Page flipping with Volatile Image. Need help :)

Question

Hello all,
Could someone point me to a nice tutorial which specifically addresses setting up page flipping with Volatile Images as the buffer? I haven't had any trouble with the generic BufferStrategy way of doing things, but it looks like the absolute fastest way to go is page flipping. Any info on this subject would be appreciated. I am a student who is making his first attempt at setting up a fullscreen video game...well if you want to call it that! :) I am shooting for Pong as a first project!
Please feel free to send me the info at [email protected], and thanks much.
Kmyers

Answer 1

If you're using Windows, then your picture is already most likely
being stored as volatile. You should look for an article on the
web discussing Java rendering internals as of 1.4 do a search for
"java automatic images" you'll probably find some useful info.
But if you insist you can just fire up a debugger and
play with it until you finally figure out what it's doing..
You just need to do a createVolatileImage as opposed to createImage
when creating your buffers.. make sure to use
createBufferStrategy(2) (or if you want to be totally sure print out
the capabilities of the buffers available and select one that you
know for sure supports back and front buffers that are "truly"
volatile..
it turns out in my experience on win2k that using normal "automatic"
images via Component.createImage() are faster than volatiles perhaps
because I tend to do alot of scaling ops which are not as of yet
accelerated..
here's some stuff that might help you:
good luck!
static public void printBufferCapabilities(BufferCapabilities bc) {
System.out.println("Printing Buffer Capabilities: ");
if (bc.isFullScreenRequired())
System.out.println("Full screen is required");
else
System.out.println("Full screen is required");
if (bc.isMultiBufferAvailable())
System.out.println("MultiBuffering is available");
else
System.out.println("MultiBuffering is not available");
if (bc.isPageFlipping())
System.out.println("PageFlipping is available");
else
System.out.println("PageFlipping is not available");
ImageCapabilities ic = bc.getBackBufferCapabilities();
if (ic.isAccelerated())
System.out.println("BackBuffer is accelerated");
else
System.out.println("BackBuffer is not accelerated");
if (ic.isTrueVolatile())
System.out.println("BackBuffer is truly volatile");
else
System.out.println("BackBuffer is not truly volatile");
ic = bc.getFrontBufferCapabilities();
if (ic.isAccelerated())
System.out.println("FrontBuffer is accelerated");
else
System.out.println("FrontBuffer is not accelerated");
if (ic.isTrueVolatile())
System.out.println("FrontBuffer is truly volatile");
else
System.out.println("FrontBuffer is not truly volatile");
static public void printImageCapabilities(ImageCapabilities ic) {
System.out.println("Printing Image Capabilities: ");
if (ic.isAccelerated())
System.out.println("Image is accelerated");
else
System.out.println("Image is not accelerated");
if (ic.isTrueVolatile())
System.out.println("Image is truly volatile");
else
System.out.println("Image is not truly volatile");
static public void printFlipContents(BufferCapabilities.FlipContents flip) {
if (flip == null) { System.out.println("Dude your flip is flipping NULL!"); return; }
if (flip.equals(BufferCapabilities.FlipContents.BACKGROUND))
System.out.println("Flip Contents are BACKGROUND");
else if (flip.equals(BufferCapabilities.FlipContents.COPIED))
System.out.println("Flip Contents are COPIED");
else if (flip.equals(BufferCapabilities.FlipContents.PRIOR))
System.out.println("Flip Contents are PRIOR");
else if (flip.equals(BufferCapabilities.FlipContents.UNDEFINED))
System.out.println("Flip Contents are UNDEFINED");
else System.out.println("Where the hell did you find this flipping Flip Contents, now flip off!");
static public void printElapsedTime(String desc, long start, long stop ) {
long s = stop - start;
double elapsed = (double) s/1000;
System.out.println("The elapsed time for "+desc+" :"+elapsed);
public static void chooseBestDisplayMode(GraphicsDevice device) {
DisplayMode best = getBestDisplayMode(device);
if (best != null) {
device.setDisplayMode(best);