[gameprogrammer] Re: Java Advice - 2D RTS Graphics


Hi Mike,

There are several BufferStrategies you can use, so check the API docs to decide on the best for your needs.

Before you do anything else, you might also want to make sure you are setting the clip rectangle in your Graphics2d object when you are updating your screen, so that you only update the parts that need to be updated.

T.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Gillissie" <Niyoto@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 1:36 PM
Subject: [gameprogrammer] Re: Java Advice - 2D RTS Graphics


Fantastic, Stephen! Thanks very much! :)

I'll try that out and let you know what happens... :)
-Mike

----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen" <gp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 8:29 AM
Subject: [gameprogrammer] Re: Java Advice - 2D RTS Graphics


To give you the gist on BufferStrategy, you just use it like this (though I'm by no means the world expert on this):-

public class MyGameWindow extends JFrame {

   public MyGameWindow() {
      this.setVisible(true);
      // Set it up here
      this.createBufferStrategy();
      BS = this.getBufferStrategy();
   }

public void gameLoop() {
while (game_not_crashed) {
Graphics g = BS.getDrawGraphics();
g.drawImage(background_image, 0, 0);
// loop through your on-screen units here, drawing them and their health bars.
BS.show();
// Thats ll there is to it. Note there's now no paint(g) function!
}
}

}

Re-drawing the whole map each time is a massive drain on resources. What I do is either have one large image for the background (that's hardly ever going to change) that can be drawn in one swoop, or have a tiled background, which is quick to draw and you only need to draw the visible area each frame. I then draw all the on-screen units seperately each frame, as chances are their position will have changed since the last frame.

Cheers,

Stephen


Mike Gillissie wrote:

Hey, Stephen! :)

I've written an RTS using Java (http://www.carlylesmith.karoo.net/simwar/) and I only used the standard AWT/Swing stuff and never had any performance problems with the graphics; I think it all comes down to how you implement it. Are you using the BufferStrategy? I assume you're not re-drawing the whole image each time, only whats changed since the last frame.


I'm not actually using the BufferStrategy - I'll have to do a bit of reading up on it, I can see... ;)

Because my background map is currently a single continuous image, I am currently redrawing the entire thing, then overlaying the VISIBLE units - I'm not sure how to move a unit from one position to the next without redrawing the background iamge, which overwrites the non-moving units as well as the moved units... I wonder if I should read in my map as separate "tiles" and redraw only the ones that need refreshing... food for thought... ;)

Thanks for linking me to your game! I'll try it right now, and see how you did it - this is a great help! :)
-Mike



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