Adding class to Game

Question

I work on a little project, and in the past, I used SpriteManager : DrawableGameComponent as my SpriteManager class.

I have been told that DrawableGameComponent is not so recommended to use, so I decided to make my own custom methods in a new class called SpriteManagerGeneral. Now I try to acces that class via Game. In the past I used this in Game:

spriteManager = new SpriteManager(this);
Components.Add(spriteManager);

But now I can't do this with SpriteManagerGeneral because it's not a GameComponent.

Do I just change my class (and edit my methods) to SpriteManagerGeneral : GameComponent or is there another way (that is better than GameComponent) to do this?

NOTE: I'm a beginner in programming.

NOTE2: Yes I know why DrawableGameComponent is not so recommended.

Answer 1

Your SpriteManager class would not derive from anything. You would write in your own Update and Draw functions:

public class SpriteManager 
{
    GraphicsDevice GraphicsDevice;

    public SpriteManager(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice)
    {
        GraphicsDevice = graphicsDevice;
        LoadContent();
    }

    private void LoadContent()
    {
        //Use GraphicsDevice to load content here
    }

    public void Update(GameTime gametime)
    {
         float elapsed = (float)gametime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds;
    }

    public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)
    {
         spriteBatch.Draw(foo);
    }
}

Don't forget to call Update() in your Update, and Draw() in your Draw from the main Game class:

...

SpriteBatch SpriteBatch;
SpriteManager SpriteManager;

protected override void LoadContent()
{
     SpriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);
     SpriteManager = new SpriteManager(GraphicsDevice);
}

protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
{
    SpriteManager.Update(gameTime);
}

protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
{
    SpriteBatch.Begin();
    SpriteManager.Draw(SpriteBatch);
    SpriteBatch.End();
}

...