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How to create a "Game Option/Pause Screen" in Swing?

Background: Making a game in Swing. It is simple turn base game. Not a whole lot going on. Because of this I didn't think I would need to implement a Game Tick. Rather, my thought was when a component got changed or needed to be updated just simply revalidate/repaint that component on the fly rather than repainting the whole screen.
I have a GameJPanel which currently has all the components on it. This JPanel is the one that contains the components that get revalidated/repainted etc.
I figured I could make JLayeredPane that holds GameJPanel and my OptionJPanel. Have a Button on GameJPanel that when pressed causes the OptionJPanel to show on top of it and having its JPanel 50% transparent (so it gives the affect it dims the GameJPanel).
However, once I did this what happened was that the GameJPanel started to replace OptionJPanel components (because of the events... etc; repainting of the components).
So currently I am at a loss on what to do. I'm thinking if I had some sort of game tick I wouldn't be having this issue, however, I am not 100% certain. I'm a little worried if I implemented a gametick that the events in game will cause the GameJPanel components to show through for half a second then get replaced. There are some events that cause components to repaint themselves without manually doing it (like quick example for JLabel setText();)
As an example of what I'm trying to go for.
I have tried with a CardLayout but I couldn't figure out how to have the OptionJPanel be on top of GameJPanel while seeing GameJPanel in the background (I tried setting background color, setOpaque(false)..., tried to limit Option JPanel size but I think the CardLayout stretches it (not 100% sure)) all I got was a gray background when doing so.
I would prefer not to go the CardLayout route because in the future I also plan on placing components on top of the GameJPanel (like someone clicks a button, have another panel on a different layer have a component slide in or out etc).
I use CardLayout a ton with my other components in GameJPanel to swap screens around, but haven't had the need to have the other components behind the one showing to show through.
Any ideas on how to go about this would be great or even example code that shows this.

As noted above, you would use a JDialog, a component that is easy to make (similar to making a JFrame) and easy to place. Simply place it "relative-to" the JFrame, e.g.,
myDialog.setLocationRelativeTo(myJFrame);
... and it will automatically center itself on the JFrame. The tricky part is dimming the underlying JFrame, and for this you would need to use a JGlassPane added to the JFrame's rootpane, one set with a background color that uses an alpha composite value. The tricky part with this is to draw the darker background without causing side effects, and to do this, please read Rob Camick's (StackOverflow user camickr) excellent tutorial on drawing in Swing with alpha composites which you can find here: Java Tips Weblog: Backgrounds with Transparency
An example of such a program is shown here:
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dialog.ModalityType;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.Window;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URL;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.*;
public class DialogEg {
// path to example image used as "game" background
private static final String IMG_PATH = "https://upload.wikimedia.org/"
+ "wikipedia/commons/7/76/Jump_%27n_Bump.png";
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> createAndShowGui());
}
private static void createAndShowGui() {
// get the "game" background image, or exit if fail
BufferedImage img = null;
try {
URL imgUrl = new URL(IMG_PATH);
img = ImageIO.read(imgUrl);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
System.exit(-1);
}
// pass "game" image into main JPanel so that it will be drawn
DeMainPanel mainPanel = new DeMainPanel(img);
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Dialog Example");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
frame.add(mainPanel); // add main JPanel to JFrame
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
// main JPanel
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
class DeMainPanel extends JPanel {
private BufferedImage img; // background image
// JButton action that shows the JDialog and darkens the glasspane
private PauseAction pauseAction = new PauseAction("Pause");
public DeMainPanel(BufferedImage img) {
super();
this.img = img;
add(new JButton(pauseAction));
}
// draw the "game" background image within the JPanel if not null
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
if (img != null) {
g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, this);
}
}
// size this JPanel to match the image's size
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
if (isPreferredSizeSet() || img == null) {
return super.getPreferredSize();
}
int width = img.getWidth();
int height = img.getHeight();
return new Dimension(width, height);
}
}
// Action / ActionListener for JButton -- shows JDialog and darkens glasspane
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
class PauseAction extends AbstractAction {
private static final int ALPHA = 175; // how much see-thru. 0 to 255
private static final Color GP_BG = new Color(0, 0, 0, ALPHA);
private DeDialogPanel deDialogPanel = new DeDialogPanel(); // jpanel shown in JDialog
public PauseAction(String name) {
super(name);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// comp is our JButton
Component comp = (Component) e.getSource();
if (comp == null) {
return;
}
// create our glass pane
JPanel glassPane = new JPanel() {
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
// magic to make it dark without side-effects
g.setColor(getBackground());
g.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
super.paintComponent(g);
}
};
// more magic below
glassPane.setOpaque(false);
glassPane.setBackground(GP_BG);
// get the rootpane container, here the JFrame, that holds the JButton
RootPaneContainer win = (RootPaneContainer) SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor(comp);
win.setGlassPane(glassPane); // set the glass pane
glassPane.setVisible(true); // and show the glass pane
// create a *modal* JDialog
JDialog dialog = new JDialog((Window)win, "", ModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL);
dialog.getContentPane().add(deDialogPanel); // add its JPanel to it
dialog.setUndecorated(true); // give it no borders (if desired)
dialog.pack(); // size it
dialog.setLocationRelativeTo((Window) win); // ** Center it over the JFrame **
dialog.setVisible(true); // display it, pausing the GUI below it
// at this point the dialog is no longer visible, so get rid of glass pane
glassPane.setVisible(false);
}
}
// JPanel shown in the modal JDialog above
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
class DeDialogPanel extends JPanel {
private static final Color BG = new Color(123, 63, 0);
public DeDialogPanel() {
JLabel pausedLabel = new JLabel("PAUSED");
pausedLabel.setForeground(Color.ORANGE);
JPanel pausedPanel = new JPanel();
pausedPanel.setOpaque(false);
pausedPanel.add(pausedLabel);
setBackground(BG);
int eb = 15;
setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(eb, eb, eb, eb));
setLayout(new GridLayout(0, 1, 10, 10));
add(pausedPanel);
add(new JButton(new FooAction("RESUME")));
add(new JButton(new FooAction("RESTART")));
add(new JButton(new FooAction("EXIT TO MAP")));
}
// simple action -- all it does is to make the dialog no longer visible
private class FooAction extends AbstractAction {
public FooAction(String name) {
super(name);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Component comp = (Component) e.getSource();
Window win = SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor(comp);
win.dispose(); // here -- dispose of the JDialog
}
}
}
The GUI looks like this initially:
but then when the dialog shows and the glass pane is darkened, it looks like this:

So after about a month of working on my game I was drawn to this post once again. I implemented part of my game with what DontKnowMuchButGettingBetter's way and also implemented this by just adding the components to the GlassPane so to speak (Made a JPanel, set it to be GlassPane, did whatever on that Panel)...
The later implementation (GlassPane), isn't the best way to go about this because then you can't use the glass pane for other useful things.
I came back to my original idea to use a JLayeredPane. Having different Components on different levels and working off that. My issue before was that when components were getting repainted, the components in the backer layers were over painting the ones in the front layer.
Well I just came across a method called isOptimizedDrawingEnabled()... By making this method always return false for the JLayeredPane I was able to achieve what I wanted.

drawImage not displaying whole image?

I am trying to draw an image to a JPanel which in turn is added to a JFrame, see here:
JFrame screen;
public void welcome(){
screen = new JFrame("Welcome");
screen.setVisible(true);
screen.pack();
screen.setBackground(Color.darkGray);
screen.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
// in the original code there is series of methods here that eventually calls the drawBoard() method
public void drawBoard(){
try {
final BufferedImage gboard = ImageIO.read(new File("cutsomGameBoard.jpg"));
final BufferedImage featPanel = ImageIO.read(new File("extraPanel.png"));
board = new JPanel(){
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawImage(gboard, 0, 0, this);
}
};
extra = new JPanel(){
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawImage(featPanel, 0, 0, this);
}
};
board.setSize(480, 480);
extra.setSize(480, 320);
}
catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
gameScreen.add(toolbar, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
gameScreen.add(board, BorderLayout.EAST);
gameScreen.add(extra, BorderLayout.WEST);
gameScreen.setVisible(true);
screen.add(gameScreen);
}
My problem is that when running the code, only a small corner of the buffered image is visible and I am not sure if it is a problem with the frame layout, the panel size or the drawImage method arguments, ideas?
P.S. The output: screenshot of java window

You didn't override the getPreferredSize() method of your custom component so the default size is basically (10, 10) which is the size of a panel using a FlowLayout with no added components.
Don't use a JPanel to display an image. Or if you do want to use a JPanel then you need to implement the getPreferredSize() method to return the size of your image.
The easiest solution is to just use a JLabel with an ImageIcon.
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Icons for more information and working examples.

Java repaint() doesn't call paintComponent() for drawing image

I have read a lot of answers about this problem but I can't manage to find my error even on a simple code. Here is the problem : I'd like to draw an Image in a JLabel which is in a JPanel, but the paintComponent() method of the JLabel isn't called.
Here is the code :
The ImagePainter class should draw an image
public class ImagePainter extends JLabel{
private Image image;
public ImagePainter(){
try {
image = ImageIO.read(new File("src/testgui/image.png"));
} catch (IOException exception) {
exception.printStackTrace();
}
}
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g){
super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, null);
System.out.println("in paintComponent");
}
}
Here is a standard JFrame. I took care to add the JPanel to the contentPane
public class Display extends JFrame{
public Display(){
JPanel jp = new JPanel();
ImagePainter i = new ImagePainter();
getContentPane().add(jp);
jp.add(i);
jp.repaint();
setSize(800, 800);
setVisible(true);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
}
And finally the main. I instanciate Display on the EDT like everyone tell to do :
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run(){
Display d = new Display();
}
});
}
}
Finally, I observed that if I directly add the ImagePainter to the contentPane, the image is drawn correctly. It's probably a stupid error but I spend literally hours trying to find it and really can't see it. Thank you in advance !

The label does not account for the preferred size of the image when the image is custom painted! The panel by default has a flow layout. A flow layout does not stretch components to fit. So that label would have size of 0 x 0 pixels. You can confirm that by adding a visible border to the label.
But given the image is displayed in a label, why not just set the image as the icon of the label?

Also, the jp.repaint() statement in the Display constructor is useless, since you have not yet set the frame visible.

Adding JScrollPane to JPanel

I'm trying to add a JScrollPane to an JPanel from a separate class. And thanks to some questions, which were asked so far, I could help myself create them. But my problem is still a little bit special.
I want to display an image on a JPanel and if the image is to large for the panel, I want to add scrollbars. But the scrollbars won't appear.
(When I set the ScrollPaneConstants to ****_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS the frame of the bar appears, but without the bars to scroll).
I guess i have to connect the imagesize with the bars, so that they appear?
Some pieces of my code:
MainWindow
public class Deconvolutioner extends JFrame
{
Draw z;
Picturearea picturearea;
class Draw extends JPanel
{
public void paint(Graphics g)
{
}
}
public Deconvolutioner()
{
setTitle("Deconvolutioner");
setLocation(30,1);
setSize(1300,730);
super.setFont(new Font("Arial",Font.BOLD,11));
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setResizable(false);
FlowLayout flow = new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER);
this.setLayout(flow);
picturearea = new Picturearea();
picturearea.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(picturearea,
ScrollPaneConstants.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED,
ScrollPaneConstants.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED);
scrollPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(1000, 664));
getContentPane().add(scrollPane, flow); // add scrollpane to frame
add(z = new Draw());
setVisible(true);
}
}
JPanel Class
public class Picturearea extends JPanel
{
BufferedImage image;
int panelWidth, panelHeight, imageWidth, imageHeight;
public Picturearea()
{
setBackground(new Color(210,210,210));
setBorder(LineBorder.createBlackLineBorder());
setVisible(true);
}
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, this);
}
public void setPicture(BufferedImage picture)
{
try
{
image = picture;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
System.err.println("Some IOException accured (did you set the right path?): ");
System.err.println(e.getMessage());
}
repaint();
}
}
Thanks for your time.

The problem is that the JScrollPane has no way to know if it should display scroll bars or not, since the Picturearea it contains doesn't tell anything about its preferred size (or rather, it returns the preferred size based on its layout and on the components it contains. But since it doesn't contain any component, the returned preferred size is probably (0, 0)).
I would simply use a JLabel instead of the custom Picturearea class. A JLabel can display an image just fine, and it returns the appropriate Dimension when asked for its preferred size.

You can create a JLabel first and then add the Label to JPanel picturearea before creating instance for JScrollPane .
Have a try and it will work.
Example code is as follows:
JLabel imageLabel = new JLabel(new ImageIcon("d:\\099.jpg"));
picturearea.add(imageLabel);**
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(picturearea,
ScrollPaneConstants.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED,
ScrollPaneConstants.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED);

Why is there no Picture in my Panel/Window?

whats wrong with my code? I just want to have a Picture in my Window...
//class ImagePanel:
public class ImagePanel extends JPanel {
private static final long serialVersionUID = -7664761101121497912L;
public Image i;
public ImagePanel(Image i) {
this.i = i;
}
#Override
public void paintComponents(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawImage(this.i, 0, 0, null);
}
}
//class Main
public class Main extends JFrame {
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(1024, 768);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
ImagePanel panel = null;
try {
panel = new ImagePanel(ImageIO.read(new File("D:/test.JPG")));
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
There is just a Window without a picture :(
Whats the problem? And is there an easy way to set size of the window == picture size?
Thank you!

You must override paintComponent(Graphics g) instead of paintComponents(Graphics g).

The best solution is to use a JLabel. Don't reinvent wheel. There is no need for you to do custom painting.
But if you do custom painting then you need to override the getPreferredSize() method to be the size of the image so the layout manager can do their job.

please read this tutorials about Icon in Swing and your Image would by placed to the JLabel but with same way/funcioanlities as to the JPanel

I not at all familiar with Java panes, but don't you need to set the size of ImagePanel before you add it to the content pane.