Stop flickering in simple Java animation

Question

I have a simple applet that animates a rectangle along the x-axis of the canvas. The problem is that it flickers. I have tried to Google this problem, but I didn't come up with anything useful or anything that I understood.

I am relatively new to Java.

Thanks!

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*; 

public class simpleAnimation extends JApplet implements ActionListener { 
    Timer tm = new Timer(10, this); 
    int x = 0, velX = 2;

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) { 
        if (x < 0 || x > 550){ 
            velX = -velX; 
        }

        x = x + velX; 
        repaint(); 
    }

    public void paint ( Graphics g ) { 
    super.paint(g); 
    g.setColor(Color.RED); 
    g.fillRect(x, 30, 50, 30); 
    tm.start(); 
    } 
}

**********UPDATED CODE WITHOUT FLICKER**********

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class simpleAnimation extends JApplet implements ActionListener  
{ 

     Graphics bufferGraphics; 

     Image offscreen; 

     Dimension dim; 

     int x = 3, velX = 2;

     Timer tm = new Timer(10, this);

     public void init()  
     { 

          dim = getSize(); 

          offscreen = createImage(dim.width,dim.height); 

          bufferGraphics = offscreen.getGraphics(); 
     }

      public void paint(Graphics g)  
     { 

          bufferGraphics.clearRect(0,0,dim.width,dim.width); 

          bufferGraphics.setColor(Color.red); 

          bufferGraphics.fillRect(x,50,50,20); 

          g.drawImage(offscreen,0,0,this); 

          tm.start();   

     }

     public void update(Graphics g) 
     { 

          paint(g); 

     } 

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) 
    {   

        if ( x < 0 || x > 550){

            velX = -velX;

        }

        x = x + velX;   

        repaint();

    }

 }

I used this applet as a template.

Answer 1

The problem is, top level containers like JApplet aren't double buffered. This means that when it's updated, the screen flickers as each action is done directly onto the screen.

Instead, you should create a custom component, using something like a JPanel, and override its paintComponent method and perform your custom painting actions there.

Because Swing components are double buffered the results of the paint action are buffered before they are painted to the screen, making it a single action

Take a look at Performing Custom Painting for more details