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Maybe, but that is probably less memory-friendly, and it adds more pain if you want to trigger the repaint from other places later on.

This is all you need to do:

public void...

Also, it is HIGHLY suggested that you call super.paintComponent(g); before calling the renderLevel method. You are already filling in the background in the renderLevel method, but it is considered a...

Show us the paintComponent() method. You may have made a small mistake there.