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Trail: 2D Graphics
Lesson: Manipulating and Displaying Images

Using a BufferedImage for Double Buffering

When a graphic is complex or is used repeatedly, you can reduce the time it takes to display it by first rendering it to an off-screen buffer and then copying the buffer to the screen. This technique, called double buffering, is often used for animations.

Note:  When you are rendering into a Swing component, Swing automatically double-buffers the display.

A BufferedImage can easily be used as an off-screen buffer. To create a BufferedImage whose color space, depth, and pixel layout exactly match the window into which you're drawing, call the Component createImage method. If you need control over the off-screen image's type or transparency, you can construct a BufferedImage object directly and use it as an off-screen buffer.

To draw into the buffered image, you call the BufferedImage createGraphics method to get a Graphics2D object; then you call the appropriate rendering methods on the Graphics2D. All of the Java 2D API rendering features can be used when you're rendering to a BufferedImage that's being used as an off-screen buffer.

When you're ready to copy the BufferedImage to the screen, you simply call drawImage on your component's Graphics2D and pass in the BufferedImage.

Example: BufferedShapeMover

The following applet allows the user to drag a rectangle around within the applet window. Instead of rendering the rectangle at every mouse location to provide feedback as the user drags it, a BufferedImage is used as an off-screen buffer. As the rectangle is dragged, it is re-rendered into the BufferedImage at each new location and the BufferedImage is blitted to the screen.

Click this figure to run the applet.
This is a picture of the applet's GUI. To run the applet, click the picture. The applet will appear in a new browser window.

The source code for the applet is in BufferedShapeMover.java (in a .java source file).

Here is the code used to render into the BufferedImage and display the image on the screen:

public void updateLocation(MouseEvent e){
    rect.setLocation(last_x + e.getX(),
                     last_y + e.getY());
    ...
    repaint();
    ...
    // In the update method...
    if(firstTime) {
        Dimension dim = getSize();
        int w = dim.width;
        int h = dim.height;
        area = new Rectangle(dim);
        bi = (BufferedImage)createImage(w, h);
        big = bi.createGraphics();
        rect.setLocation(w/2-50, h/2-25);
        big.setStroke(new BasicStroke(8.0f));
        firstTime = false;
    }

    // Clears the rectangle that was previously drawn.
    big.setColor(Color.white);
    big.clearRect(0, 0, area.width, area.height);

    // Draws and fills the newly positioned rectangle
    // to the buffer.
    big.setPaint(strokePolka);
    big.draw(rect);
    big.setPaint(fillPolka);
    big.fill(rect);

    // Draws the buffered image to the screen.
    g2.drawImage(bi, 0, 0, this);
}

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