How would I make it so that the car repaints continuously after pressing the start button and the start button doesn't have to be clicked multiple times for the car to move.

// Initialize the timer and set the interval to 10 milliseconds t = new Timer(10, this);

    // Start the timer
    t.start();
}

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    
    
    if(e.getSource() == btnStart) {
    // Move the car and then repaint the image
    car.drive();
    repaint();
    }
}

//Methods
public void drive() {
    
    if(xPos <= 850) {
        xPos+=5;
    }
    else{
        xPos = 0;
        }
}

How would I make it so that the car repaints continuously after pressing the start button and the start button doesn't have to be clicked multiple times for the car to move.

// Initialize the timer and set the interval to 10 milliseconds t = new Timer(10, this);

    // Start the timer
    t.start();
}

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    
    
    if(e.getSource() == btnStart) {
    // Move the car and then repaint the image
    car.drive();
    repaint();
    }
}

//Methods
public void drive() {
    
    if(xPos <= 850) {
        xPos+=5;
    }
    else{
        xPos = 0;
        }
}

• java
• timer

• In what user-interface framework? Swing? JavaFX? SWT? Vaadin? – Basil Bourque Commented 6 hours ago

1 Answer 1

The method is only called once so the car only moves once.

Move the movement logic outside of the button click condition, so it runs continuously when the timer fires.

import javax.swing.*;
import java.aawt.event.*;

public class CarAnimation implements ActionListener {
    private Timer timer;
    private JButton btnStart;
    private int xPos = 0; // Car position

    public CarAnimation() {
        // Initialize the timer with an interval of 10ms
        timer = new Timer(10, this);
        
        btnStart = new JButton("Start");
        btnStart.addActionListener(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        if (e.getSource() == btnStart) {
            // Start the timer when the button is clicked
            timer.start();
        }

        // Move the car continuously when the timer fires
        moveCar();
        repaint();
    }

    // Car movement logic
    private void moveCar() {
        if (xPos <= 850) {
            xPos += 5;
        } else {
            xPos = 0; // Reset position
        }
    }

    // Dummy repaint method (Replace with actual GUI repaint)
    private void repaint() {
        System.out.println("Car position: " + xPos); // Simulates repaint
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new CarAnimation();
    }
}