“How can I use a timer to do this every x seconds when the app is openend?”
Have a look at this example. I gathered Images from the internet, but you can do the same using image files. What I did was use an array of URL and BufferedImage and got a random index ever 500 milliseconds and repaint() the panel
Note If you are going to use image files, you may want to look at this answer also.
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class TestImageRotate {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
@Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Image Timer");
frame.add(new ImagePanel());
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
private static class ImagePanel extends JPanel {
URL[] urls;
BufferedImage[] images;
Random rand = new Random();
public ImagePanel() {
urls = new URL[5];
try {
urls[0] = new URL("http://www.atomicframework.com/assetsY/img/stackoverflow_chicklet.png");
urls[1] = new URL("http://www.iconsdb.com/icons/download/orange/stackoverflow-256.png");
urls[2] = new URL("http://img.1mobile.com/market/screenshot/50/com.dd.stackoverflow/0.png");
urls[3] = new URL("http://www.iconsdb.com/icons/download/orange/stackoverflow-4-512.png");
urls[4] = new URL("http://www.iconsdb.com/icons/preview/light-gray/stackoverflow-xxl.png");
images = new BufferedImage[5];
images[0] = ImageIO.read(urls[0]);
images[1] = ImageIO.read(urls[1]);
images[2] = ImageIO.read(urls[2]);
images[3] = ImageIO.read(urls[3]);
images[4] = ImageIO.read(urls[4]);
} catch (MalformedURLException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
setBackground(Color.BLACK);
Timer timer = new Timer(500, new ActionListener(){
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
repaint();
}
});
timer.start();
}
private int random() {
int index = rand.nextInt(5);
return index;
}
@Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
BufferedImage img = images[random()];
g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, 400, 400, 0, 0,
img.getWidth(), img.getHeight(), this);
}
@Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(400, 400);
}
}
}
Notice the Timer code. This is all I did
Timer timer = new Timer(500, new ActionListener(){
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
repaint();
}
});
timer.start();
And for the .grawImage I use a random index from the array of BufferedImages
@Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
BufferedImage img = images[random()];
g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, 400, 400, 0, 0,
img.getWidth(), img.getHeight(), this);
}
UPDATE Example. I shut down my IDE for the night. Too lazy to open so I’m just going to come up with this as I go. If you still don’t it, I’ll add a real example tomorrow when I get up.
Basically you want to have global variable for the x and y locations of the mouse image
int x = 0;
int y = 0;
When you draw the image, you want to use these locations
g.drawImage(img, x, y, whatEverWidth, whatEverHeight, this);
In the timer, you can modify the x and y randomly before you paint. Let use some logic.
Let say your scree width is 500 and screen height is 500 and mouse image width is 100 and mouse image height is 100
- So the max x location will be 400 = screen width – mouse image width
- And max y location will be 400 = screen height – mouse image height
So now we have our ranges. We know min x location is 0 and min y location is 0. So we want a random number from 0 to 400 for each x and y. So in the timer you can do
Timer timer = new Timer(1000, new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
x = rand.nextInt(400) + 1;
y = rand.nextInt(400) + 1;
repaint();
}
});
This will repaint your mouse image at a random location every time repaint is called.
UPDATE 2
I don’t know what else is there to explain. I did just those things I pointed out(with my original code), just added an x and y and used them to draw the image, and got a random location in the timer. It’s works perfectly fine for me. I don’t know what you’re doing wrong.
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class TestImageRotate {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
@Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Image Timer");
frame.add(new ImagePanel());
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
private static class ImagePanel extends JPanel {
URL[] urls;
BufferedImage[] images;
Random rand = new Random();
private int x = 0;
private int y = 0;
public ImagePanel() {
urls = new URL[5];
try {
urls[0] = new URL("http://www.atomicframework.com/assetsY/img/stackoverflow_chicklet.png");
urls[1] = new URL("http://www.iconsdb.com/icons/download/orange/stackoverflow-256.png");
urls[2] = new URL("http://img.1mobile.com/market/screenshot/50/com.dd.stackoverflow/0.png");
urls[3] = new URL("http://www.iconsdb.com/icons/download/orange/stackoverflow-4-512.png");
urls[4] = new URL("http://www.iconsdb.com/icons/preview/light-gray/stackoverflow-xxl.png");
images = new BufferedImage[5];
images[0] = ImageIO.read(urls[0]);
images[1] = ImageIO.read(urls[1]);
images[2] = ImageIO.read(urls[2]);
images[3] = ImageIO.read(urls[3]);
images[4] = ImageIO.read(urls[4]);
} catch (MalformedURLException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
setBackground(Color.BLACK);
Timer timer = new Timer(500, new ActionListener(){
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
x = rand.nextInt(325);
y = rand.nextInt(325);
repaint();
}
});
timer.start();
}
private int random() {
int index = rand.nextInt(5);
return index;
}
@Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
BufferedImage img = images[random()];
g.drawImage(img, x, y, 75, 75, this);
}
@Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(400, 400);
}
}
}