Java Programming, Lecture Notes #1454
Preface
It’s possible to have a lot of fun while programming in Java. This
is one of the lessons in a miniseries that will concentrate on having fun
while programming in Java.
This miniseries will include a variety of Java programming topics that
fall in the category of fun programming. This particular lesson
is the third in of a group of lessons that will teach you how to write
animation programs in Java. The first lesson in the group was entitled
Fun
with Java: Sprite Animation, Part 1. The previous lesson was
entitled Fun with Java: Sprite Animation, Part 2.
Viewing tip
You may find it useful to open another copy of this lesson in a separate
browser window. That will make it easier for you to scroll back and
forth among the different figures and listings while you are reading about
them.
Supplementary material
I recommend that you also study the other lessons in my extensive collection
of online Java tutorials. You will find those lessons published at
Gamelan.com.
However, as of the date of this writing, Gamelan doesn’t maintain a consolidated
index of my Java tutorial lessons, and sometimes they are difficult to
locate there. You will find a consolidated index at
Baldwin’s
Java Programming Tutorials.
Preview
This is one of a group of lessons that will teach
you how to write animation programs in Java. These lessons will teach
you how to write sprite animation, frame animation, and a combination of
the two.
The first program, which is the program discussed
in this lesson, will show you how to use sprite animation to cause
a group of colored spherical sea creatures to swim around in a fish tank.
A screen shot of the output produced by this program is shown in Figure
1.
Figure 1. Animated spherical sea creatures
in a fish tank.
Changing color using frame animation
Many sea creatures have the ability to change
their color in very impressive ways. The second program that I will
discuss in subsequent lessons will simulate that process using a combination
of sprite and frame animation.
Multicolored sea worms
The third program, also to be discussed in a subsequent
lesson, will use a combination of sprite animation, frame animation, and
some other techniques to cause a group of multi-colored sea worms to slither
around in the fish tank. In addition to slithering, the sea worms
will also change the color of different parts of their body, much like
real sea creatures.
A screen shot of the output from the third program
is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Animated sea worms in a fish tank.
Getting the GIF files
Figure 3 shows the GIF image files that you will need to run these three
programs.
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Figure 3. GIF image files that you will need.
You should be able to capture the images by right-clicking on them individually,
and then saving them into files on your local disk. Having done that,
you will need to rename the files to match the names that are hard-coded
into the programs.
Review of previous lesson
In the previous lesson, I taught you how to instantiate and use a MediaTracker
object to track the loading status of Image objects.
I also taught you how to use the getImage method of the Toolkit
class to create Image objects from GIF files, and how to register
those Image objects on a MediaTracker object.
Finally, I taught you how to use the waitForID method of the
MediaTracker
class to force the program to block and wait until the images in a group
are either successfully loaded, or until a loading error occurs.
What’s in this lesson?
In this lesson, I will discuss the unusual nature of the getter
methods for the width and height properties of an Image
object.
I will introduce and briefly discuss the concept of an ImageObserver
object in conjunction with the getWidth and getHeight methods
of an Image object.
I will show you how to set the size of the Frame to be the same
as the size of the background image.
I will discuss the use of an object of the controlling class as an animation
thread.
Discussion
and Sample Program
This program is so long that several lessons will be required to discuss
it fully. Rather than to make you wait until I complete all of those
lessons to get your hands on the program, I have provided a copy of the
entire program in Listing 6 near the end of the lesson. That way,
you can copy it into a source file on your local disk, compile it, run
it, and start seeing the results.
Will discuss in fragments
As usual, I will discuss the program in fragments. At the close
of the previous lesson, I was discussing the constructor for the controlling
class. In this lesson, I will pick up where I left off before, and
will complete my discussion of the constructor for the controlling class.
The background image
If you scroll back and take a look at Figure 1, you will see that the
background image completely fills the Frame object used as a drawing
surface for this program. That was no accident. It was planned
that way. If you were to substitute a different background image,
the size of that image would be used to control the size of the Frame.
As it turns out, this is not a trivial operation, at least from an understanding
viewpoint.
Sizing the Frame
The code in Listing 1 begins the process of using the size of the background
image to set the size of the Frame. This code gets the width
and height of the background image.
int width = backGroundImage.getWidth(this); int height = backGroundImage.getHeight(this); Listing 1 |
You will recall that the code in the constructor at the end of the previous
lesson used the getImage method of the Toolkit class to read
seven GIF files from the disk. (One of those GIF files, named
background02.gif, contains the data used to construct the background image.)
The getImage method uses the pixel contents of a GIF file to
create an Image object containing those pixels. One of the
Image
objects is used to draw the background with the fish and the starfish shown
in Figure 1.
This code is strange
The code in Listing 1 is not completely straightforward. Can you
spot anything in code that looks a little strange, or at least a little
unusual? For example, how do the methods in Listing 1 compare with
typical getter methods that are commonly used to obtain the values
of properties?
The getter method requires a parameter
The thing that is unusual about this code is the fact that a reference
to the object being constructed (this) is passed as a parameter
to the getWidth and getHeight methods of the Image
object.
This is not your typical getter method for a property.
A typical
getter method for a single-valued property doesn’t usually
require any parameters.
The timing can be critical
The reason for this unusual syntax results from the fact that it is
possible to invoke the getWidth and getHeight methods before
the image is completely loaded. In that case the value of the width
and height properties may not yet be known.
Two different return values are possible
The getWidth and getHeight methods of the Image
class can each return two different values, depending on when they are
called relative to the loading of the image.
If they are called before the width and height information becomes available
during the load process, one or both methods will return -1. If they
are called after the width and height information becomes available, they
will return the actual values of those properties.
An ImageObserver object
The signature of the getWidth method is shown below:
public abstract int getWidth(
ImageObserver observer)
If you examine this signature carefully, you will see something that
I haven’t previously discussed. The method requires a parameter of
type ImageObserver. I will have more to say about that shortly.
What does Sun have to say?
Right now, let’s see what Sun has to say about the getWidth method
of the Image class.
“Determines the width of the image. If the width is not
yet known, this method returns -1 and the specified ImageObserver object
is notified later.”
An examination of the documentation for the getHeight method reveals
a similar description. This confirms what I said earlier about the
possibility that the method can return either -1 or the actual property
value.
So, what is an ImageObserver?
I was afraid you were going to ask that. To begin with, ImageObserver
is an interface and not a class. Therefore, an ImageObserver
object is any object instantiated from any class that implements the ImageObserver
interface.
Frame implements ImageObserver
The object being constructed by this constructor is a Frame object.
Frame
extends Component, and Component implements
ImageObserver.
Therefore, an object of the Frame class implements ImageObserver
through inheritance. An object of the Frame class is qualified
to be passed as a parameter to any method that requires an incoming parameter
of type ImageObserver.
Where am I going with this discussion?
On my first attempt to write this lesson, I tried to explain how ImageObserver
fits into the grand scheme of things so that you would understand the underlying
processes. However, the more I wrote, the longer my text became.
Although I understand how it all fits together, I don’t know how to explain
how it fits together in a small amount of text. (Therefore, I
plan to dedicate an entire lesson to the concept of an ImageObserver later
on.)
Take it on faith
Although I hate to do so, this is one of those cases where I am simply
going to say, “take it on faith.” If the
getWidth method
is invoked on an Image object, (passing an ImageObserver as a
parameter), the method will either return the width of the image or
will return -1.
If the image is loaded to the point that the width information is available,
the value of the width will be returned. If the width information
is not yet available, a value of -1 will be returned.
Therefore, after the code in Listing 1 is executed, the variables named
width
and height will either contain the width and height values, or will
contain -1.
Previously invoked waitForID
In the code that I explained in the previous lesson, I invoked the waitForID
method on the MediaTracker object to force the constructor to block
and wait for all seven of the images to be loaded. As a result, assuming
that the proper GIF files are available and no loading errors occur, I
don’t believe that it is possible for these calls to getWidth and
getHeight
to return -1.
waitForID will return on a loading error
However, as I explained in the previous lesson, the waitForID
method will also return when there is an error in loading the images.
It is possible for the getWidth and getHeight methods to
return -1 in that case in this program.
Dealing with the problem
The code in Listing 2 is a crude attempt to deal with that possibility.
If waitForID returns due to a loading error, the width or height
values will not be available. The code in Listing 2 will simply become
an infinite loop displaying Waiting for image on the standard output
device until the program is terminated.
while(width == -1 || height == -1){
System.out.println(
"Waiting for image");
width = backGroundImage.
getWidth(this);
height = backGroundImage.
getHeight(this);
}//end while loop
Listing 2
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Not very robust
This is not a very robust approach to dealing with the problem.
A more robust approach would be to invoke some of the error testing methods
of the MediaTracker class to identify an error condition before
entering this loop, and to avoid entering the loop if a loading error has
occurred. (If you use this animation code in any serious program,
you should give some thought to improving it and making it more robust
in this area.)
Continuing on
Assuming that control doesn’t get trapped in the above loop as a result
of an image loading error, the code in Listing 3 uses the resulting width
and height property values of the background image to set the width and
height of the Frame object. The code in Listing 3 also puts
a title on the Frame and makes it visible.
setSize(width,height); setVisible(true); setTitle( "Copyright 2001, R.G.Baldwin"); Listing 3 |
Some background image is hidden
The code to this point has caused the size of the entire Frame,
including its banner and its borders, to be the same size as the background
image. Consequently, the edges of the background image won’t be visible
because they will be hidden by the Frame’s borders and banner.
(This topic will come up again later. I will use the getInsets
method of the Frame object to cause the spherical sea creatures to bounce
off the inside edges of the borders and the banner. Without that
correction, they would appear to slide under the borders and the banner
and to bounce off the outside edges of the Frame.)
We’re just about finished with our discussion of the constructor for
the controlling class.
A Thread object
The controlling class implements the Runnable interface, meaning
that the class must provide a definition for the method named run.
As such, an object of the controlling class is capable of running as a
thread. (I have written other lessons explaining the use of multi-threaded
programming in Java, so I won’t go into a lot of detail here.)
In this case, the run method of the controlling class actually
causes the animation to take place, so I refer to it as the animation thread.
The code in Listing 4 instantiates a new Thread object and invokes
the
start method on that object. Invoking the start
method on a Thread object causes a few housekeeping chores to be
taken care of first, and then causes the run method of the Thread
object to be invoked.
animationThread = new Thread(this); animationThread.start(); Listing 4 |
What does the run method do?
The behavior of the run method of the controlling class will
be the topic for one or more future lessons.
An anonymous WindowListener object
Finally, the code in Listing 5 instantiates an anonymous WindowListener
object of an anonymous inner class. This listener object is registered
on the Frame to cause the program to terminate when the user clicks
the close button on the Frame. (I also discuss
event driven programming extensively in other tutorial lessons, so I won’t
go into any further details here.)
this.addWindowListener(
new WindowAdapter(){
public void windowClosing(
WindowEvent e){
System.exit(0);}});
}//end constructor
Listing 5
|
The closing curly brace in Listing 5 signals the end of the constructor,
and it also signals the end of this lesson.
Summary
In this lesson, I discussed the unusual nature of the getter methods
for the width and height properties of an Image object.
I introduced and briefly discussed the concept of an ImageObserver
object in conjunction with the getWidth and getHeight methods
of an Image object. This is a topic that will come up again
in a subsequent lesson in conjunction with the drawImage method
of the Graphics class.
I showed you how to set the size of the Frame to be the same
as the size of the background image.
I discussed the use of an object of the controlling class as an animation
thread.
What’s Next?
The next lesson will begin the explanation of the run method of
the controlling class, which controls the animation behavior of the program.
Complete Program Listing
A complete listing of the program is provided in Listing
6.
/*File Animate01.java
Copyright 2001, R.G.Baldwin
This program displays several animated
colored spherical creatures swimming
around in an aquarium. Each creature
maintains generally the same course
with until it collides with another
creature or with a wall. However,
each creature has the ability to
occasionally make random changes in
its course.
**************************************/
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
public class Animate01 extends Frame
implements Runnable {
private Image offScreenImage;
private Image backGroundImage;
private Image[] gifImages =
new Image[6];
//offscreen graphics context
private Graphics
offScreenGraphicsCtx;
private Thread animationThread;
private MediaTracker mediaTracker;
private SpriteManager spriteManager;
//Animation display rate, 12fps
private int animationDelay = 83;
private Random rand =
new Random(System.
currentTimeMillis());
public static void main(
String[] args){
new Animate01();
}//end main
//---------------------------------//
Animate01() {//constructor
// Load and track the images
mediaTracker =
new MediaTracker(this);
//Get and track the background
// image
backGroundImage =
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
getImage("background02.gif");
mediaTracker.addImage(
backGroundImage, 0);
//Get and track 6 images to use
// for sprites
gifImages[0] =
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
getImage("redball.gif");
mediaTracker.addImage(
gifImages[0], 0);
gifImages[1] =
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
getImage("greenball.gif");
mediaTracker.addImage(
gifImages[1], 0);
gifImages[2] =
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
getImage("blueball.gif");
mediaTracker.addImage(
gifImages[2], 0);
gifImages[3] =
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
getImage("yellowball.gif");
mediaTracker.addImage(
gifImages[3], 0);
gifImages[4] =
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
getImage("purpleball.gif");
mediaTracker.addImage(
gifImages[4], 0);
gifImages[5] =
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
getImage("orangeball.gif");
mediaTracker.addImage(
gifImages[5], 0);
//Block and wait for all images to
// be loaded
try {
mediaTracker.waitForID(0);
}catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}//end catch
//Base the Frame size on the size
// of the background image.
//These getter methods return -1 if
// the size is not yet known.
//Insets will be used later to
// limit the graphics area to the
// client area of the Frame.
int width =
backGroundImage.getWidth(this);
int height =
backGroundImage.getHeight(this);
//While not likely, it may be
// possible that the size isn't
// known yet. Do the following
// just in case.
//Wait until size is known
while(width == -1 || height == -1){
System.out.println(
"Waiting for image");
width = backGroundImage.
getWidth(this);
height = backGroundImage.
getHeight(this);
}//end while loop
//Display the frame
setSize(width,height);
setVisible(true);
setTitle(
"Copyright 2001, R.G.Baldwin");
//Create and start animation thread
animationThread = new Thread(this);
animationThread.start();
//Anonymous inner class window
// listener to terminate the
// program.
this.addWindowListener(
new WindowAdapter(){
public void windowClosing(
WindowEvent e){
System.exit(0);}});
}//end constructor
//---------------------------------//
public void run() {
//Create and add sprites to the
// sprite manager
spriteManager = new SpriteManager(
new BackgroundImage(
this, backGroundImage));
//Create 15 sprites from 6 gif
// files.
for (int cnt = 0; cnt < 15; cnt++){
Point position = spriteManager.
getEmptyPosition(new Dimension(
gifImages[0].getWidth(this),
gifImages[0].
getHeight(this)));
spriteManager.addSprite(
makeSprite(position, cnt % 6));
}//end for loop
//Loop, sleep, and update sprite
// positions once each 83
// milliseconds
long time =
System.currentTimeMillis();
while (true) {//infinite loop
spriteManager.update();
repaint();
try {
time += animationDelay;
Thread.sleep(Math.max(0,time -
System.currentTimeMillis()));
}catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}//end catch
}//end while loop
}//end run method
//---------------------------------//
private Sprite makeSprite(
Point position, int imageIndex) {
return new Sprite(
this,
gifImages[imageIndex],
position,
new Point(rand.nextInt() % 5,
rand.nextInt() % 5));
}//end makeSprite()
//---------------------------------//
//Overridden graphics update method
// on the Frame
public void update(Graphics g) {
//Create the offscreen graphics
// context
if (offScreenGraphicsCtx == null) {
offScreenImage =
createImage(getSize().width,
getSize().height);
offScreenGraphicsCtx =
offScreenImage.getGraphics();
}//end if
// Draw the sprites offscreen
spriteManager.drawScene(
offScreenGraphicsCtx);
// Draw the scene onto the screen
if(offScreenImage != null){
g.drawImage(
offScreenImage, 0, 0, this);
}//end if
}//end overridden update method
//---------------------------------//
//Overridden paint method on the
// Frame
public void paint(Graphics g) {
//Nothing required here. All
// drawing is done in the update
// method above.
}//end overridden paint method
}//end class Animate01
//===================================//
class BackgroundImage{
private Image image;
private Component component;
private Dimension size;
public BackgroundImage(
Component component,
Image image) {
this.component = component;
size = component.getSize();
this.image = image;
}//end construtor
public Dimension getSize(){
return size;
}//end getSize()
public Image getImage(){
return image;
}//end getImage()
public void setImage(Image image){
this.image = image;
}//end setImage()
public void drawBackgroundImage(
Graphics g) {
g.drawImage(
image, 0, 0, component);
}//end drawBackgroundImage()
}//end class BackgroundImage
//===========================
class SpriteManager extends Vector {
private BackgroundImage
backgroundImage;
public SpriteManager(
BackgroundImage backgroundImage) {
this.backgroundImage =
backgroundImage;
}//end constructor
//---------------------------------//
public Point getEmptyPosition(
Dimension spriteSize){
Rectangle trialSpaceOccupied =
new Rectangle(0, 0,
spriteSize.width,
spriteSize.height);
Random rand =
new Random(
System.currentTimeMillis());
boolean empty = false;
int numTries = 0;
// Search for an empty position
while (!empty && numTries++ < 100){
// Get a trial position
trialSpaceOccupied.x =
Math.abs(rand.nextInt() %
backgroundImage.
getSize().width);
trialSpaceOccupied.y =
Math.abs(rand.nextInt() %
backgroundImage.
getSize().height);
// Iterate through existing
// sprites, checking if position
// is empty
boolean collision = false;
for(int cnt = 0;cnt < size();
cnt++){
Rectangle testSpaceOccupied =
((Sprite)elementAt(cnt)).
getSpaceOccupied();
if (trialSpaceOccupied.
intersects(
testSpaceOccupied)){
collision = true;
}//end if
}//end for loop
empty = !collision;
}//end while loop
return new Point(
trialSpaceOccupied.x,
trialSpaceOccupied.y);
}//end getEmptyPosition()
//---------------------------------//
public void update() {
Sprite sprite;
//Iterate through sprite list
for (int cnt = 0;cnt < size();
cnt++){
sprite = (Sprite)elementAt(cnt);
//Update a sprite's position
sprite.updatePosition();
//Test for collision. Positive
// result indicates a collision
int hitIndex =
testForCollision(sprite);
if (hitIndex >= 0){
//a collision has occurred
bounceOffSprite(cnt,hitIndex);
}//end if
}//end for loop
}//end update
//---------------------------------//
private int testForCollision(
Sprite testSprite) {
//Check for collision with other
// sprites
Sprite sprite;
for (int cnt = 0;cnt < size();
cnt++){
sprite = (Sprite)elementAt(cnt);
if (sprite == testSprite)
//don't check self
continue;
//Invoke testCollision method
// of Sprite class to perform
// the actual test.
if (testSprite.testCollision(
sprite))
//Return index of colliding
// sprite
return cnt;
}//end for loop
return -1;//No collision detected
}//end testForCollision()
//---------------------------------//
private void bounceOffSprite(
int oneHitIndex,
int otherHitIndex){
//Swap motion vectors for
// bounce algorithm
Sprite oneSprite =
(Sprite)elementAt(oneHitIndex);
Sprite otherSprite =
(Sprite)elementAt(otherHitIndex);
Point swap =
oneSprite.getMotionVector();
oneSprite.setMotionVector(
otherSprite.getMotionVector());
otherSprite.setMotionVector(swap);
}//end bounceOffSprite()
//---------------------------------//
public void drawScene(Graphics g){
//Draw the background and erase
// sprites from graphics area
//Disable the following statement
// for an interesting effect.
backgroundImage.
drawBackgroundImage(g);
//Iterate through sprites, drawing
// each sprite
for (int cnt = 0;cnt < size();
cnt++)
((Sprite)elementAt(cnt)).
drawSpriteImage(g);
}//end drawScene()
//---------------------------------//
public void addSprite(Sprite sprite){
add(sprite);
}//end addSprite()
}//end class SpriteManager
//===================================//
class Sprite {
private Component component;
private Image image;
private Rectangle spaceOccupied;
private Point motionVector;
private Rectangle bounds;
private Random rand;
public Sprite(Component component,
Image image,
Point position,
Point motionVector){
//Seed a random number generator
// for this sprite with the sprite
// position.
rand = new Random(position.x);
this.component = component;
this.image = image;
setSpaceOccupied(new Rectangle(
position.x,
position.y,
image.getWidth(component),
image.getHeight(component)));
this.motionVector = motionVector;
//Compute edges of usable graphics
// area in the Frame.
int topBanner = (
(Container)component).
getInsets().top;
int bottomBorder =
((Container)component).
getInsets().bottom;
int leftBorder = (
(Container)component).
getInsets().left;
int rightBorder = (
(Container)component).
getInsets().right;
bounds = new Rectangle(
0 + leftBorder,
0 + topBanner,
component.getSize().width -
(leftBorder + rightBorder),
component.getSize().height -
(topBanner + bottomBorder));
}//end constructor
//---------------------------------//
public Rectangle getSpaceOccupied(){
return spaceOccupied;
}//end getSpaceOccupied()
//---------------------------------//
void setSpaceOccupied(
Rectangle spaceOccupied){
this.spaceOccupied = spaceOccupied;
}//setSpaceOccupied()
//---------------------------------//
public void setSpaceOccupied(
Point position){
spaceOccupied.setLocation(
position.x, position.y);
}//setSpaceOccupied()
//---------------------------------//
public Point getMotionVector(){
return motionVector;
}//end getMotionVector()
//---------------------------------//
public void setMotionVector(
Point motionVector){
this.motionVector = motionVector;
}//end setMotionVector()
//---------------------------------//
public void setBounds(
Rectangle bounds){
this.bounds = bounds;
}//end setBounds()
//---------------------------------//
public void updatePosition() {
Point position = new Point(
spaceOccupied.x, spaceOccupied.y);
//Insert random behavior. During
// each update, a sprite has about
// one chance in 10 of making a
// random change to its
// motionVector. When a change
// occurs, the motionVector
// coordinate values are forced to
// fall between -7 and 7. This
// puts a cap on the maximum speed
// for a sprite.
if(rand.nextInt() % 10 == 0){
Point randomOffset =
new Point(rand.nextInt() % 3,
rand.nextInt() % 3);
motionVector.x += randomOffset.x;
if(motionVector.x >= 7)
motionVector.x -= 7;
if(motionVector.x <= -7)
motionVector.x += 7;
motionVector.y += randomOffset.y;
if(motionVector.y >= 7)
motionVector.y -= 7;
if(motionVector.y <= -7)
motionVector.y += 7;
}//end if
//Move the sprite on the screen
position.translate(
motionVector.x, motionVector.y);
//Bounce off the walls
boolean bounceRequired = false;
Point tempMotionVector = new Point(
motionVector.x,
motionVector.y);
//Handle walls in x-dimension
if (position.x < bounds.x) {
bounceRequired = true;
position.x = bounds.x;
//reverse direction in x
tempMotionVector.x =
-tempMotionVector.x;
}else if ((
position.x + spaceOccupied.width)
> (bounds.x + bounds.width)){
bounceRequired = true;
position.x = bounds.x +
bounds.width -
spaceOccupied.width;
//reverse direction in x
tempMotionVector.x =
-tempMotionVector.x;
}//end else if
//Handle walls in y-dimension
if (position.y < bounds.y){
bounceRequired = true;
position.y = bounds.y;
tempMotionVector.y =
-tempMotionVector.y;
}else if ((position.y +
spaceOccupied.height)
> (bounds.y + bounds.height)){
bounceRequired = true;
position.y = bounds.y +
bounds.height -
spaceOccupied.height;
tempMotionVector.y =
-tempMotionVector.y;
}//end else if
if(bounceRequired)
//save new motionVector
setMotionVector(
tempMotionVector);
//update spaceOccupied
setSpaceOccupied(position);
}//end updatePosition()
//---------------------------------//
public void drawSpriteImage(
Graphics g){
g.drawImage(image,
spaceOccupied.x,
spaceOccupied.y,
component);
}//end drawSpriteImage()
//---------------------------------//
public boolean testCollision(
Sprite testSprite){
//Check for collision with
// another sprite
if (testSprite != this){
return spaceOccupied.intersects(
testSprite.getSpaceOccupied());
}//end if
return false;
}//end testCollision
}//end Sprite class
//===================================//
Listing 6
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Copyright 2001, Richard G. Baldwin. Reproduction in whole or in
part in any form or medium without express written permission from Richard
Baldwin is prohibited.
About the author
Richard Baldwin
is a college professor and private consultant whose primary focus is a
combination of Java and XML. In addition to the many platform-independent
benefits of Java applications, he believes that a combination of Java and
XML will become the primary driving force in the delivery of structured
information on the Web.
Richard has participated in numerous consulting projects involving
Java, XML, or a combination of the two. He frequently provides onsite
Java and/or XML training at the high-tech companies located in and around
Austin, Texas. He is the author of Baldwin’s Java Programming Tutorials,
which has gained a worldwide following among experienced and aspiring Java
programmers. He has also published articles on Java Programming in Java
Pro magazine.
Richard holds an MSEE degree from Southern Methodist University and
has many years of experience in the application of computer technology
to real-world problems.
