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Java - paintComponent is causing my program to slow down

So I'm working on a game that consists of two grids. Each grid is a JPanel where I paint an object over (possibly) each space in the grid. I have found that PAINTING the object is slowing down the application, and I was wondering if there is a way to prevent this from happening.
The Details:
each grid is 6x12, so potentially 144 objects (extreme case) plus the background will be painted onto the entire frame at once.
each object that is painted is a 16x16 image file that gets scaled up depending on the size, don't know if this is relevant, but I have provided the constructor for the object class just in case it might have something to do with initializing the image?
Don't know how to explain this one but the Image is never saved in the object. The getImage() function creates and returns the Image when it is called by another class.
Currently the project is set up to have the Object array initialized when the game starts. It does not slow down until switching to the Board JPanel and the objects are painted.
The objects are only painted once when the Board JPanel is shown
paintComponent from the Board class:
//public Board extends JPanel
// boardManager holds an array of the objects
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
for(int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
for(int j = 0; j < 6; j++) {
if(boardManager.getVisibility(i, j)) {
g.drawImage(
boardManager.getImage(i, j),
boardManager.getX(i, j),
boardManager.getY(i, j),
this
);
}
}
}
}
getImage(int, int) from the BoardManager class:
public Image getImage(int x, int y) {
return grid[x][y].getImage();
}
Constructor from the Object class:
private int current;
public Object(Game frame, int x, int y, String c, Boolean vis) {
this.frame = frame;
xPos = x;
yPos = y;
color = c;
visible = vis;
current = 01;
imgPath = "/game/img/" + color + "/";
}
getImage() from the Object class:
public Image getImage() {
try {
BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource(imgPath + current + ".png"));
Image scaledImg = img.getScaledInstance(16 * frame.scale, 16 * frame.scale, Image.SCALE_FAST);
return scaledImg;
}
catch(IOException | IllegalArgumentException ex) {
System.err.println("Error: file not found " + imgPath + current + ".png");
}
return null;
}
My main concern is that as the boards get filled up, the game will start to slow down as it progresses, which might be a future issue. Right now the lag isn't very bad, but I've only been able to test what happens when only one board is filled up so far. I believe it will get even worse as both boards are filled.
Is there any issue with how my code is set up for this? Or is there a more effective way to deal with this?

From what I can tell your paintComponent() method ultimately invokes:
BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource(imgPath + current + ".png"));
Don't do IO in a painting method. This will slow down the painting.
The images should be read in the constructor of your class. Then the painting method can just access the image from you image cache.
Also you should scale the images once when you read them in.

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.

Double Buffering image in JFrame with other swing controls

I have a JFrame with an JLabel that houses an ImageIcon containing a BufferedImage. The BufferedImage's graphis are drawn on with several different graphics calls, such as drawOval(), drawRectangle(), etc, with many drawn shapes on it. As time passes ,or the user pans/zooms on the panel, the graphics are redrawn, so we could be redrawing several times per second.
Before attempting to add double buffering, the image repaint was slow, but my JComponents would render OK. The image would redraw multiple times as second as the user could drag and resize the label. I decided to attempt double buffering.
With my current double-buffered implementation below, the JLabel/Graphics redraw and show very smooth. However, The JFrame has other controls (JMenuBar, JSlider, JComboBox, etc.) that do not render properly and flicker a lot. I have to manually repaint() them, but then they flicker. What am I doing wrong with Double buffering? How can I get my image to repaint smoothly, but also allow my JComponetns to not flicker?
The view sets himself up to do double buffering. I also tried setting setIgnoreRepaint(true) as a way to fix my issue.
this.createBufferStrategy(2);
...
m_graphicsLabel.setIcon(new ImageIcon(bufferedImage));
This method below is called by the helper class when new graphics are available. I am manually repainting the JComponents, otherwise they wouldn't show up at all. But they flicker as this method can be called multiple times per second.
public void newViewGraphicsAvailable() {
m_xAxisZoomSlider.repaint();
m_yAxisZoomSlider.repaint();
lblZoom.repaint();
lblYZoom.repaint();
m_comboBox.repaint();
m_menuBar.repaint();
m_layersMenu.repaint();
}
This is the helper class that manipulates the graphics object with calls to graphics.drawOval() etc.
private void drawGraphics(){
BufferedImage blankImage = createBlankImage();
Graphics g = null;
try {
g = m_bufferedStrategy.getDrawGraphics();
g.drawImage(blankImage, 0, 0, null);
m_imageDrawer.draw((Graphics2D) g);
} finally {
g.dispose();
}
m_bufferedStrategy.show();
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().sync();
view.newGraphicsAvailable();
}
private BufferedImage createBlankImage()
{
short[] backgroundPixels = new short[Width * Height];
for(int index = 0; index < backgroundPixels.length; index++) {
backgroundPixels[index] = 0;
}
DataBuffer dbuf = new DataBufferUShort(backgroundPixels, WaterfallHeight * WaterfallWidth, 0);
int bitMasks[] = new int[]{0xFFFF};
SampleModel sampleModel = new SinglePixelPackedSampleModel(
DataBuffer.TYPE_USHORT, WaterfallWidth, WaterfallHeight, bitMasks);
WritableRaster raster = Raster.createWritableRaster(sampleModel, dbuf, null);
return new BufferedImage(m_indexColorModel, raster, false, null);
}

How to fade in graphics.fill call

I'm doing the following to a Canvas object.
graphics.setColor(BLUE);
graphics.fill(new Rectangle2D.Double(x, y, width, height));
I'd like to fade in the fill colour to create a smooth transition from the canvas background colour to the new colour (and possibly fade out whatever colour was originally there).
I've played with this kind of thing (setting the graphics object's composite to an AlphaComposite which a Timer updating the alpha value every n milliseconds) but I get flickering.
I'm wondering what general concept I'm missing.
Thanks for any pointers.

First of all, how could you be using the AWT? It is quite outdated. I reccomend you switch to swing, mainly because swing has double buffering, which would remove your flicker.

Your application does exactly what you tell it to do. If you want to make a fade-in effect, you have to determine what kind of color changes you want to make, create a function which does it, and implement the fade itself.
I'd approach it like that:
class FadeEffect{
int totalDurationMs;
int elapsedDurationMs;
Color initialColor;
Color finalColor;
Color getColor(int durationDelta) {
elapsedDurationMs += durationDelta;
if (elapsedDurationMs > totalDurationMs) {
return finalColor;
}
double progress = 1.0d*elapsedDurationMs/totalDurationMs;
return new Color( (int)(finalColor.getRed()-initialColor.getRed())*progress,
(int)(finalColor.getGreen()-initialColor.getGreen())*progress,
(int)(finalColor.getBlue()-initialColor.getBlue())*progress);
}
//getters, setters, etc
}
As for the flickering issue: make sure you are using double buffering - either in your component, or by manually drawing on a off-screen buffer (image) and only posting the image to the screen when the drawing is complete.
Here is a sample code from my Graphic2D app doing the double buffering:
private VolatileImage vImg;
#Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
if (gc==null) gc = this.getGraphicsConfiguration();
do {
boolean sizeChanged = false;
sizeChanged = (vImg!=null&&(vImg.getWidth()!=getWidth()|| vImg.getHeight()!=getHeight()));
if (vImg == null || vImg.validate(gc) == VolatileImage.IMAGE_INCOMPATIBLE
|| sizeChanged) {
vImg = gc.createCompatibleVolatileImage(getWidth(), getHeight());
vImg.setAccelerationPriority(1);
}
final Graphics gimg = vImg.getGraphics();
if (gimg instanceof Graphics2D) {
renderContents((Graphics2D) gimg);
gimg.dispose();
g.drawImage(vImg, 0, 0, null);
} else {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Rendering impossible, graphics are not of Graphics2D class");
}
} while (vImg.contentsLost());
updateAnimationNo();
}

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;
}
}