Working with Java’s Full-Screen Exclusive Mode is a bit different than working with AWT, Swing or JavaFX. The tutorial describes how, and why, this works. The information, however, is a bit spread out. Also, it doesn’t mention how to work with multiple full screens at the same time. Not that it’s very different from working with only one screen, but it’s at least fun to try out.

The Frame

The first part of this exercise is to create a Frame that should be displayed. Since the OS is managing the video memory, we should guard against it. We could lose our drawing at any time, because the OS can simply reclaim the memory. The draw method looks a bit complex because of this, with its double loop structure. But on the positive side, we can just ignore any hint by the OS that the frame should be repainted.

package nl.ghyze.fullscreen;

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.image.BufferStrategy;

public class TestFrame extends Frame {
    private final String id;

    public TestFrame(String id) {
        this.id = id;

        // ignore OS initiated paint events
        this.setIgnoreRepaint(true);
    }

    public void draw() {
        BufferStrategy strategy = this.getBufferStrategy();
        do {
            // The following loop ensures that the contents of the drawing buffer
            // are consistent in case the underlying surface was recreated
            do {
                // Get a new graphics context every time through the loop
                // to make sure the strategy is validated
                Graphics graphics = strategy.getDrawGraphics();

                int w = this.getWidth();
                int h = this.getHeight();

                // clear screen
                graphics.setColor(Color.black);
                graphics.fillRect(0,0,w,h);

                // draw screen
                graphics.setColor(Color.ORANGE);
                graphics.drawString("Screen: " + this.id, w / 2, h / 2);

                // Dispose the graphics
                graphics.dispose();

                // Repeat the rendering if the drawing buffer contents
                // were restored
            } while (strategy.contentsRestored());

            // Display the buffer
            strategy.show();

            // Repeat the rendering if the drawing buffer was lost
        } while (strategy.contentsLost());
    }
}

The ScreenFactory

This is just a simple utility class to figure out which screens are available, and what quality images we can show on these screens.

package nl.ghyze.fullscreen;

import java.awt.DisplayMode;
import java.awt.GraphicsDevice;
import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

public class ScreenFactory {

    private final GraphicsDevice[] graphicsDevices;

    /**
     * Constructor. Finds all available GraphicsDevices.
     */
    public ScreenFactory(){
        GraphicsEnvironment localGraphicsEnvironment = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
        graphicsDevices = localGraphicsEnvironment.getScreenDevices();
    }

    /**
     * Get a list of the IDs of all available GraphicsDevices
     * @return the list of the IDs of all available GraphicsDevices
     */
    public List<String> getGraphicsDeviceIds(){
        return Arrays.stream(graphicsDevices).map(GraphicsDevice::getIDstring).collect(Collectors.toList());
    }

    /**
     * Get a single GraphicsDevice, by ID. Return an empty optional if none is found.
     * @param graphicsDeviceId the ID of the requested GraphicsDevice
     * @return an optional which contains the GraphicsDevice, if found.
     */
    public Optional<GraphicsDevice> getGraphicsDevice(String graphicsDeviceId){
        return Arrays.stream(graphicsDevices)
                .filter(graphicsDevice -> graphicsDevice.getIDstring().equals(graphicsDeviceId))
                .findAny();
    }

    /**
     * Get all available DisplayModes for the selected GraphicsDevice
     * @param graphicsDeviceId the ID of the GraphicsDevice
     * @return a list of DisplayModes
     */
    public List<DisplayMode> getDisplayModes(String graphicsDeviceId){
        GraphicsDevice gd = Arrays.stream(graphicsDevices)
                .filter(graphicsDevice -> graphicsDevice.getIDstring().equals(graphicsDeviceId))
                .findFirst()
                .orElseThrow(IllegalArgumentException::new);

        return Arrays.stream(gd.getDisplayModes()).collect(Collectors.toList());
    }

    /**
     * Get the best DisplayMode for the selected GraphicsDevice.
     * Best is defined here as the most pixels, highest bit-depth and highest refresh-rate.
     * @param graphicsDeviceId the ID of the GraphicsDevice
     * @return the best DisplayMode for this GraphicsDevice
     */
    public DisplayMode getBestDisplayMode(String graphicsDeviceId){
        List<DisplayMode> displayModes = getDisplayModes(graphicsDeviceId);
        DisplayMode best = null;
        for (DisplayMode displayMode : displayModes){
            if (best == null){
                best = displayMode;
            } else {
                if (isScreensizeBetterOrEqual(best, displayMode) ){
                    best = displayMode;
                } else if (isScreensizeBetterOrEqual(best, displayMode)
                        && isBitDepthBetterOrEqual(best, displayMode)){
                    best = displayMode;
                } else if (isScreensizeBetterOrEqual(best, displayMode)
                        && isBitDepthBetterOrEqual(best, displayMode)
                && isRefreshRateBetterOrEqual(best, displayMode)){
                    best = displayMode;
                }
            }
        }
        return best;
    }

    private boolean isScreensizeBetterOrEqual(DisplayMode current, DisplayMode potential){
        return potential.getHeight() * potential.getWidth() >= current.getHeight() * current.getWidth();
    }

    private boolean isBitDepthBetterOrEqual(DisplayMode current, DisplayMode potential){
        if (current.getBitDepth() == DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI) {
            return false;
        } else if (potential.getBitDepth()  == DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI){
            return true;
        }
        return potential.getBitDepth() >= current.getBitDepth();
    }

    private boolean isRefreshRateBetterOrEqual(DisplayMode current, DisplayMode potential){
        if (current.getRefreshRate() == DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN) {
            return false;
        } else if (potential.getRefreshRate()  == DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN){
            return true;
        }
        return potential.getRefreshRate() >= current.getRefreshRate();
    }
}

Bringing it together

For every screen that we have, we’re going to make a Frame. If the screen supports a Full Screen mode, we’re going to use it. Otherwise, we’re just going to use a maximized Frame. Once we’ve setup the screens, we’re going to loop over the frames, and draw each of them. We’ll do this in an infinite loop until we reach some stop condition. In this case, we’re going to stop after two seconds, but you can implement it in any way you’d like. I’ve found that if you don’t implement a stop condition, and just use an infinite loop, it can be quite challenging to actually stop the program. When the program should shut down, we’re going to reset the screens to normal and dispose of the Frames. Once the Frames are disposed, the program stops.

package nl.ghyze.fullscreen;

import java.awt.DisplayMode;
import java.awt.GraphicsDevice;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class MultiFullScreen {
    private final List<TestFrame> frames = new ArrayList<>();

    private final long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    private final ScreenFactory screenFactory = new ScreenFactory();

    public MultiFullScreen(){
        try {
            for (String graphicsDeviceId : screenFactory.getGraphicsDeviceIds()) {
                GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice = screenFactory.getGraphicsDevice(graphicsDeviceId).orElseThrow(IllegalStateException::new);
                DisplayMode best = screenFactory.getBestDisplayMode(graphicsDeviceId);

                TestFrame tf = new TestFrame(graphicsDeviceId);
                // remove borders, if supported. Not needed, but looks better.
                tf.setUndecorated(graphicsDevice.isFullScreenSupported());

                // first set fullscreen window, then set display mode
                graphicsDevice.setFullScreenWindow(tf);
                graphicsDevice.setDisplayMode(best);

                // can only be called after it has been set as a FullScreenWindow
                tf.createBufferStrategy(2);

                frames.add(tf);
            }
            run();
            shutDown();
        }catch (Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            shutDown();
        }
    }

    private void shutDown() {
        // unset full screen windows
        for (String graphicsDeviceId : screenFactory.getGraphicsDeviceIds()) {
            try {
                GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice = screenFactory.getGraphicsDevice(graphicsDeviceId).orElseThrow(IllegalStateException::new);
                graphicsDevice.setFullScreenWindow(null);
            } catch (Exception e){
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        // Dispose frames, so the application can exit.
        for (TestFrame frame : frames){
            frame.dispose();
        }
    }

    public void run(){
        while(shouldRun()){
            for(TestFrame tf : frames){
                tf.draw();
            }
        }
    }

    private boolean shouldRun(){
        final long runningTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
        return runningTime < 2000L;
    }

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