Hello guys. I don’t know if this is the right place to post this.
Our development team is using the free version of Unity as an evaluation tool before buying the full version. The thing is that we can’t imagine how 2 or more people could work on the same project. Like, how could a level designer and a programmer work on the same scene file?
Should we use the Asset Manager? Could we use a version control tool like SVN? And how?
This is very important for our workflow. When we used Torque, the scene file was a simple text file. With Unity, we are cracking our heads trying to find a way.
The Scene files does not integrate well with the Asset Server for Conflicts.
Essentially you would have some sort of conflicting test bed for testing out scripts, and then a level designer would actually place the scripts on objects and create the spawns and maps.
Once you get the character structure decided you don’t actually need to modify the scene nearly as much to make things work, as you can modify the central scripts instead.
If you’re using Unity 2.6.1, then yes AssetServer is almost the only way, because there are some setting files which can’t be committed to SVN (or similar source control tool) easily. That has been fixed in Unity 3.0 - it works great with any source control.
Regarding conflicts: I tend to thing about these Unity files as if they were binary - you do not want to merge them but on the other hand AssetServer can show you differences in these files (although part of the file are bunch of hashes) and I don’t know how good it is at merging these files.
In general you should break your scene down into peaces - make it out of prefabs and modify prefabs instead.
Hi, Unity seems very well designed making it very easy to get into, however I am hitting against the same issue as sewerShark.
It would be so much nicer if scene hierachies etc were human readable (and in emergencies, editable) text files! I am so used to being able to use tools like SVN to tell me what has changed between versions, and it is especially important when applying back to a prefab can easily change a setting unintentionally.
We came to the same conclusion about treating scene files as binaries. After our first learning experience with multiple people cooperating on a single project using Asset Server we’ve concluded we need to rethink our workflow so that one person can have ownership of a scene, and other people’s work is incorporated through prefabs and such.
If other people have already gone through this process and evolved a workflow and division of responsibility that works for you it would be great to hear about it.
Another conclusion is that in general we would prefer to minimise settings stored in a prefab, for example to find the velocity of a player, it is better to request this information from a centralised human-readable database of some form, just as you expect to go to just one source to make key assignments.
ps: re the text file issue. I even went so far as to wonder if I could write my own script to export/import a Unity project in readable format, and commit that to SVN
(edit: on the subject of a human readable file: one conclusion was that although a XML-like nested structure for hierachies seems obvious, it could make changes in hierarchy messy in your versioning application. A flat file of records each with a parent property could be tidier since changing the heirachy would only change a single line)
The idea likely is to ensure that unity pro licenses can’t be missused as building facilities for groups of free riders. that might very well also be why VCS support is pro only and asset server client licenses are available as pro addon only
also you can actually work on the same scene but not at the same time on the same stuff.
doing so works through using prefabs which you then sync with the others through packages.
Possible but I wouldnt worry about that. Asset bundles and the better rendering of Pro (especially with 3 coming out) were enough to convince me to buy my own personal copy in addition to a work copy. I suspect any serious company would move to pro after they have gain confidence using the free version.
My big questionmark is over version control. I would like to use SVN or similar for all scripts. What I would really like from Asset server is a database for tracking/viewing your non-text assets. This is a really interesting problem that goes well beyond what software like SVN can do.
Do you know if there is any plans to include the SVN support in the free version? I don’t understand why it’s in the pro only. I purchased the basic iPhone license for Unity 3 and I’m running into a lot of problems trying to work on my project with someone who lives across the country. I could see it not being in the free one, but if you have any type of license, like the iphone license I have, I it should be there. Besides, if I could afford the pro version right now there’s no reason I wouldn’t get the asset server instead of using SVN.
Nothing mentioned so far from what I recall but I doubt that VCS support (its not SVN or specific for any system. the support allows you to generate meta files, the rest is all independent and outside of unity) will become a unity free feature and as such also no feature for addon licenses for unity free (android and iphone in their non pro versions)
If you are currently using the u3 iphone beta and it does not work that actually answers it on its own cause you will likely not get features that were present before the u3 beta already and would only needed to be enabled.
the non pro iphone license on U3 got the plugin support for example, original pro only too on the previous version
Exactly. I DON’T need the pro features right now. Maybe I might in the future, but for now I don’t. I just need to be able to work on a project with more than one person. That should definitely NOT be something that is a pro only feature. Especially for people who purchased any type of license.
personally, I’m not concerned about merging scenes or prefabs. I’m just concerned about stuff like all the links that the prefabs holds to other items. I can easily download the new prefab and overwrite mine, but it always completely messed up unless I have the other person zip up there library folder and send it to me.
from what I understand, it adds support by creating meta files that can easily be committed to the SVN. I’m not 100% sure how it works, but I think the meta files link to your library folder so that you can have the same library folders without committing them.
Either way, it’s only available in the pro version, which I think is completely unfair to people who purchased basic iphone licenses and need to work on a project with another person.
I was looking up questions about multiple people being able to work on the same scene as I just released a tool that will allow this. It’s called SceneSync. It allows you to collaborate with others on your team or maybe even just yourself on multiple scenes and then bring them togeather in a easy managed fashion.
but on the other hand AssetServer can show you differences in these files (although part of the file are bunch of hashes) and I don’t know how good it is at merging these files.