig.getColorModel()))
return image;
// image is not optimized, so create a new image that is
BufferedImage newImage = gfxConfig.createCompatibleImage(
image.getWidth(), image.getHeight(), image.getTransparency());
// get the graphics context of the new image to draw the old image on
Graphics2D g2d = newImage.createGraphics();
// actually draw the image and dispose of context no longer needed
g2d.drawImage(image, 0, 0, null);
g2d.dispose();
// return the new optimized image
return newImage;
}
In my previous post, GraphicsConfiguration was what held the information needed to create optimized images on a system. It seems to work pretty well, but I would have thought Java would automatically do this for you. Obviously you can't get too comfortable with Java. :) I guess I ended up answering my own question. Oh well, hopefully it'll help some of you I've seen trying to make use of Java for 2D games.

Well, this is old post but I'd like to share my findings about direct drawing with Swing/AWT, without BufferedImage.
Some kind of drawing, as 3D, are better done when painting directly to a int[] buffer. Once done the images, you can use an ImageProducer instance, like MemoryImageSource, to produce images. I'm assuming you know how to perform your drawings directly, without help of Graphics/Graphics2.
/**
* How to use MemoryImageSource to render images on JPanel
* Example by A.Borges (2015)
*/
public class MyCanvas extends JPanel implements Runnable {
public int pixel[];
public int width;
public int height;
private Image imageBuffer;
private MemoryImageSource mImageProducer;
private ColorModel cm;
private Thread thread;
public MyCanvas() {
super(true);
thread = new Thread(this, "MyCanvas Thread");
}
/**
* Call it after been visible and after resizes.
*/
public void init(){
cm = getCompatibleColorModel();
width = getWidth();
height = getHeight();
int screenSize = width * height;
if(pixel == null || pixel.length < screenSize){
pixel = new int[screenSize];
}
mImageProducer = new MemoryImageSource(width, height, cm, pixel,0, width);
mImageProducer.setAnimated(true);
mImageProducer.setFullBufferUpdates(true);
imageBuffer = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().createImage(mImageProducer);
if(thread.isInterrupted() || !thread.isAlive()){
thread.start();
}
}
/**
* Do your draws in here !!
* pixel is your canvas!
*/
public /* abstract */ void render(){
// rubisch draw
int[] p = pixel; // this avoid crash when resizing
if(p.length != width * height) return;
for(int x=0; x < width; x++){
for(int y=0; y<height; y++){
int color = (((x + i) % 255) & 0xFF) << 16; //red
color |= (((y + j) % 255) & 0xFF) << 8; //green
color |= (((y/2 + x/2 - j) % 255) & 0xFF) ; //blue
p[ x + y * width] = color;
}
}
i += 1;
j += 1;
}
private int i=1,j=256;
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
// request a JPanel re-drawing
repaint();
try {Thread.sleep(5);} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
}
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
// perform draws on pixels
render();
// ask ImageProducer to update image
mImageProducer.newPixels();
// draw it on panel
g.drawImage(this.imageBuffer, 0, 0, this);
}
/**
* Overrides ImageObserver.imageUpdate.
* Always return true, assuming that imageBuffer is ready to go when called
*/
#Override
public boolean imageUpdate(Image image, int a, int b, int c, int d, int e) {
return true;
}
}// end class
Note we need unique instance of MemoryImageSource and Image. Do not create new Image or new ImageProducer for each frames, unless you have resized your JPanel. See init() method above.
In a rendering thread, ask a repaint(). On Swing, repaint() will call the overridden paintComponent(), where it call your render() method and then ask your imageProducer to update image.
With Image done, draw it with Graphics.drawImage().
To have a compatible Image, use proper ColorModel when you create your Image. I use GraphicsConfiguration.getColorModel():
/**
* Get Best Color model available for current screen.
* #return color model
*/
protected static ColorModel getCompatibleColorModel(){
GraphicsConfiguration gfx_config = GraphicsEnvironment.
getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getDefaultScreenDevice().
getDefaultConfiguration();
return gfx_config.getColorModel();
}

From what I remember when I was thinking about doing graphics programming in Java, the built in libraries are slow. I was advised on GameDev.Net that anyone doing anything serious would have to use something like jogl