(LWJGL) How to load animated GIFS?

Question

I am making a sort of 2D platformer and I want an explode animation when ever a certain thing happens. I am using lwjgl to load the textures but when I try to load a gif it just shows the first frame. So is there some way to tell it to show the next frame or is there a special way you have to load it?

Answer 1

Here is a general idea of how you could implement the steps you described using Java and LWJGL:

Use an animated GIF file to represent the explode animation.

Use a library such as GIFDecoder to read and decode the frames of the GIF into separate images.

import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;

// Use GIFDecoder to read and decode the frames of the GIF
import gifdecoder.GIFDecoder;

// Create a GIFDecoder object to read the animation file
GIFDecoder decoder = new GIFDecoder();
decoder.read("explode.gif");

// Get the number of frames in the animation
int frameCount = decoder.getFrameCount();

// Create an array to store the frames of the animation
BufferedImage[] frames = new BufferedImage[frameCount];

// Decode the frames of the animation and store them in the array
for (int i = 0; i < frameCount; i++) {
    frames[i] = decoder.getFrame(i);
}

Use LWJGL's TextureLoader to load each frame of the animation as a separate texture.

import org.lwjgl.opengl.GL11;
import org.newdawn.slick.opengl.Texture;
import org.newdawn.slick.opengl.TextureLoader;

// Create an array to store the textures of the animation
Texture[] textures = new Texture[frameCount];

// Load each frame of the animation as a separate texture
for (int i = 0; i < frameCount; i++) {
    textures[i] = TextureLoader.getTexture("PNG", new ByteArrayInputStream(ImageIO.read(frames[i])));
}

Use LWJGL's rendering functions to draw the current frame of the animation at the appropriate location

textures[currentFrame].bind();

GL11.glBegin(GL11.GL_QUADS);
    GL11.glTexCoord2f(0, 0);
    GL11.glVertex2f(x, y);
    GL11.glTexCoord2f(1, 0);
    GL11.glVertex2f(x + width, y);
    GL11.glTexCoord2f(1, 1);
    GL11.glVertex2f(x + width, y + height);
    GL11.glTexCoord2f