jME3 Application Display Settings
Every class that extends jme3.app.SimpleApplication has properties that can be configured by customizing a com.jme3.system.AppSettings
object.
Configure application settings in |
Note: Other runtime settings are covered in SimpleApplication.
Code Samples
Specify settings for a game (here called MyGame
, or whatever you called your SimpleApplication instance) in the main()
method before the game starts:
public static void main(String[] args) {
AppSettings settings = new AppSettings(true);
settings.setResolution(640,480);
// ... other properties, see below
MyGame app = new MyGame();
app.setSettings(settings);
app.start();
}
Set the boolean in the AppSettings constructor to true if you want to keep the default settings for values that you do not specify. Set this parameter to false if you want the application to load user settings from previous launches. In either case you can still customize individual settings.
The settings are saved based on the title of your game (default = “jMonkey Engine 3.x-stable”). This means that if you have not changed the default title, then remove a setting method call, your settings changes will remain in effect for all projects using the default title. To prevent this, set the title for your game or remember to change the settings back to their default and run the project again. |
This example toggles the settings to fullscreen while the game is already running. Then it restarts the game context (not the whole game) which applies the changed settings.
public void toggleToFullscreen() {
GraphicsDevice device = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getDefaultScreenDevice();
DisplayMode[] modes = device.getDisplayModes();
int i=0; // note: there are usually several, let's pick the first
settings.setResolution(modes[i].getWidth(),modes[i].getHeight());
settings.setFrequency(modes[i].getRefreshRate());
settings.setBitsPerPixel(modes[i].getBitDepth());
settings.setFullscreen(device.isFullScreenSupported());
app.setSettings(settings);
app.restart(); // restart the context to apply changes
}
To view your current settings, use the System class.
AppSettings settings = new AppSettings(true);
System.out.println(settings);
Properties
Settings Property | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
setRenderer(AppSettings.LWJGL_OPENGL1) |
Switch Video Renderer to OpenGL 1.1, OpenGL 2, or OpenGL 3.3. If your graphic card does not support all OpenGL2 features ( |
OpenGL 2 |
setBitsPerPixel(32) |
Set the color depth. |
24 |
setFrameRate(60) |
How often per second the engine should try to refresh the frame. For the release, usually 60 fps. Can be lower (30) if you need to free up the CPU for other applications. No use setting it to a higher value than the screen frequency! If the framerate goes below 30 fps, viewers start to notice choppiness or flickering. |
-1 (unlimited) |
setFullscreen(true) |
Set this to true to make the game window fill the whole screen; you need to provide a key that calls app.stop() to exit the fullscreen view gracefully (default: escape). |
False (windowed) |
setHeight(480), setWidth(640) |
Two equivalent ways of setting the display resolution. |
640x480 pixels |
setSamples(4) |
Set multisampling to 0 to switch antialiasing off (harder edges, faster.) |
0 |
setVSync(true) |
Set vertical syncing to true to time the frame buffer to coincide with the refresh frequency of the screen. VSync prevents ugly page tearing artefacts, but is a bit slower; recommened for release build. |
false |
setStencilBits(8) |
Set the number of stencil bits. |
0 (disabled) |
setDepthBits(16) |
Sets the number of depth bits to use. |
24 |
setGammaCorrection(true) |
Enables Gamma Correction. |
false |
Settings Property | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
setUseInput(false) |
Respond to user input by mouse and keyboard. Can be deactivated for use cases where you only display a 3D scene on the canvas without any interaction. |
true |
setUseJoysticks(true) |
Activate optional joystick support |
false |
setEmulateMouse(true) |
Enable or disable mouse emulation for touchscreen-based devices. Setting this to true converts taps on the touchscreen to clicks, and finger swiping gestures over the touchscreen into mouse axis events. |
false |
setEmulateMouseFlipAxis(true,true) |
Flips the X or Y (or both) axes for the emulated mouse. Set the first parameter to true to flip the x axis, and the second to flip the y axis. |
false,false |
Settings Property | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
setAudioRenderer(AppSettings.LWJGL_OPENAL) |
Switch Audio Renderer. Currently there is only one option. |
OpenAL |
setStereo3D(true) |
Enable 3D stereo. This feature requires hardware support from the GPU driver. See Quad Buffering. Currently, your everyday user’s hardware does not support this, so you can ignore it for now. |
false |
Settings Property | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
setTitle("My Game") |
This string will be visible in the titlebar, unless the window is fullscreen. |
“jMonkey Engine 3.x-stable” |
setIcons(new BufferedImage[]{ |
This specifies the little application icon in the titlebar of the application (unused in MacOS?). You should specify the icon in various sizes (256,128,32,16) to look good on various operating systems. Note: This is not the application icon on the desktop. |
null |
setSettingsDialogImage("Interface/mysplashscreen.png") |
A custom splashscreen image in the |
"/com/jme3/app/Monkey.png" |
You can use |
Toggling and Activating Settings
SimpleApplication method | Description |
---|---|
app.setShowSettings(boolean) |
Activate or deactivate the default settings screen before start()ing the game. If you let users use this screen, you do not need to modify the settings object. Note: Most developers implement their own custom settings screen, but the default one is useful during the alpha stages. |
app.setSettings(settings) |
After you have modified the properties on the settings object, you apply it to your application. Note that the settings are not automatically reloaded while the game is running. |
app.start() |
Every game calls start() in the beginning to initialize the game and apply the settings. Modify and set your settings before calling start(). |
app.restart() |
Restart()ing a running game restarts the game context and applies the updated settings object. (This does not restart or reinitialize the whole game.) |
Saving and Loading Settings
Due to a current bug and inconsistent behavior observed related to the preferences save location, to ensure correct behavior, save() and load() should only use forward slashes / and must be all lowercase. More information can be found here. |
An AppSettings object also supports the following methods to save your settings under a unique key (in this example “com/foo/mycoolgame3”):
-
Use
settings.save("com/foo/mycoolgame3")
to save your settings via standard java.io serialization. -
Use
settings.load("com/foo/mycoolgame3")
to load your settings. -
Use
settings2.copyFrom(settings)
to copy a settings object.
Usage:
Provide the unique name of your jME3 application as the String argument. For example com/foo/mycoolgame3
.
try { settings.save("com/foo/mycoolgame3"); }
catch (BackingStoreException ex) { /** could not save settings */ }
-
On Windows, the preferences are saved under the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\foo\mycoolgame3
-
On Linux, the preferences are saved in an XML file under:
$HOME/.java/.userPrefs/com/foo/mycoolgame3
-
On Mac OS X, the preferences are saved as XML file under:
$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.foo.mycoolgame3.plist