Asset Server

Unity Engine
1

Hello,

I am trying to set up an asset server which is doing fine right now. But I have a question regarding to it. I used MS Visual SourceSafe before trying Unity’s Asset Server for source control. One thing that I see in VSS but cannot find in Asset Server (I might be wrong) is that when, let’s say, coder A wants to edit file x.txt. Coder A checked out the file. The file is marked as “checked out”. Then at the same time coder B want to modify x.txt also. Coder B can’t do so because the file is marked “checked out”. This prevents two coders modify the same file at the same time.

Does Asset Server support this? Or I just miss something.

Thank you

Bent

2

What you’re talking about is exclusive checkout, and personally, I don’t really like it very much :wink: For textfiles that can easily be merged (automatically in almost all cases), I think exclusive checkout is just an annoyance…

It does make a lot of sense for binary files, though. I’d be interested in how the Asset Server handles binary files (should be exclusive checkout in my opinion), too :wink:

Btw, is my understanding correct, that the Asset Server itself can be downloaded and installed freely, but for using it, you need to get a license which is “added” to the Unity Pro license?

Jashan

3

Correct. It’s a US$499 license which can be added to the Unity Pro license. The server is licensed free of charge as long as it’s used with Unity Pro.

d.

4

So… does Asset Server support exclusive checkout?

5

No, not with the current version. This is a requested feature for a future Unity release, though, so it might be possible some day.

I used not to like exclusive checkouts for a number of reasons:

  • It does not replace actually communicating with other developers. You may need to explain exactly why you need an exclusive checkout.
  • Somebody might perform an exclusive checkout of the entire project and then go on a backpacking tour for three months without internet or phone access.
  • People will begin performing exclusive checkouts by default, even when it’s not required. Multiple script changes for instance can usually be merged quite easily, so an exclusive checkout on a script file might prevent someone else from doing an unrelated change or a bug fix in a script you have checked out.

But for binary assets and assets that for some reason are hard to merge, I do see use for exclusive checkouts. So the feature might show up in a distant version of Unity.