Java – Swing rendering appears broken in JDK 1.8, correct in JDK 1.7

javajava-8nvidiarenderingswing

I have installed IntelliJ IDEA (13.1.1 #IC-135.480) and JDK 1.8.0 (x64) and I generated some GUI with the GUI Form designer.

Then I ran the code and realized that something is not alright.

Here is a Screenshot of my GUI:
Buggy Rendering JDK 1.8.0

The rendering of the Font seems to be not OK. Additionally the Button looses its Text, when I move my mouse over it.

So I installed JDK 1.7.0_40 (x64), recompiled the Project and ran it again.

The following Form appears, when i use JDK 1.7:
Rendering OK JDB 1.7.0_40

The Rendering seems to be OK and the Button is also OK.

So I installed the newest Graphics and Chipset drivers and much more, but the problem still exists.
Have you ever had such problems with Java Swing UIs? Could you help me to fix my problems?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE:

I created a small Project with only 1 JTextArea and 1 JButton and i have the same rendering problems.

According to Andrew Thompson i changed the setSize() and I start from EDT. The Example below:

package at.maeh.java.client.simpleTextClient;

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

public class SimpleClient extends JFrame {
    private JPanel panel1;
    private JTextArea textArea1 = new JTextArea();
    private JButton button1 = new JButton();

    public SimpleClient() {
        super("SimpleClient");

        // Panel
        panel1 = new JPanel();
        panel1.setLayout(new FlowLayout());

        // BUtton
        button1.setText("TestButton");

        // TextArea
        textArea1.setColumns(40);
        textArea1.setRows(15);

        // Add Components
        panel1.add(textArea1);
        panel1.add(button1);

        // Add to Frame
        this.getContentPane().add(panel1);

        // pack and set Visible
        pack();
        setVisible(true);

        System.out.println("Constructor EDT: " + SwingUtilities.isEventDispatchThread());
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(SimpleClient::new);

        System.out.println("Main EDT: " + SwingUtilities.isEventDispatchThread());
    }
}

The result is a simple JFrame with the Components in it.

SimpleClient -> Screenshot immediately after Start

When I write some Text, or moove my mousePointer over the Button the components get rendered like this (Text: testsentence.123; Button-Label: TestButton)

after writing - or mouse over

Best Answer

For those whose problem has not been solved; try this solution:

Set the global environment variable "J2D_D3D" to "false" inside the OS. According to Sun, this setting is used to turn off the Java 2D system's use of Direct3D in Java 1.4.1_02 and later.

ie: simply create a environmental variable with name "J2D_D3D" and value "false" without the quotes.

this has solved my rendering problems, hope it does yours also.

Related Solutions

Java – How to add JPanel by clicking JButton

In order to reflect changes after adding/removing or resizing a component that is on a visible container call revalidate() and repaint() on the containers instance after adding/removing or resizing the component.

Though this will not work in your code the main reason being inside JButton classes you recreate a new instance of MainPanel when in fact the 2 JButtons should share the single instance which is being used (you could pass MainPanel instance to the JButtons constructors, but you shouldn't really be extending a JButton unless adding custom functionality):

class Button2 extends JButton {
    MainPanel someObj2 = new MainPanel();//you create an instance of MainPanel which isnt even showing and than do changes on that, this way you will never see any of the changes

    Button2() {
    }
}

A few other suggestions on your code:

Dont extend JButton class unnecessarily, simply create an instance of JButton like you did with JFrame and call methods on JButton instance.
Dont forget to create/manipulate Swing components on Event Dispatch Thread, via SwingUtilities.invokeLater(..) block, read here for more.

Here is your code fixed (above suggestions ect implemented):

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class Test {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                JFrame f = new JFrame();

                final MainPanel myPanel = new MainPanel();
                f.add(myPanel);

                JButton button1 = new JButton("Show Animation A");
                JButton button2 = new JButton("Show Animation B");

                button1.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                        myPanel.setI(1);
                        System.out.println("The variable i is now: " + myPanel.i);
                        myPanel.refreshMe();
                    }
                });
                button2.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                        myPanel.setI(2);
                        System.out.println("The variable i is now: " + myPanel.i);
                        myPanel.refreshMe();
                    }
                });

                myPanel.add(button1);
                myPanel.add(button2);
                myPanel.checkPanel();

                f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

                f.pack();
                f.setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }
}

class MainPanel extends JPanel {

    Panel1 p1 = new Panel1();
    Panel2 p2 = new Panel2();
    public int i = 1;  //this is being changed later by clicking JButton
    // I use this setter later in actionPerformed in order to change i

    public void setI(int i) {
        this.i = i;
    }

    public void refreshMe() {
        checkPanel();

        revalidate();
        repaint();
        // Need some help here:
        // I don't know what should I write, how to make a repaint of myPanel?
        System.out.println("just test, if the method refreshMe working by clicking some button");
    }

    public void checkPanel() {
        if (i == 1) {
            this.add(p1);
            this.remove(p2);//or it will remain there as this is default flowlayout
        } else if (i == 2) {
            this.add(p2);
            this.remove(p1);
        }
    }
}

class Panel1 extends JPanel {

    public Panel1() {
        this.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
        // a lot of drawing stuff going on here
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        return new Dimension(200, 200);
    }
}

class Panel2 extends JPanel {

    public Panel2() {
        this.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
        // a lot of drawing stuff going on here
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        return new Dimension(200, 200);
    }
}

However Id suggest something simpler, fortunately you have 2 choices:

1) Use CardLayout which will allow you to flip between multiple components on a single JFrame/container.

Here is an example I made:

enter image description here

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.CardLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class Test {

    private final static String PANEL1 = "panel 1";
    private final static String PANEL2 = "panel 2";

    public Test() {
        initComponents();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new Test();
            }
        });
    }

    private void initComponents() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
        panel1.add(new JLabel("Panel 1"));

        JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
        panel2.add(new JLabel("Panel 2"));

        //Create the panel that contains the "cards".
        final JPanel cards = new JPanel(new CardLayout());
        cards.add(panel1, PANEL1);
        cards.add(panel2, PANEL2);

        //create button to allow chnage to next card
        JButton buttonNext = new JButton(">");
        buttonNext.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
                CardLayout cl = (CardLayout) (cards.getLayout());//get cards
                cl.next(cards);
            }
        });

        //create button to allow chnage to previous card
        JButton buttonPrev = new JButton("<");
        buttonPrev.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
                CardLayout cl = (CardLayout) (cards.getLayout());//get cards
                cl.previous(cards);
            }
        });

        //create panel to hold buttons which will allow switching between cards
        JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
        buttonPanel.add(buttonPrev);
        buttonPanel.add(buttonNext);


        frame.add(cards);
        frame.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
}

2) Use removeAll() technique i.e call frame.getContentPane().removeAll() which will remove all components currently on JFrame and than add the new content and call revalidate() and repaint() (also might want to add pack() in there) on JFrame instance to reflect changes. Though Id recommend CardLayout.

Swing – Adding JTextArea to JFrame

Here on my side, the issue you raising, is working fine. Do let me know, if you think, this is not what you mean :-)

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

public class SwingExample
{
    private CustomPanel customPanel;
    private CustomTextArea customTextArea;

    private void displayGUI()
    {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Swing Example");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
        contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout(5, 5));
        contentPane.setBorder(
                BorderFactory.createLineBorder(
                                Color.DARK_GRAY, 5));
        customPanel = new CustomPanel();
        customTextArea = new CustomTextArea();

        contentPane.add(customPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        contentPane.add(customTextArea, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
        frame.setContentPane(contentPane);      
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        Runnable runnable = new Runnable()
        {
            @Override
            public void run()
            {
                new SwingExample().displayGUI();
            }
        };
        EventQueue.invokeLater(runnable);
    }
}

class CustomPanel extends JPanel
{
    private static final int GAP = 5;

    public CustomPanel()
    {
        setOpaque(true);
        setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(
                Color.BLUE, GAP, true));
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize()
    {
        return (new Dimension(300, 300));
    }
}

class CustomTextArea extends JTextArea
{
    private static final int GAP = 5;
    public CustomTextArea()
    {       
        setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(
                Color.RED, GAP, true));
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize()
    {
        return (new Dimension(100, 30));
    }
}

OUTPUT :

SwingExampleImage