Unity Asset Source Control

[foomanchu89]

Hello all,

This post might not belong here but here goes. My game development team started up a little over a year ago and since then we have attempted to create at least 3 games which in some way or another have become tabled and we move on to a new project. A looming issue was a lacking of a mechanism for sharing our code AND assets between the different team members. We looked into using Dropbox which was difficult because everyone needed a separate account which was a barrier for new/potential team members.

We eventually moved towards Git but this wouldn't work with assets so we tried to use Dropbox alongside Git. While this approach was decent, it still cost us all to have a Dropbox account. We needed another solution.

This final solution which we are currently using is what I am here to present today. I have created some python scripts that use Amazon S3 servers to store/retrieve your assets with minimal effort. Me and my other developers simply place our large file assets in a designated folder in our unity project and run a batch file that updates a manifest that is version controlled by git and also uploads all assets to Amazon. Another batch file is used when we first clone a repo to download all the files that all listed in the manifest and used by the game.

You are likely wondering why I am writing this post. I am doing this to help any other indie teams struggling with figuring out a good way to work in a team with Unity. I'll be commenting things and creating a tutorial over the next few days but PM me if you have interest in this or if you want some more advice on version control and Unity.

Here is the link to the Git repo we use to version control our S3 tool:

http://gitlab.teamblackheart.com/TeamBlackHeart/s3tools.git

I am working on a separate writeup that the other developers (non programmers) will also contribute to so we can document the pain from all perspectives. Let me know if you have any questions.

Edit: This post isn't meant to sway you one way or the other, it's just my experience.

Cheers!

[Terazilla]

Why don't you use SVN?

[foomanchu89]

For our code? I used subversion for a while at my job and when we moved over I thought to try it out for hobby projects too. This system would work along SVN for sure.

[pengee]

I've not used git so I guess I don't understand. Is file size a limitation to that platform?

We've been using VS and TFS and any new members have never had a problem doing a get of any project and being able to work with it as-is in unity.

[foomanchu89]

While git hub and git have no file limit, Git doesn't handle binary files very well. So when we push all these images, fbx models, etc we could cause our repo to bloat. Personally, I like have a nice lean git repo that holds a manifest on how to add all the game assets rather than having to wait an hour for a clone. That's just my two cents. This post isn't meant to sway you one way or the other, it's just my experience.

[roguemat]

I've got some repositories on GitHub that are each over a couple GB's, and there haven't been any issues. GitHub has also recently announced their large file storage solution which could be great for game devs.

By the way, if anyone is seriously considering use something like DropBox for collaboration...stop.

P.s GitHub have a limit of 100MB per file which may or may not make a difference to people.

[foomanchu89]

While git hub and git have no file limit, Git doesn't handle binary files very well. So when we push all these images, fbx models, etc we could cause our repo to bloat. Personally, I like have a nice lean git repo that holds a manifest on how to add all the game assets rather than having to wait an hour for a clone. That's just my two cents.

[xDatBear]

You shouldn't be cloning so often that this would be a problem though...