Should I initialize a Box2D World per Level?

Question

I'm using a LevelManager to load Tiled maps in my libGDX game, which stores:

Static:

• final Size of map in Tiles
• final Size of map in Pixels
• final Size of an individual tile
• TiledMap ACTIVE_MAP
• World WORLD

When the map is loaded, it creates a new World and stores it in the static WORLD, later populating it with static bodies based on objects found in the map's Collision layer.

My reasoning for using static is down to the fact that logically, only one map will be playable at any one time, however I've got it in my head that only constants and singletons should be static, so this feels strange for me. Is there a better, more efficient way of handling this?

Should I have one World per Level, or a global World independent of what TiledMap is active?

In other words, should I initialize WORLD once and leave it as is, making it final, or continue what I am doing and initialize it as a new World whenever a new TiledMap is loaded?

How do I correctly dispose of all bodies within the World, essentially clearing it?

I'm going to have to do this every time I load a new map, regardless of whether or not WORLD is global.

Answer 1

I took some time to think about the issue and realized that logically, there is no purpose for disposing the World or re-initializing it whenever a new Level is loaded it seems a lot better to dispose and reinitialize the world when a new Level is loaded - thanks to @Shiro for helping me see this. I won't have to manually clear all of the World's bodies, forces, etc.

I created a WorldManager class which contains the World and a method to "clear" it:

public final class WorldManager {

    public static World world;

    private WorldManager() {}

    public static void clearWorld() {
        if (world != null) {
            world.dispose();
        }

        world = new World(new Vector2(0, 0), true);
    }
}

In my LevelManager class, before loading a specified level, I make a call to WorldManager.clearWorld()