07_Animation_Threads

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Animation & Threads in OSP

Many OSP-based applications are time-stepped simulations (e.g., “start,” “step,” “stop”). Under the hood, OSP’s AbstractSimulation framework uses a timer (swing Timer or a thread) to call doStep() repeatedly.

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Key Classes / Interfaces

AbstractAnimation

• The older base for building animations in OSP (lower-level).
• Provides initializeAnimation(), resetAnimation(), stopAnimation(), etc.

AbstractSimulation

• More common high-level framework for time-stepped simulations.
• You only implement initialize(), doStep(), reset(). Then OSP handles the timer, user’s Start/Stop button, etc.

public class MySim extends AbstractSimulation {
   public void initialize(){
      // set up frames, variables, initial conditions
   }
   public void doStep(){
      // update the model for one time step
   }
   public void reset(){
      // reset GUI and variables
   }
}

Then:

public static void main(String[] args){
   SimulationControl.createApp(new MySim());
}