Should I use Panels or Frames?

Question

Hi I am creating my first game in NetBeans using Java, the game is going to be an RPG that will look a bit look Undertale on the surface in that there will be a menu, then a load game section and then will go onto a world where you can walk around.

I've used a JFrame and then a JPanel on top of that to contain the initial menu screen. Should I use another JPanel over the menu screen when I press load game or new game to go to those screens, or should I make a new JFrame altogether?

If you think like how Minecraft has a load game button which sends you to a screen that shows you all the games you can load up, would that be a new JPanel or a new JFrame?

Answer 1

In order to answer this question, let's first examine what's the difference between JFrame and JPanel.

• A JFrame represents the window with its border, title bar, close/maximize/minimize button set and (rarely seen in game development) menu bar.
• A JPanel is a general-purpose container for UI elements which lives within a JFrame (or rather somewhere within the element tree below the root pane of the JFrame).

When you switch between different UI contexts, which one do you want to replace?

You likely want to keep the window but just change its content. So you should switch out the JPanel, not the JFrame of your application.