Recently I decided to start optimizing code in the game development field.

I found this pacman project on github a good starting point: https://github.com/LucaFeggi/PacMan_SDL/tree/main

I found a lot of things that deserve an optimization. One of the most things that caught my attention is that a lot of classes have their Draw (render) method inside them, such as Pac, Ghost, Fruit classes...

So I decided to make a Renderer class, and move to it the Draw method and the appropriate fields that the latter works on.

Let us take the Pac class inside the PacRenderer.hpp as an example, to clarify things:

class Pac : public Entity{
    public:
        Pac();
        ~Pac();
        void UpdatePos(std::vector<unsigned char> &mover, unsigned char ActualMap[]);
        unsigned char FoodCollision(unsigned char ActualMap[]);
        bool IsEnergized();
        void ChangeEnergyStatus(bool NewEnergyStatus);
        void SetFacing(unsigned char mover);
        bool IsDeadAnimationEnded();
        void ModDeadAnimationStatement(bool NewDeadAnimationStatement);
        void UpdateCurrentLivingPacFrame();
        void ResetCurrentLivingFrame();
        void WallCollisionFrame();
        void Draw();
    private:
        LTexture LivingPac;
        LTexture DeathPac;
        SDL_Rect LivingPacSpriteClips[LivingPacFrames];
        SDL_Rect DeathPacSpriteClips[DeathPacFrames];
        unsigned char CurrLivingPacFrame;
        unsigned char CurrDeathPacFrame;
        bool EnergyStatus;
        bool DeadAnimationStatement;
};

So according to what I described above, the PacRenderer class will be:

class PacRenderer {
public:
        PacRenderer(std::shared_ptr<Pac> pac);
        void Draw();
private:
        LTexture LivingPac;
        LTexture DeathPac;
        SDL_Rect LivingPacSpriteClips[LivingPacFrames];
        SDL_Rect DeathPacSpriteClips[DeathPacFrames];
}

PacRenderer::PacRenderer(std::shared_ptr<Pac> pac)
{
    this->pac = pac;

    //loading textures here instead of in the Fruit class
    LivingPac.loadFromFile("Textures/PacMan32.png");
    DeathPac.loadFromFile("Textures/GameOver32.png");
    InitFrames(LivingPacFrames, LivingPacSpriteClips);
    InitFrames(DeathPacFrames, DeathPacSpriteClips);
}

After moving Draw() and 4 fields from the Pac class.

At the beginning, I thought that it is a very good optimization, and separation between game logic and graphics rendering.

Until I read this question and its right answer: How should renderer class relate to the class it renders?

I found that what the right answer describes as

you're just taking a baby step away from "objects render themselves" rather than moving all the way to an approach where something else renders the objects

applies exactly to my solution.

So I want to verify if this description really apply to my solution.

Is my solution good, did I actually separate game logic from graphics rendering?

If not, what is the best thing to do in this case?

Neil Druckmann, the co-president of Naughty Dog and creative director of The Last of Us, is tired. From the sound of it, he might be looking to change his career up so he doesn’t have to deal with the stress of leading a AAA team that puts out games on the scale of Sony’s flagship studio.

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