wxPython threading - GUI freezes while doing an animation in GLCanvas - multithreading

Question

What is the proper way of refreshing a GLCanvas (with heavy 3D geometries) without freezing the GUI?
I'm trying to use a set of GUI elements (buttons, checkboxes) to control a GLCanvas which is refreshed to display a 3D animation. My problem is that the GUI elements are not responsive when the animation loop is on.
I've tried to launch the animation loop in three different ways:
Option 1: within a thread
Option 2: using wx.lib.delayedresult (most likely similar to thread)
Option 3: calling Refresh after the onDraw event
It seems I can get the Option 1 to work, but I need to introduce a sleep delay with time.sleep(xxx) in between the call to the Refresh of the canvas. Otherwise the GUI remains poorly responsive: resizing the window, will end up "graying" the GUI elements, clicking on the checkboxes will trigger events but not the "checking" of the box, the "mouseover" effect over buttons does not work, etc.
I enclose a small working example. In my actual application, I animate a 3D geometry using moderngl, and I noticed that the "sleep" time required varies depending on how heavy the geometry is (as opposed to this example which is extremely lightweight and works with a delay as small as 0.00001s). I'm wondering what I'm missing. Thanks!
import wx
from wx import glcanvas
import wx.lib.delayedresult as delayedresult
from OpenGL.GL import *
import OpenGL.GL.shaders
import time
import numpy as np
from threading import Thread
# --- Option 1: Thread
class TestThread(Thread):
def __init__(self, parent, canvas):
Thread.__init__(self)
self.parent=parent
self.canvas=canvas
self.start() # start the thread
def run(self):
print('Thread running... ')
while self.canvas.animate:
#time.sleep(0.01) # <<<<<<<<<<<< This line needed
self.canvas.Refresh()
print('Tread done ')
class OpenGLCanvas(glcanvas.GLCanvas):
def __init__(self, parent):
glcanvas.GLCanvas.__init__(self, parent, -1, size=(400,400))
self.context = glcanvas.GLContext(self)
self.SetCurrent(self.context)
self.init = False
self.animate = False
self.refreshAfter = False
self.t=0
self.Bind(wx.EVT_PAINT, self.OnPaint)
def OnPaint(self, event):
wx.PaintDC(self)
if not self.init:
self.InitGL()
self.init = True
self.OnDraw()
def InitGL(self):
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST)
def OnDraw(self):
""" Called at every frame"""
glClearColor(0.1, 0.0, np.mod(self.t,1), 1.0)
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT)
if self.animate:
self.t+=0.0005 # increment time
# ---- Option 3
if self.refreshAfter:
self.Refresh() # Trigger next frame
self.SwapBuffers()
# --- Option 2: delayed results
def onAnimDelayedEnd(self, thread):
""" Consumer """
print('Delayed result done')
jobID = thread.getJobID()
result = thread.get()
def onAnimDelayedStart(self):
print('Delayed result running... ')
while self.animate:
self.Refresh()
class MyPanel(wx.Panel):
def __init__(self, parent):
wx.Panel.__init__(self, parent)
self.canvas = OpenGLCanvas(self)
# GUI
self.rot_btn = wx.Button(self, -1, label="Toggle animation", pos=(430, 10))
self.cbDo = wx.CheckBox (self, -1, label="Do something", pos=(430 ,100))
self.radDo = wx.RadioButton(self, -1, label="Do something", pos=(430,140))
self.radDo2= wx.RadioButton(self, -1, label="Do something", pos=(430,180))
# Binding
self.rot_btn.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.toggleAnim)
self.radDo.Bind(wx.EVT_RADIOBUTTON, self.doSomething)
self.radDo2.Bind(wx.EVT_RADIOBUTTON, self.doSomething)
self.cbDo.Bind(wx.EVT_CHECKBOX , self.doSomething)
def toggleAnim(self, event):
if not self.canvas.animate:
self.canvas.animate = True
# --- Option 1: thread
TestThread(self, self.canvas)
# --- Option 2: delayed result
#delayedresult.startWorker(self.canvas.onAnimDelayedEnd, self.canvas.onAnimDelayedStart, jobID=1)
# --- Option 3: refreshloop
#self.canvas.refreshAfter=True
#self.canvas.Refresh() # set the canvas into an "infinite" refresh loop
else:
self.canvas.animate = False
def doSomething(self, event):
print('Do something')
class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, None, title="My wx frame", size=(600,400))
self.Bind(wx.EVT_CLOSE, self.on_close)
self.panel = MyPanel(self)
def on_close(self, event):
self.Destroy()
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = wx.App()
frame = MyFrame().Show()
app.MainLoop()