Java: Accessing resources and the Law Of Demeter

Question

Overview

In my (Android) Java game, I have a class called resources. As the name suggests, this class holds the resources for the game. All of my OpenGL objects (Sprites) are created here

It's looks something like the following (obviously, this is a simplified version compared to that which appears in the real project):

public class Resources {

    Hero hero;
    Enemy enemy;
    MenuButtons mainMenuButtons;
    Background background;
    Scene mainMenu;

    public void createObjects(){

        hero = new Hero();
        enemy = new Enemy();
        mainMenuButtons = new MenuButtons();
        background = new Background();
        mainMenu = new Scene(this);

    }
}

So, within my mainMenu scene, I need access my objects, so we may see something like this:

public class mainMenu implements Scene {

    Resources resources;

    public mainMenu(Resources resources){

        this.resources = resources;

    }

    @Override
    public void render(){

        resources.background.draw();
        resources.hero.draw();
        resources.enemy.draw();
        mainMenuButtons.draw();           

    }

    @Override
    public void updateLogic(){

        resources.hero.move();
        resources.enemy.move();
        resources.mainMenubuttons.animate();
    }

}

Now, the above method is just one way to get access to the objects in resources and their methods. But does this actually break the Law of Demeter? If not, why not? If so, what is the best way to get access to these objects in a way that does not violate the LOD?

Accessors?

One option (which I've ruled out TBH - see below) is placing accessor methods into my resources class. So that I could do something like:

resources.drawBackround();

I have a lot of objects and I need an accessor for each method/variable of each object. Not really practical, it seems like I'm writing a ton of extra code and most importantly, it makes the resources class ridiculously long as it becomes filled with these accessors. Therefore, I'm not going down this road.

Passing in objects into the scene's constructor

Of course, I can also do something like this:

    hero = new Hero();
    enemy = new Enemy();
    mainMenuButtons = new MenuButtons();
    background = new Background();
    mainMenu = new Scene(hero, enemy, mainMenuButtons, background);

So I can simply do this:

    background.draw(); //etc....

This is workable for simple scene's (such as menu systems that don't require a lot of objects) but for the main game, it could quickly become a mess as I'd have to pass references to some 30+ objects into the constructor which doesn't really sound quite right......

So I would really appreciate if someone could point out the best way to proceed and why.

Answer 1

So I would really appreciate if someone could point out the best way to proceed and why.

The best way, in my opinion, is to keep the Resources class, make all objects private to not break the law and write accessors (but not for every object like you already ruled out).

I have a lot of objects and I need an accessor for each method/variable of each object. Not really practical, it seems like I'm writing a ton of extra code and most importantly, it makes the resources class ridiculously long as it becomes filled with these accessors. Therefore, I'm not going down this road.

I assume many objects are of the same class. So you do not have to make an accessor for every object what would really blow up the class. I a game you normally have a hero, one or more enemies and many sprites.

public class Resources {

    private Hero hero;
    private Enemy enemy;
    private MenuButtons mainMenuButtons;
    private Background background;
    private Scene mainMenu;

    public void createObjects(){

        hero = new Hero();
        enemy = new Enemy();
        mainMenuButtons = new MenuButtons();
        background = new Background();
        mainMenu = new Scene(this);

    }

    public Hero getBackground() {

        return background;
    }

    public Hero getHero() {

        return hero;
    }

    public List<Enemy> getEnemies() {

        ArrayList<Enemy> list = new ArrayList<Enemy>();
        list.add(enemy);
        list.add(next_enemy);
        return list;
    }

    public List<Sprite> getSprites() {

        ArrayList<Sprite> list = new ArrayList<Sprite>();
        list.addAll(enemy.getActiveSprites());
        return list;
    }

}

Instead of getHero() and getEnemy() you could also make a getActor() method if Hero and Enemy are derived from the same class. The getSprites() method is just an example how it could look like.

If that solution is not going to work for you, I have another suggestion.

Make the Resources class do some work.

public class ResourceManager {

    private Hero hero;
    private Enemy enemy;
    private MenuButtons mainMenuButtons;
    private Background background;
    private Scene mainMenu;

    public void createObjects(){

        hero = new Hero();
        enemy = new Enemy();
        mainMenuButtons = new MenuButtons();
        background = new Background();
        mainMenu = new Scene(this);

    }

    public void render(Scene scene) {

        this.background.draw();
        if (scene != mainMenu) {

            this.hero.draw();
            this.enemy.draw();
        }
        this.mainMenuButtons.draw();           

    }

    public void updateLogic(Scene scene){

        this.hero.move();
        this.enemy.move();
        this.mainMenubuttons.animate();
    }

}

The mainMenu then calls logic methods directly in the RescourceManager class.

public class mainMenu implements Scene {

    ResourceManager resourceManager;

    public mainMenu(ResourceManager resourceManager){

        this.resourceManager = resourceManager;
    }

    @Override
    public void render(){

        resourceManager.render(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void updateLogic(){

        resourceManager.updateLogic(this);
    }

}

I hope my suggestions helped you a bit figure out how to continue with your project.