How to save multiple versions of a project?

Unity Engine
1

I am compelety new to this and have no experience outside a few hours of goofing off in Leadwerks years ago accomplishing nothing.

I start a Third Person template and import this and get compile errors but I have no idea what they mean so I exit but the editor autosaves so I can’t remove the compile errors without completly starting over. All I’ve done is import I can’t even figure out how to implement the asset - the stuff shows on the bottom part of screen with the assets but they dont show on the right side menu if I try adding scripts to the default character controller so not even sure why the playtest thing is getting triggered if the assets are currently unused?

Is there a way to have backups of a project to rollback to if you get compile errors or problems with assets or custom content while learning how to debug or compile? Even the Save As doesn’t seem to do anything.

2

What you’re talking about is called version control, and yes it’s a thing that’s very much recommended for people to use.

How you do it is up to you, but GitHub is probably the cheapest to set up.

1 Like
3

Is there a way? Oh yes, there are great ways: source control!

I’m sorry you’ve had this issue. Please consider using proper industrial-grade source control in order to guard and protect your hard-earned work.

Personally I use git (completely outside of Unity) because it is free and there are tons of tutorials out there to help you set it up as well as free places to host your repo (BitBucket, Github, Gitlab, etc.).

You can also push git repositories to other drives: thumb drives, USB drives, network drives, etc., effectively putting a complete copy of the repository there.

As far as configuring Unity to play nice with git, keep this in mind:

https://discussions.unity.com/t/736093/3

Here’s how I use git in one of my games, Jetpack Kurt:

https://discussions.unity.com/t/807568/3

Using fine-grained source control as you work to refine your engineering:

https://discussions.unity.com/t/826718/2

Share/Sharing source code between projects:

https://discussions.unity.com/t/719810/2

Setting up an appropriate .gitignore file for Unity3D:

https://discussions.unity.com/t/834885/5

Generally setting Unity up (includes above .gitignore concepts):

https://thoughtbot.com/blog/how-to-git-with-unity

It is only simple economics that you must expend as much effort into backing it up as you feel the work is worth in the first place.

“Use source control or you will be really sad sooner or later.” - StarManta on the Unity3D forum boards

4

I cant figure out how to use Github. I mean I literally have no experience outside of some Scratch and basic HTML from early High School years back that I don’t remember. I just installed Unity because it was free and wanted to goof off.

Why can’t there just be a built in backup export function or something? Doesn’t even have to be on the cloud. This should be the very first thing in any tutorial period.

5

If you can’t grok source control, just make copies of the project, either by duping the entire folder, or by zipping it.