source-control

[rose spade]

the discussion turned into how to shared code when you have multiple projects and don't want to bloat your server (i think)

[woven sluice]

I'm definitely not at your guys' level, just one server with multiple depots. my plugin is in one depot, my game is in another depot and imports the plugin. I can modify the plugin in its own project/depot or modify it in the project I'm actually working on and push changes back to the plugin depot from the game depot

[limpid mason]

Sorry about that!

[rose spade]

no prob. to me, it's an unanswered question on how you do that with multiple servers

[woven sluice]

yeah seems like it's quite strongly intended to always be read only from remote servers

[rose spade]

so it goes back to a single server bloat solution.

personally, i just moved back from multi server to single server because:

1. the read only thing
2. lost the guy who was maintaining that infrastructure

i'm starting to think the best way to split perforce servers is to split where your company doesn't want to share code/rss/culture

[river tinsel]

@rose spade I can tell you about two steups

[rose spade]

im interested

[river tinsel]

at work we have depot per shared engine

if project uses it's own engine for some reason it get's own depot

[alpine beacon]

Hey guys, How can i get a remote stream into my perforce unreal project? Are there any pointers to that?

[river tinsel]

i think it's stupid hey it is what it is

and we have depots for archives

[rose spade]

how do you share unreal modification across projects?

[river tinsel]

we don't

[rose spade]

simple is not bad per se

something too complex can be worse

[river tinsel]

depots are also split per studio

we have 4 games in production

by 3 studios

in different locations

2 projects share the same depot

and two others have separate depots

[rose spade]

k

[river tinsel]

the two projects share engine

and unforutnelty

are on single stream

for my personal personal projects (with few friends)

I have two depots

one for standalone projects (engine from launcher)

and one for source

the source depot have main stream

with only engine sources from github

then there is projects stream, directly from main

it have some project agnostic plugins

and then there is stream per project

[rose spade]

thanks for the explanation

[river tinsel]

if I had to do setup at work

I would do it my way

projects shoudn't really share the same stream

it does not do any benefit, beyond screwing everybody (;

[rose spade]

sure

right now i'm going with a structure that is sort .... Vanilla UE4 main stream that parents company UE4 development stream that parents ProjectA development stream

that way when changes get introduced to projectA, i can propagate them back easily to company stream

and then back down to ProjectB that would also be parented to company stream

[river tinsel]

pretty much what i have done at "home"

[rose spade]

the other option that i've seen done is that people create main streams from the vanilla... but i'm not sure why they did this and how hard it makes it to propage the changes

it's all under the same depot and you have a main stream for everything
Vanilla UE4 main
company UE4 main
ProjectA UE4 main

[river tinsel]

you can't have two main streams

I mean you can

but they cannot be parented

so you end up with manual merges

[rose spade]

exactly they re not parented

they're under the same depot but not parented to one another

[river tinsel]

last time i tried to integrate stream to stream (unrelated) everyhing exploded

[rose spade]

which i question whether it makes it harder to move changes around

yeah thats what i thought

it becomes another baseless merge

and we don't want that

[river tinsel]

documentation says it's possible

but idk if someone tried on it on really big project

[rose spade]

but here's another problem...

you're on UE4.24.2->company4.24.2->ProjectA4.24.2

and now you want to pass to 4.25

how do you get your changes to the stream UE4.25.3

[river tinsel]

you first update main

which i assume it is not modified

the switch to company

integrate with merge

and just resolve conflics

[rose spade]

but i dont want to touch main

there are other people depending on this

i dont want to change them from 4.24.2

[river tinsel]

nobody is forcing anybody to update (;

if they want to merge they will

[rose spade]

you could be right since their child stream doesn't receive updates automatically

[river tinsel]

I would assume main will always be updated

[rose spade]

but you're sort of making a statement that "as a company... we're moving on"

[river tinsel]

yeah

trust me

[rose spade]

which isnt necessarily bad

[river tinsel]

it will be for the better

talked with few people

from Splash Damage

[rose spade]

depending how many other people you have to fight off 😉

[river tinsel]

they update engine for all projects asap

[rose spade]

i think it's fair enough as long that you're not reaching the end of the project

[river tinsel]

it's not worth the pain for updating later

[rose spade]

personally, i have contracts that lock me to certain versions on some projects

no way to update

[river tinsel]

they do live service games

there is no such thing as end of project (;

[rose spade]

shipping

but yeah... shipping should be isolated to a release stream (i guess0

[river tinsel]

there is no shipping in live service : D

but i digress

either way, noone is forced to merge all changes from company stream

[rose spade]

well you still run an update no?

[river tinsel]

the sources of engine, are still in child stream

they are really copy

[rose spade]

yeah i know

and they're on their own

[river tinsel]

yeap

coateral damage

[rose spade]

(this is useful)

[river tinsel]

if you don't want to update engine close to shipping

you probabaly don't want to modify it anyway

otherwise

I don't see a reason to not update asap

[rose spade]

or to just do the modification in your own stream

[river tinsel]

so keeping parent stream always updated shouldn't be an issue

the only issue with streams

is that they are poor man's branches

with allready poor mans branching model of p4

[rose spade]

well last time i used p4... it was all branching

now im back after a few years and... streams!

[river tinsel]

it's shit compared to git

or plastic scm

[rose spade]

it's a bit unsettling but i'm catching up

so what about helix git?

[river tinsel]

don't bother

[rose spade]

can it be a solution to all of our problems?

[river tinsel]

tried it

[rose spade]

good to know

[river tinsel]

just don't 😄

it's good if you have mixed team

[rose spade]

well we do...

[river tinsel]

and can't migrate one way or the other

[rose spade]

i also think it would make it easier to manage ue4's history

[river tinsel]

well

one thing

graph depots

are completly incompatibile with other depots

you can't copy graph depot to stream or normal depot

[rose spade]

you could come up with a somewhat meaningful representation of the branch history

a single branch i mean

[river tinsel]

that's what i thought

didn't really worked

[rose spade]

i think there'd be some value into it but it's probably more problems than what it's worth

[river tinsel]

since p4v doesn't show the merged git changes : D

either way i lost like a day to setup it, test it

and it wasn't really up to what i wanted

[rose spade]

thanks, i wont need to try it 😉

to be honest, we're trying to hire someone to do it instead.

[river tinsel]

if not for the licensing change

I would recommend plastic scm

[rotund bobcat]

Unity just bought plastic scm

still available for everyone atm though

[river tinsel]

yeah and they immidietly killed team license

[alpine beacon]

So, I have a local repository, but we want to use the engine from the licensee server, how can I add that stream to our local repository without pulling and resubmitting?

[river tinsel]

the enterprise license is not worth it

it's barerly cheaper than perforce

[alpine beacon]

@river tinsel is this a reply to my question? 🙂

[river tinsel]

no : D

[rose spade]

@river tinsel how do you actually update the content?
do you delete all the old files and then add the new ones?
or do you overwrite and then run a reconcile?

and finally how painful is the merging with the changes on child streams?

it's just a lot of files that can change from one version to the other

for the engine still

[river tinsel]

depends how you policy changes to engine

if you do not make changes to engine

it's as easy as accept source

if you make

you have to merge changes from parent with allow manual merging

and the files which cannot be auto resolved will be marked for manual merge

and If you ask about engine content

I do nothing

just override

[simple lodge]

@rotund bobcat I think you have to do it by hand

@limpid mason see I usually go the opposite way. Engine is maintained and shared between all projects, with a snapshot (i.le. tag) tied to a release - for most projects. If a project is going to heavily modify we use a branch of the main engine repo

[rotund bobcat]

I know how to prune the lfs locally, but no clue how to do it on the remote server

if that's why you're talking about

or you mean literally deleting file by file?

[simple lodge]

if you push up and git gc

should work IIRC

Im not sure for bitbucket specifically, but the way I setup the stuff was pushes update the pointers and then gc will delete null pointers

You may also be able to do a post receive hook that does somehting like git lfs prune with some offsets so it keeps only 5 revisions or smth

[south ingot]

So I asked recently whether Git on Windows comes with LFS by default now

The answer turned out to be: yes, you don't need to install it separately anymore

Checked it today on my fresh OS install

[simple lodge]

IIRC the bundled one is kinda outdated tho

[south ingot]

git-lfs/2.11.0 (GitHub; windows amd64; go 1.14.2; git 48b28d97)```

Seems to be the latest version

[limpid mason]

@simple lodge maybe I wasn't clear in what I was describing with regards to the engine source stuff. We do our best to have a single engine depot in perforce. Everyone who MUST touch the engine goes to the same depot. We use different streams for the different Unreal Engine versions. If someone needs a customized version they can branch of the required Unreal Engine stream with their own stream.

We build that and distribute that. Individual projects should be writing plugins and using those.

[lone kettle]

how do i delete a local commit that i did??? i didnt push it but i commited some files that i didnt want to...so how do i delete that commit like...no i didnt commit that kinda delete

[neat grotto]

@lone kettle Try this. https://ohshitgit.com/#undo-a-commit

[lone kettle]

ty

[simple lodge]

@simple lodge maybe I wasn't clear in what I was describing with regards to the engine source stuff. We do our best to have a single engine depot in perforce. Everyone who MUST touch the engine goes to the same depot. We use different streams for the different Unreal Engine versions. If someone needs a customized version they can branch of the required Unreal Engine stream with their own stream.

We build that and distribute that. Individual projects should be writing plugins and using those.
@limpid mason
Fair, some of that may have been me forgetting exactly how p4 streams work (Ive been using almost solely git for last 3-4 years or so - aka since about 4.17 ish)

[frail falcon]

can someone point me towards a good guide on using svn with unreal a good workflow to use, etc?

[vivid scaffold]

daaaaaaaammnnnnn... I missed this news 🤬

https://develop3d.com/develop3d-blog/plastic-scm-unity-acquire-codice-version-control-software/

I hope they keep Unreal support, because I refuse to switch to Perforce 🤢

[scenic ember]

I highly doubt they’re going to cut off a specific market just because Unity picked them up. Unity will probably just get some specific benefits, like it being built into Cloud, or Plus+ users getting free space, etc.

[pseudo osprey]

well, it really depends on how the IPO goes I'd say

imagine the IPO just means Facebook now owns Unity

[scenic ember]

If that ever came to a head, I’d never touch Unity again. Lol

ANYWAY. Look at the huge companies they work with in that article. They mention Nike and the automotive industry

So they’re not going to go to Unity-exclusive at any point. That’s way too much money to just stop grabbing.

[pseudo osprey]

no but ...
Facebook account required to use the "not megabig company tier"!
plenty could go wrong

[dusk dove]

anyone tried to set up jenkins to pull from perforce but it just refuses to sync?

the p4 plugin is executing a correct p4 sync command, it's printing all the files that should be added as expected, and then it... exits without actually downloading any files

[woven sluice]

i've got mine working yeah but i saw this at a bad time

just about to head out for a few hours

ping me if you haven't got it working yet

here's part of the jenkins log if yo uwant to compare though it's not very verbose https://hastebin.com/uwulivixeq.sql

@dusk dove

[dusk dove]

I ended up figuring it out

there seems to be some bug with the jenkins plugin

if you have parallel sync disabled, it does not work, if you have parallel sync enabled, it does not work, if you have parallel sync enabled but configured incorrectly (all parameters = 0) then it works

[woven sluice]

I just never touched the advanced part and never had a problem :/

[dusk dove]

yeah idk that was really weird, now it works great though

yeah from your log

p4 sync -q C:\Jenkins\workspace\Megacity-Mainline/...@1163

this is exactly the command my plugin used

well with a diff name obv

and it would exit after 200ms without doing jack

now, with the incorrect settings, it uses something like p4 sync -parallel=threads=0 -q C:\Jenkins\workspace\Megacity-Mainline/...@1163

and that works

[stuck arch]

I downloaded a zip file from my remote repo branch and made some changes. I want to push these changes to the branch but there seems to be a lot of errors in the way. Can anyone please guide me??
What's the easiest method to do this?
Thanks!

[scenic ember]

@vivid scaffold @pseudo osprey Hey, I found an official answer, in case you needed re-affirmation.

For anyone that uses Plastic SCM Cloud, how often does the Cloud Dashboard update? I've sent a test map and the Plastic SCM tool seems to suggest that the repository is there and working properly, but I'd love some confirmation on the page that it's actually pushing and I'm using the tool properly

I do see the repository in the Cloud Dashboard, at least. So just waiting for the Activity section to update

[jolly fog]

I can safely exclude .sln files?

[scenic ember]

Yes, because you can always regenerate sln files from the Editor or the .uproject

[jolly fog]

@scenic ember thank you

[vivid scaffold]

@scenic ember Facebook promised to not change Oculus, and look what happened. I don't really care about Unity's reaffirmations. Plastic SCM is no longer a future proof source control for Unreal. 😦

And Perforce, for normal people, absolutely sucks. And Git doesn't handle binary files well, apparently... so... crap all around, it seems...

[jolly fog]

how do I remove a folder form a p4 workspace

[vivid scaffold]

👆 Thanks for proving my point on Perforce 😆

[jolly fog]

@vivid scaffold Well, usually when you provide options such as "remove this from workspace" it will do the thing it says the button says

[vivid scaffold]

oh, I know... I tried for months to get P4 running at work, with the help of Perforce support and our IT guys... we finally chucked it in favor of Plastic SCM

[jolly fog]

@vivid scaffold well, maybe I'll follow suit]

[rotund bobcat]

git for life

[jolly fog]

I made the horrible f**king mistake of adding binaries to my workspace

[rotund bobcat]

except if you're an artist

[vivid scaffold]

yeah, we're not looking for "source ONLY" control, but rather "entire project" control

[jolly fog]

I can't even delete a workspace easily without deleting the entire project from mine AND everybody else's hard drive without being careful

[rotund bobcat]

git works for entire project, just speaking from experience the whole thing is harder to understand for non programmers

[alpine beacon]

Anyone experiencing the same, that you need to close Unreal in Oder to sync with perforce? Anytime another user makes an update, we need to close Unreal, get latest revision, then start Unreal again, otherwise we are not able to pull

[jolly fog]

@alpine beacon so, possibly because I didn;t close unreal, everything is unfixably f*cked

or at least, I am going to have to revert every single change I have made tonight

[rotund bobcat]

you need to close unreal because it is possibly using some of the files you are pulling in

[jolly fog]

@rotund bobcat unreal crashed because it can;t access files because they are check out by perforce

[jolly fog]

how do i both uncheckout all files, and then remove a folder from my workspace

[limpid mason]

@jolly fog what problem are you trying to solve?

and why can you not delete a workspace without breaking other peoples stuff?

[jolly fog]

I'm working alone

[limpid mason]

I can't even delete a workspace easily without deleting the entire project from mine AND everybody else's hard drive without being careful

[jolly fog]

sorry

what I'm trying to do is remove the binaries folder from my workspace
for some reason it does not
I see a small locked icon on many of the .cpp and .h files when I open VS, is this caused by perforce checking files out?

[limpid mason]

Been a while since I worked in Visual Studio, do you have P4V?

If you have P4V and the file has a lock icon on it in there, it means someone has it checked out and there is a lock on the file so only 1 person can check it out

the color of the lock will indicate if you have it checked out or someone else

I don't know if VS is replicating that feature or not

You shouldn't need .cpp and .h files to be locked though, since they are not binary assets they can be merged

[jolly fog]

@limpid mason for some reason the fact that I added binary assets has made me unable to properly build my solution

[limpid mason]

when you say "the fact that I added binary assets", what binaries did you add?

and can you confirm if those .cpp and .h files are locked

[jolly fog]

@limpid mason the entire folder

[limpid mason]

so you added the entire "Binaries" folder for unreal to Perforce

yeah, shouldn't be doing that, but it also shouldn't break things

assuming you're working alone

if not, then others probably check the files out, which means you cannot check the files out, which means you cannot write to them

[jolly fog]

@limpid mason that's scary,. considering I'm working alone and just downloaded p4

BUT, I have visual studio opened, and half of my files have a little lock icon, seemingly signifying they are "read only"

[limpid mason]

do you only have 1 workspace?

[jolly fog]

yes

[limpid mason]

do you just have p4 client or p4v?

[jolly fog]

both

[limpid mason]

Can you view those files in p4v and see what it shows

[jolly fog]

I have helix core and p4v

they currently have the "file in depot" icons

[limpid mason]

Unsure which icon you mean by that, can you take a quick screen shot (win+shift+s on Windows 10)

[jolly fog]

even faster

https://www.perforce.com/perforce/r14.3/manuals/p4v/using.icons.html

top icon

[limpid mason]

AH!

Thats, I wasn't sure what the official name of that icon was

lol

[jolly fog]

they turn into a slightly blue version when clicked on

[limpid mason]

So, I THINK whats going on is VS is now showing they are currently locked, that would be the gray lock icon in p4v with either red or blue checkmark

VS is showing that perforce is recognizing it as an exclusive checkout file would be my guess

Either way, doesn't matter, I would delete that folder from perforce

It shouldn't be there

[jolly fog]

I am attempting to

[limpid mason]

Do you prefer the CLI or P4V?

[jolly fog]

command line?

I wish to learn

[limpid mason]

start with making a new CL for this, p4 change

[jolly fog]

unknown - use 'client' command to create it.

[limpid mason]

Right, so you don't have the P4 environment variables set

so p4 -client workspace-name-here change

sorry, -c

not -client

[jolly fog]

-c "means" client?

[limpid mason]

yeah

it's a global option in p4

so available as an argument to all commands

or pretty much all commands

[jolly fog]

do i put in the name of my worksapce?

[limpid mason]

yeah

[jolly fog]

p4 -c workspace MyProject change

[limpid mason]

what is the name of your workspace?

MyProject?

[jolly fog]

yes

[limpid mason]

p4 -c MyProject change

See global options here: https://www.perforce.com/manuals/v15.1/cmdref/global.options.html

[jolly fog]

thank you

I see a text file now

[limpid mason]

Right, so change the description, hit save, close

[jolly fog]

<enter description here>

[limpid mason]

yeah, change that

[jolly fog]

to like a blank space?

[limpid mason]

"Deleting Binaries folder"

[jolly fog]

Description:
<Deleting Binaries Folder>

[limpid mason]

yeah, without the < and >

[jolly fog]

saved

[limpid mason]

Cool, it should have said something like "Change #### created."

[jolly fog]

"12 created with 1 open files

[limpid mason]

can you do a p4 -c MyProject describe 12

think thats what it should be

Should give the details of that changelist and what file was added to it

[jolly fog]

"Change 13 created"

[limpid mason]

O_o

since when does describe create a CL

[jolly fog]

I did it again because I closed VS

[limpid mason]

lol

ah

OK

can you do a quick p4 -c MyProject opened

[jolly fog]

pending

    Deleting Binaries folder

Affected files ...

[limpid mason]

see what files are opened for edit across all CLs

[jolly fog]

p4 -c MyProject describe 13

^ caused previous post

[limpid mason]

👍

[jolly fog]

awesome

checking

[simple lodge]

@limpid mason want a giggle?

[limpid mason]

for sure!

[jolly fog]

C:\Users\henny>p4 -c MyProject opened
//depot/MyProject.uproject#1 - edit change 12 (text)

[limpid mason]

OK awesome

only the 1 file

So, CL 13 I think was the new CL you made for us to work in

[jolly fog]

okay

[limpid mason]

so, assuming your in the root of your workspace, run p4 -c MyProject delete -c 13 //depot/Binaries/...

I think is what you want

[jolly fog]

//depot/Binaries/... - file(s) not on client.

[limpid mason]

Is the Binaries folder at the root, right next to MyProject.uproject?

[jolly fog]

same folder

[limpid mason]

So then as far as Perforce is concerned, they are not part of source control, or the path is wrong

[jolly fog]

that is most likely a good thing/

?

[limpid mason]

yeah, that is

[jolly fog]

cool

[limpid mason]

Lets confirm though

[jolly fog]

okay

[limpid mason]

p4 files //depot/...

with the -c MyProject of course

[jolly fog]

p4 -c MyProject files //depot/...

?

[limpid mason]

yeah

[jolly fog]

it printed everything

Binaries are there

[limpid mason]

Whats the path to them?

[jolly fog]

//depot/Binaries/

[limpid mason]

O_o

confused...

p4 -c MyProject delete //depot/Binaries/... should have worked

[jolly fog]

//depot/Binaries/Win64/UE4Editor-MyProject-0001.pdb#2 - delete change 7 (binary)

[limpid mason]

confirm no typo?

[jolly fog]

?

[limpid mason]

Looks like it was deleted already then

[jolly fog]

okay

[limpid mason]

run the files command again with -e on the end

or after files

p4 -c MyProject files -e //depot/...

-e excludes deleted files

[jolly fog]

//depot/Binaries/Win64/MyProjectEditor.target#1 - add change 1 (text)

it still has 3 binaries files

[limpid mason]

curious why the delete command didn't get them then...

[jolly fog]

//depot/Binaries/Win64/UE4Editor-MyProject.pdb#1 - add change 1 (binary)
//depot/Binaries/Win64/UE4Editor.modules#1 - add change 1 (text)```

[limpid mason]

Can you confirm no typo in p4 -c MyProject delete //depot/Binaries/...?

[jolly fog]

it has well disappeared

[limpid mason]

write it out again

[jolly fog]

//depot/Binaries/... - file(s) not on client.

[limpid mason]

huh, OK, random then, can you go ahead and mark the Binaries folder for delete in P4V?

[jolly fog]

13 Deleting Binaries folder

[limpid mason]

One of the nice things about P4V is every action you do will output the CLI command at the bottom

[jolly fog]

should I use that for "Add files to pending changelist:"?

[limpid mason]

yeah

[jolly fog]

Can't clobber writable file C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\Binaries\Win64\MyProjectEditor.target

[limpid mason]

Do a force sync on that file

I don't remember if a force sync will reset the read-only flag

[jolly fog]

how do I force sync

[limpid mason]

From CLI: p4 -c MyProject sync -f C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\Binaries\Win64\MyProjectEditor.target

From P4V:

• Right click on the file
• Get Revision
• Check "Force Operation"

[jolly fog]

I have 3 files in /Win64/

[limpid mason]

Lets focus on the one it bitched about not being able to clobber

The thing here is that Perforce attempts to be VERY careful about losing your work

It expects the file to be Read-Only

and it isn't

so it thinks you may have edited it

and aborts

[jolly fog]

all 3 are not clobbered

[limpid mason]

OK, force sync all of them

[jolly fog]

do i do that through /Win64/...

[limpid mason]

could yeah

You would have to use the Perforce path for that, not Windows path I think

//depot/Binaries/Win64/...

[jolly fog]

p4 -c MyProject sync -f C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\Binaries\Win64\...

[limpid mason]

Might work, but kinda doubt it...

try it

[jolly fog]

Path 'C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal' is not under client's root 'C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject'.

Path 'c:\Users\henny\Projects\MyProject\Binaries\Win64...' is not under client's root 'C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject'.

[limpid mason]

henny vs hynme

[jolly fog]

ah

[limpid mason]

hows it going?

[jolly fog]

'p4' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

that good

[limpid mason]

lol

[jolly fog]

it's not liking p4 anymore

[limpid mason]

Try just doing it through p4v

I gotta go soon, it's almost 3am here, lol

but wanna see if we can get you back to a good state first

[jolly fog]

@limpid mason I seriously apreaciate your help, you've given me hope

        p4 -h for usage.
        Invalid option: -f.```

[limpid mason]

what command did you run?

[jolly fog]

I forgot MyProject

[limpid mason]

😄

Also, happy to help!

[jolly fog]

maybe the slashes are wrong

[limpid mason]

Whats the full command you're running?

[jolly fog]

I tried p4 -c MyProject sync -f C:\Users\henny\Documents\UnrealProjects\MyProject\Binaries\Win64\...

[limpid mason]

and what was the error?

[jolly fog]

my unreal projects has a space

[limpid mason]

Oh, wrap it in spaces then probably

p4 -c MyProject sync -f "C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\Binaries\Win64\..."

I don't know for sure about how Windows handles this though

[jolly fog]

that did something

first log as example
//depot/Binaries/Win64/UE4Editor-MyProject-0001.pdb#2 - deleted as C:\Users\henny\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\Binaries\Win64\UE4Editor-MyProject-0001.pdb

//depot/Binaries/Win64/UE4Editor-MyProject.pdb#1 - is opened for delete - not changed
//depot/Binaries/Win64/UE4Editor.modules#1 - is opened for delete - not changed```

[limpid mason]

Sweet! So hopefully the whole Binaries folder is now marked for delete

I would suggest commiting that

and before you continue any development work do some research into .p4ignore and add the Binaries folder to it so that Perforce doesn't try and add anything from that folder again

[jolly fog]

I shall. but it is definitely my fault for purposefully adding it

[limpid mason]

It's all good! Mistakes are a great way to learn

You got to dig into some p4 CLI

thats always good to learn

[jolly fog]

submitted

and GONE!

[limpid mason]

Cool!

[jolly fog]

amazing learnign expereince

thank you

[limpid mason]

https://giphy.com/gifs/120jXUxrHF5QJ2

[jolly fog]

:safe for discord reaction gif:

[limpid mason]

Best of luck, I need to try and get some sleep now

[jolly fog]

@limpid mason you get some well deserved rest soldier

[limpid mason]

o7

[jolly fog]

o3o7

[woven sluice]

@jolly fog damn you really chose hard mode there. IMO just learn p4v first, like Reg said it shows you every command it runs. I've been using/admining perforce in a small team for like 5 years and still haven't learned much of the command line, there's barely any point. Only a few admin things need to be done from cli and the interface is faster to use

I'm also wondering why Reg didn't suggest you just open p4a and obliterate the binaries folder from the depot. Would have been easier for this particular problem and is actually what you should have done (and you actually should still do, if you actually want to remove those binary files history from perforce entirely) - but understand avoiding obliterate is safer and you learned some good stuff doing the basic common delete exercise (much easier in P4V, just right click a file and mark for delete 😄 )

[simple lodge]

@woven sluice I went cli first, P4V is (was?) horiffically bad

Couldnt find anything in it

[woven sluice]

P4V is fine (maybe not several years ago but "nowadays")... It's just the software as a whole that is complicated, it's really a you-need-training kind of software. My biggest problems were simply not realizing a bunch of tabs were hidden (add via View menu) and just dealing with nondescript vcs errors when I was new [edit: when I say "fine" please do not construe this as me trying to say it is amazing. P4V is not amazing but it is fine]

[simple lodge]

cli is pretty sane I will say

once you get your head around it

[jolly fog]

@woven sluice my trial by fire has been hopefully successful

[woven sluice]

[narrow brook]

Hey y'all! So I have a perforce question! (woohoo)

After some P4 drama my team of 2 has encountered the famous "it works on my machine" situation. Basically on my PC I can open the Unreal Engine project and everything works fine but on my artist's machine the build can not even compile/open.
The artist pulled a clean build from the perforce server and is getting the same results.

My assumption is that the depot on our server must be out of date in some regard/my project might have something that the depot is missing. Is there a way I can update all/replace all the files on the sever with the working project on my PC?

[woven sluice]

did you commit the binaries folder for them? they can't build these themselves unless they install visual studio or at least the appropriate MS build tools

[narrow brook]

They have VS, thats the part that wont build. (Ie they dont have the files so then they have to build them but the compile has errors)

[woven sluice]

(assuming you have C++ code in it)

first suspicion might be if they are missing one of the additional packages you need to install like one of the Win 10 libraries... if you want to roll this way (having them build locally) then I would get them to open up the .sln file in VS, hit build, and send you a screenshot of the error log. if you can't make sense of it, someone in #cpp will probably know what the error means

[narrow brook]

Awesome! I will try that out. So the build on the server should be the same as my build on my workspace? (if I have been syncing and submitting) I'm new to P4 lol

[woven sluice]

well, you never answered if you are committing binaries files (did you set up an ignore file per common internet google results that told you to ignore it?)

there's different approaches depending on team needs

if you don't expect your team to grow any time soon and you do all the coding and they are very unfamiliar with VS, you might want to commit binaries for them to use

[narrow brook]

gotcha- I think I have them unignored. I'll dig around with that

thanks for the leads!

wait i just committed the binaries- they werent on the server

[woven sluice]

if you don't have them ignored and are uploading them, then he shouldn't need to build anything, and if he tries he will probably get some weird error because the files are read-only (you might sometimes too... as "the coder" you have to keep them checked out all the time)

[narrow brook]

Awesome. LOL keep em checked out I like that.
Yeah binaries are up- I primitively checked them out too.
Now I'll have my artist get a fresh project and fingers crossed its all good LOL

Thanks for your help!

[woven sluice]

good luck! if your team ever grows (multiple coders especially) then you'll need to rethink your setup but this should let you get started without too much damage

[narrow brook]

Thanks for the heads up. :) We will most likely be sticking with a team of 2 but I'll remember this just in case

[jolly fog]

How do I create a P4IGNORE

[limpid mason]

@woven sluice yeah, as you pointed out delete was a safer thing to start with. I meant to go back and explain obliterate, but it was getting really late and I forgot. 😦 Thanks for bringing that up!

@jolly fog when you have some time I would do some searching on p4 obliterate. It will clean up space on your perforce server. In a larger repot removing the commits can also have a big performance impact.

[jolly fog]

@limpid mason will do that right after I figure out this ignore

[limpid mason]

https://community.perforce.com/s/article/1282

make a file called p4ignore.txt in the root of your depot

[jolly fog]

manually?

[limpid mason]

Yeah

[jolly fog]

AH!

[limpid mason]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr5IVOe4Rk0

[jolly fog]

should I include the p4ignore.txt in my workspace?

[jolly fog]

the option for "Mark for Add" is not appearing as an option for my p4ignore.txt

[jolly fog]

https://forums.perforce.com/index.php?/topic/3944-p4vs-context-click-mark-for-add-missing/

[woven sluice]

this isn't there? https://i.gyazo.com/585ba0f430c6c6d831e507135bbc0623.png

what about the "+ Add" button at the top when you select the file?

[jolly fog]

@woven sluice I had to ctrl+click on a folder to get the optino to mark for add

now, I attempting to figure out how to reconcile with perforce making everything read only

[woven sluice]

oh wait were you in P4V or VS?

that link is... for P4VS... lol

[jolly fog]

@woven sluice it worked for p4v

[woven sluice]

ok. thought it would be weird to be using VS to add an ignore file heh

[jolly fog]

I am currently going to test if it ignores .o with the *.o line

well it can mark for add now

5 hours of figuring that out

[jolly fog]

I am having trouble getting my p4ignore.txt to cause files to not be included, as far as I am aware

[jolly fog]

the ignore file is working now

[jolly fog]

One of my team members is able to pull from git but when he changes stuff in the project they don't appear, and thus he cannot push them onto the git.

@raw tundra You can tell them the details, as you are the one encountering the problem.

[raw tundra]

there isn't much to say

I just can't push

I can submit, but I also can't see any work from AshenQuill in the ue4 engine

[scenic ember]

What Source Control, what clients, where's it hosted, etc etc

[raw tundra]

okay

AshenQuill is hosting

we are using GitHub

And wdym by clients @scenic ember

[scenic ember]

Are you using any GUIs or anything to handle it on a user's side

[raw tundra]

I don't know

Let me ask

He's offline

Is there anyway I can figure out myself?

[scenic ember]

Yes. What did you use to download the project to your computer?

[raw tundra]

Well I sent him the project from google docs

I was the one to start the project

the only reason why he's the host is because I was having problems

[scenic ember]

Okay, so it more sounds like there's a fundamental misunderstanding as to how Git and GitHub works.

[raw tundra]

apparently

so how do we send each other the projects properly

[scenic ember]

When he uploads the project to GitHub, it creates what is called a "Repository". Then what you and he will want to do, in order to keep projects synced, is to download a client that will manage Git for you. Some examples include SourceTree, GitKraken, GitHub Desktop (which is made by GitHub's developers and may be the easiest)

Then, you'll ask the Repository to sync or "Pull" the project down to your computer, in a directory of your choosing and making.

Once that's complete, any time you make a change, that client will notice it and tell you "these files have changed". You tell them you want to stage those files for changing, and then tell it to "Commit", which is basically telling it to log your changes to those files. "This is what I changed at this time", and a little message explaining what you did.

Then, you'll be able to "Push", which will send your changes up to GitHub

so when AshenQuill does a "Check" or "Pull", his will be the same as yours

[raw tundra]

so where do we put the files to be downloaded?

I get all of that

[scenic ember]

You'll either upload them manually to GitHub, or someone will create the repository on GitHub (or BitBucket, or whichever you choose), and then Commit and Push the first iteration of the project

then the other will Pull from that repository when the Push is done

[raw tundra]

okay

[scenic ember]

Take a look at this little course from Udemy. It's free, quick, and will break it down in pretty well. https://www.udemy.com/course/short-and-sweet-get-started-with-git-and-github-right-now

[raw tundra]

thank you

really

I mean it

[scenic ember]

Sure thing

[upbeat eagle]

Hi, I'm having trouble compiling with Perforce enabled. I get "Unhandled exception: ...\UE4Editor.modules is denied"

this is after checking out the whole project. am I missing a setting somewhere?

[limpid mason]

@upbeat eagle is that file, UE4Editor.modules checked into Perforce and is it a locked file by chance?

[upbeat eagle]

ah yes, i was following the guide and it said the Binaries folder was optional

[limpid mason]

I would very much recommend against adding the Binaries folder to Perforce

[upbeat eagle]

aha, ok thank you 🙂 I'll remove it and try again

that worked thank you @limpid mason

[limpid mason]

You're welcome

[upbeat eagle]

I have another noob question I'm afraid. Everything seems to work fine with blueprint files, but for anything in the 'C++ Classes' folder, the 'Source Control' option is greyed out. Any idea why?

[upbeat eagle]

From researching further it looks like you can't do source control with C++ files from within Unreal; you need to use Perforce or a Visual Studio plugin

[glossy arrow]

Trying to follow Allar's guide atm, worked for me last time I was setting up P4, but it doesn't hold up that well anymore. What's the most approriate current resource for getting P4 running?

[final badger]

What's is the best Source Control for us?
Team: 7 programmers
Engine: Unreal 4 Engine paper 2D
Project: college class doing a 2D run and gun game

Experience: Low

[limpid mason]

Git is probably best. You're not going to run into scaling issues with a team of that size. The real trick is just making sure everyone on the team talks and doesn't step on each others work since there isn't good file locking in Git.

[jolly fog]

@limpid mason I deleted my depot

[limpid mason]

... on purpose?

[jolly fog]

yeah

[jolly fog]

@scenic ember Thanks a lot for the help man

[alpine beacon]

Does anyone know how to add a remote stream to a project?

[simple lodge]

@limpid mason Au contraire

[limpid mason]

On the locking?

[simple lodge]

indeed

its not amazing, but it is working 😉

Only limitations are the branching workflow doesnt work so well

[kind laurel]

Using perforce, I made a mistake and need help fixing it. My most recent submitted version is version 387, which I submitted this morning. I did a bunch of work today, and it wasn't working well, so I went to get rid of it. Rather then submitting as 388 and then going back to 387, I went to the changelist and clicked "Revert Unchanged Files." Now, the changes are no longer showing in a changelist, but my code still has all the work I did today that I want to remove. How do I make my local code go back to the last submitted changelist?

I think I may have clicked "Revert Files" or "Revert Unchanged Files," one of those two. But the changelist no longer reflects the local state of my code.

[simple lodge]

Thats expected behavior for revert

[kind laurel]

So how do I fix it?

[simple lodge]

p4sync should

but take a copy of folder first

that way you can actually use your already written code as reference

[kind laurel]

Thx. Is p4sync the same as "Get Latest" on the p4v client?

[woven sluice]

so you want to just throw everything you did today in the garbage? just a Revert ran on everything in your changelist should have ... reverted... all of those files to what is in your P4 depot. it sounds like you're unsure where you're at, so I would run Reconcile Offline Work on your project folder (or at least your source folder) to capture any untracked changes, then you could run Revert on any files that are still in your default/next changelist

revert unchanged will only revert unchanged stuff - this means if you open a .cpp file, type some junk in it (so it gets checked out) and then hit ctrl z, it will remain checked out but not actually changed. an "unchanged" file icon will be a plain white icon in your changelist (vs a blueish icon resembling a file that actually has been changed)

[simple lodge]

@woven sluice When you revert files that have been opened by p4 add, Helix server leaves the client workspace files intact.

I think this is the case he has hit

[woven sluice]

yeah that might be a good call, when you Revert newly added files there is a checkbox to "also delete local files after reverting" which is off by default in P4V

if just using P4V, Reconcile Offline Work will catch these files and tell him

(p4 sync is not the same as running Get Latest)

[simple lodge]

Ive been mostly out of p4 ecosystem for a while

And never used p4v much, was nearly all command line of rme

[woven sluice]

still bet you're right

[kind laurel]

It looks like Reconcile offline work does tell me what has changed, but it doesn't give me the option of making the local files match the depot; it just updates the depot to match the local files. I'm looking to throw away today's work.

[woven sluice]

I would run it and accept it/reconcile the files, then deal with reverting them fully from the changelist. if you want to do that and screenshot your CL i might be able to tell you what you're looking at

[kind laurel]

Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks!

[woven sluice]

there are several ways to handle this, just telling you what i know/do

[kind laurel]

Good suggestions.

[lone kettle]

im trying to push to source control but its just stuck on this for like an hour

[quaint obsidian]

@simple lodge I've written a modification for the Git plugin to add support for checking multiple branches for changes, but it's hard coded atm.

So, even if there is a file not locked, if it's more up to date on one of the main branches we have or on the remote of your current branch, it cannot be modified

[simple lodge]

pretty nice

I meant the public version tho

[quaint obsidian]

https://github.com/ProjectBorealis/UE4GitPlugin/blob/pb-changes/Source/GitSourceControl/Private/GitSourceControlUtils.cpp#L1036

[simple lodge]

cheers

Will take a look

[neat grotto]

@quaint obsidian Oh, are you involved with Project Borealis?

I love your team's technical blog posts, particularly the one that painstakingly breaks down your experience with git.

[quaint obsidian]

I wrote that one :)

[neat grotto]

I really appreciate that article. Perforce is really pervasive in the UE community, resources and case studies for git-based pipelines are pretty rare.

[polar plover]

Hmm, I'd like to ask about the gitignore for my project. The gitignore I'm using is: https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/master/UnrealEngine.gitignore

my Unreal version is currently 4.24.3, and the git folder has been created in the root of the project I'm working on. The gitignore has also been renamed to the name of the project (same as the unreal project file) and it's in the root folder sitting with the unreal project file. The problem is that when I add it to Github desktop, the folders that are specifially in the gitignore are still being registered as 'changed files' in the initial github view, meaning they'd be committed to master too and added to the repo, which would most likely cause significant issues down the line. What can i do to resolve this in a fashion that isn't just me going through and manually checking if a change is on the gitignore then removing it?

[slow charm]

rename it back to .gitignore

[polar plover]

Oh, okay, so it has to not have any name whatsoever?

When I downloaded it raw, it was "UnrealEngine.gitignore"

[slow charm]

probably just because of windows or something.

becuase windows uses "extensions"

so it didn't know how to save it.

[polar plover]

Ahh, THERE we go

Now it works, thanks!

[slow charm]

yw

[lone kettle]

i have a local repo with LFS and then i created one on Github. Github gives me a link or an SSH to add that repo so i can push my local one. How do i do that??

[neat grotto]

@lone kettle Just to make sure I understand correctly: You created a repo locally and a separate one on the website?

[lone kettle]

yes

then i did the add repo choose a working copy

and then i added the link that github gives u to add the remote one

and then i tried oushing the local one to github

[neat grotto]

Hm, I've never done that before but I suppose it would work in theory if the repos both have the exact same name... 🤔

[alpine beacon]

When getting latest from Perforce, usually it requires us to first close Unreal, is this a common workflow? Even though files are not checked out, it seems like we cannot use perforce get latest when the Project is open. Thoughts?

[quaint obsidian]

@lone kettle follow the instructions it says to push an existing repo

should be something along the lines of git remote add origin url

[lone kettle]

@quaint obsidian yeh i did that and it works on the terminal apparently but it doesnt work when i try it from source tree

[boreal pilot]

Anyone know the best practice for storing Engine plugin files in perforce such that any Binaries/Intermediates etc. are available but are writable?

Related question: is there a way to keep ensure an entire directory is made writable in perforce upon initial upload, instead of setting all files in that directory to writable after the depot has been initialized? The typemap works for specific filetypes, but not sure if it can handle directories.

[lyric spruce]

when would u guys use ue4-docker over just running UE4Editor.exe -args to package ur build?

i cant get ue4-docker to run

[woven sluice]

Hm do you really think you need something that does that at the directory-level? Is this just for common sharing binaries for artists needs?

Binaries files are quite unique after all (dll, pdb, target?) A typemap capturing them would I think basically "just work" would it not?

Not an exact solution but if you use a streams depot you can make a virtual stream for coders which omits the binaries folder and possibly a virtual stream for artists which omits the source folder (not that there's much point to omitting source folder, saves a few megabytes haha). A coder who wants to submit binaries switches to the mainline stream to submit DLLs, switches back to code. Later on you can easier set up a continuous integration system to do the DLL submission part automatically (this is what I've done)

Intermediates folder should never be in VCS btw @boreal pilot

[lyric spruce]

fuck docker tbh

gonna just build source version of unreal

docker is trash

[boreal pilot]

@woven sluice I don't keep Engine intermediates in SCM, but I have submitted plugin intermediates in the past because I don't know how to properly exclude them from the Depot Initialization (my p4ignore doesn't seem to do what I think it should, since my intent is to omit Intermediates from the plugin directories, and make Binaries writable, but it still ends up in my depot). I know I need to purge them, but haven't yet.

I would like to keep latest project binaries available for the team to have access to so they don't have to rebuild plugins and can launch the editor right away. I just keep running into issues where the project tries to rebuild engine plugins and because those binaries are not writable the process fails. I know how to set that directory writable after initialization, I just don't know what I need to do in the future to prevent plugin intermediates from being submitted (I presume in .p4ignore) and what I need to do to ensure that any plugin binaries are submitted as writable in the workspace.

[woven sluice]

Need to tackle one thing at a time I'd say. Start off by going into P4A and obliterating intermediates folders (be careful, obliterate really obliterates things). Then Google/learn a little more about setting up your ignore file and verify it works (run a Reconcile Offline Work command on your project root folder, it should not list any ignored files/folders), then tackle how you want to handle your binaries

Not sure how big your team is but my small team (and myself) absolutely love the setup I made. Coders just code, everyone else just works. Stream depots are wonderful IMO if you're willing to migrate your project to a new depot (assuming you're using a classic one right now, seems everyone who is new tries classic first, myself too)

Takes a couple days to set up something though

[boreal pilot]

I used to use Stream Depots (wrongly, I might add) but then I stopped (because I was doing it wrong.) I assume you setup the stream depot and have different streams for coders/artists that artificially restrict their views?

[woven sluice]

Virtual streams, yeah

[boreal pilot]

Thank @woven sluice

[woven sluice]

The formatting is absolutely terrible right now due to wiki engine changes but this describes some of what I did. I might try to fix the formatting and add a little more info in a few days, lol https://www.ue4community.wiki/jenkins-example-windows-installation-perforce-z98w4map @boreal pilot

I'm sure larger studios would laugh at my paltry setup but it's working extremely well for our small team so far for a couple months

[boreal pilot]

Good to know. When I was working at a smaller indie studio in college they also used the virtual stream approach. I think it's relatively scalable, but IDK if there's something better.

[iron linden]

Hey 🙂 I'm wondering : using Git, what would be a "normal" Unreal workflow for programmers and artists regarding the game's DLL ? As a programmer, when code changes, should I just push the Binaries/Win64/UE4Editor-<Game>.dll file on git so my artists have nothing to compile on their end ?

Sharing the up-to-date dll using some external tool like Dropbox looks better to me because versioning the DLL makes no sense, but at least it's easier (no additional tool to use, just git pull and you're done)

[limpid mason]

In Perforce you would commit the Editor binaries to the depot, especially since UnrealGameSync can use them from there.

In Git it makes a lot less sense since your repo will grow quickly. You could do shallow cloning to help with that, but still not ideal.

I would be curious what @simple lodge has to say since he has some good Git and Unreal experience.

[prisma kindle]

hi, so i need some serious help restoring my project...

• using perforce
• i saved all files, commited everything at a crucial step i knew i'd be doing
• i did the crucial step, ended up (as i predicted) completely fucking up the project
• i completely deleted the project, the data cache and redownloaded it from perforce
• i open up the project:

• inputs are missing
• the same errors pop up that only happened AFTER i did the crucial step... from a fresh download

just... what the fuck perforce :\

the crucial step was:

• added new fields to a struct that is involved in nearly 100 blueprints
• tried to play in editor, values across data tables concerning this struct got completely screwed
• this ended up corrupting the project, dozens of classes invalidated, hundreds wouldn't compile, nuclear meltdown more or less

[simple lodge]

Assuming you added and pushed you should be able to fetch a revision and go as normal

[prisma kindle]

... yeah... about that

[simple lodge]

In Perforce you would commit the Editor binaries to the depot, especially since UnrealGameSync can use them from there.

In Git it makes a lot less sense since your repo will grow quickly. You could do shallow cloning to help with that, but still not ideal.

I would be curious what @simple lodge has to say since he has some good Git and Unreal experience.
@limpid mason
We dont commit binaries, I will be building some tooling that creates a binary that gets automagically sync'ed but havent gotten around that

[prisma kindle]

i am not invoking help lightly here, i've been trying every conceivable method i know to restore the state of the project for like 2 days now

im almost 100% it has something to do with either intermediate/saved folder or data cache

only thing i haven't tried has been a complete uninstall and fresh install of the engine

and nuking every single UE related thing on the system drive

to try and make the project start from a completely fresh start

[simple lodge]

pull the relevant revision, do a clean, delete all those folders and recompile?

[prisma kindle]

... did that.

im not aware of anything other than the derived data cache

and the intermediate/saved folders

i nuked those

[simple lodge]

Im positive its fixable with proper revert - sounds like you just didnt revert fully

[prisma kindle]

pulled the latest revision (that worked fine)

... mate, im pulling revisions from days before

it has the same freaking errors

it's a grid-based inventory system -> 5x2 slots items etc.

the error i caused made it all turn into 1x1 slots

can't move the items

nothing

it's completely bricked

i do a clean pull

not even latest

from days before that

it's got the same freaking issue

i never commited anything from that fuckup

and it's lingering SOMEWHERE

[simple lodge]

Test it on a second machine and confirm it isnt in the repo

[prisma kindle]

i did

i have local copies on a usb

that i make every week

those work fine

[simple lodge]

Ok so checl %APPDATA%, DDC, clear intermediate/binaries and saved folders in the project

[prisma kindle]

did that already

meh, guess im gonna reinstall the engine completely overnight

[simple lodge]

Its unnecessary

You just need to look harder

[prisma kindle]

i've searched my entire pc for every derived data cache folder and deleted it, every intermediate, every saved, every binary in every project

so dunno, been playing whack-a-mole with nukes

[simple lodge]

I would recommend testing on a second PC...

[prisma kindle]

the fucking moles are still alive

i did, local copy from a week ago, on laptop

the local copy is a commit from the repo

[simple lodge]

If you are positive its the DDC then just change its location with the env var

Its usually in Engine/DerivedDataCache tho

[alpine beacon]

SET UE-SharedDataCachePath=D:\tmp

[iron linden]

@limpid mason
We dont commit binaries, I will be building some tooling that creates a binary that gets automagically sync'ed but havent gotten around that
@simple lodge thank you both for your input. So ok, using an external tool to ship fresh binaries to the artists it is. thanks 🙂

[limpid mason]

If you haven't, take a look at how UGS works. Might give you some ideas..

[iron linden]

ok thanks! I haven't. Is it a Perforce-specific tool ? I'm familiar with p4 working with other engines, but never used it in a UE project

[simple lodge]

@limpid mason for the most part automated setup for vs stuff does a lot of the heavy lifting

[woven sluice]

@prisma kindle Fuego is right... there's nothing "hidden" about UE projects for you to find. if you deleted *.* in your project folder and then ran Get Revision on the root folder with Force Operation turned on you should have whatever you last committed. If your project is still busted, either the version you pushed to your repo was already busted or you're not launching the same project

[lyric spruce]

anyone here used ue4-docker

mine is stuck on this thing for almost an hour before

im doing it on windows server 2019

ue4-docker build 4.25.3

[prisma kindle]

@prisma kindle Fuego is right... there's nothing "hidden" about UE projects for you to find. if you deleted *.* in your project folder and then ran Get Revision on the root folder with Force Operation turned on you should have whatever you last committed. If your project is still busted, either the version you pushed to your repo was already busted or you're not launching the same project
@woven sluice what's the explanation for my code working right up until a certain point and local copies still working then?

because playing in editor, the inventory system simply wasn't busted

[simple lodge]

anyone here used ue4-docker
@lyric spruce It has bugs - I rolled my own using some of it as a template.
But if you have relatively poor storage then itll take a month of sundays

[timid star]

Anyone know how to resolve in issue with Perforce where you can't add files? I have a brand new project in a workspace setup and goto add the initial files and it says all the files are "not in client view"

[simple lodge]

sounds like not init'ed repo

[woven sluice]

@timid star classic depot (not streams)? Show the settings of your workspace - the root location and the text version of your workspace mapping (should look like //depot... //workspace... Or something like that)

[timid star]

I managed to get it working after wiping depots and workspaces again, probably wont go that direction though with perforce, very odd coming from git. Especially since it seems i have to checkout individual files as i need them which is tedious working alone.

could be using it wrong i guess but meh

[woven sluice]

usually the error you got happens because Classic depots do a stupid mapping by default where you need to put your files in something like C:\ProjectName\ProjectName\files...

glad it works

Perforce is made extremely well for team ops (file locking) so yes you do need to check out files to work. but you should have it set up in your IDE (if using C++) and within UE4 so that checkouts happen automatically or via automatic prompts as you work

[timid star]

ah, yea IDE integration probably would have made it smoother. I can add it back later if i like i guess, im just gonna have it backup to my NAS now and then for now

I tried to checkout just everything and made a change to a file and it showed like 6 files ready to be submitted for some reason, yet only the 1 files i changed had actual changes

[woven sluice]

if you actually want to "do this" (gamedev) then don't just use your NAS. you're just prolonging the inevitable. make yourself learn and use VCS, whether GIT or Perforce. if you're using perforce, you can set it up so you can commit frequently - multiple times per day. If GIT you may not want to commit as often because your repo will constantly increase in size with infinite history (it doesn't have to with Perforce)

what you're describing is part of the very steep learning curve everyone goes through learning perforce, it's not simple software

[timid star]

Git would be more comfortable but I had issues with it using LTS. and yea its not really made for this kinda thing

but really i only care about the code right now in my little dev project, wont have assets for awhile

[boreal pilot]

@timid star. Checking out individual files does seem tedious, but for working on large codebases that's the desired behavior. Perforce really is an indispensable tool for GameDev, even in Unity which is a smaller engine. Wholeheartedly agree with HoJo. Learning Perforce (or git, if you want to distribute binaries through other channels and make life difficult) is certainly in your best interest, even if you only have code at the moment.

Working with git LFS is OK, but it still suffers at scale, but using git is still totally viable for a smaller project.

[timid star]

Oh yea for sure I will at some point, its a necessity, its just delaying getting to what i actually want to work on at the moment which is generating meshes. If i solve that and continue with my game will definitely get something working

[simple lodge]

LFS works plenty fine, especially for solo projects if setup correctly.

[slate pulsar]

Question: I just cloned a old project. This old project was connected to source control. I deleted the old repo back in the day. I want to use the clone and create a fresh repo, but it keeps connecting to the old repo (that I can't upload to because I deleted it). How do I unlink the old project and start a new repo with the clone?

As in, UE4 won't allow me to create a new repo and initialize it

I changed the project names and all, still no luck, help me!

[timid star]

@slate pulsar git?

[slate pulsar]

@timid star Yes

[timid star]

you just need to change the origin URL correct?

[slate pulsar]

Well all I know is that when I go to connect to source control, I don't get the option to start a new repo. And when I do add a exsisting repo, it just opens the old deleted repo in git dekstop.

[timid star]

what do you mean deleted repo? like its no longer on github? or you deleted the git history locally?

[slate pulsar]

Yes, I manually deleted the repo months ago. However, when I take the Unreal project clone, and try to connect it to source control in ue4 and git desktop it shows all the old commits

I deleted the repo on github AND gitdesktop

[timid star]

see if there is still a .git folder in the project directory

[slate pulsar]

I thought that shit was supposed to be nuked, guess not. There is something tying this clone to that repo.

There is

[timid star]

deleting that will purge all git history

[slate pulsar]

Ohhh, I see, delete that git folder and try again?

[timid star]

and then you can reinitialize the folder as a new git repo

[slate pulsar]

Cool, I'll give that a shot. Seems so easy of a solution haha

[timid star]

but you can also just change the remote URL

if you want to keep the history

[slate pulsar]

I need to compile shaders first then I'll give it a try. Thanks for answering man

[timid star]

👍

[slate pulsar]

Okay, I got the option to initialize now. Now I know how to get past this situation if it arises again. Publishing it now

[timid star]

Sweet, yea that folder has all the info about the repo in it

[vernal tusk]

Hey there, does anyone know an easy way to get an asset and all its dependencies and commit them into git? Right now my best option is to use migrate to see all the dependencies and then either manually git add them or do some migration shenanigans to get only what i need in some specific place. For clarification these are marketplace assets which I only want to add what I need to source control since we have limited source control space.

the best idea ive come up with would be to pull down my marketplace stuff into a separate test project and then use migrate to only move what I actually care about into my real project

[quaint obsidian]

yeah the test project is what i do as well

[vernal tusk]

Ok fair enough lol

[pastel cove]

[QUESTION] This seems like it should be basic but I'm relatively new to using source control with friends on an UE4.25.3 project. If we both make changes to a level by adding two different actors into the level, commit the changes, and then whomever has to pull the change then push appears to get a prompt saying that there is 0 conflicts and to either "merge" or "abort". I've chosen "merge" option especially because of "0 conflicts".

The problem is when merged the level will not appear properly or be openable in UE4 IDE but it will be seen within the content browser. Am I supposed to merge level edits differently?

This picture is of what Git informs me about...

This is the comparison of the file after selecting "Commit merge" from both windows explorer and UE4.25.3 IDE.

[simple lodge]

You cant merge binnary files easily

You just need to work on different parts

So either split the map into submaps and work on those (they you can work on independent ones)

[pastel cove]

@simple lodge Really? That makes Multi-User Editing seem like the best thing since sliced bread now. I figured Git would be wiser but more mundane. I've already broken the massive world (using world composition) into subsections (as you can kind of tell). The above was to show the point, but it first happened with the persistent world so I'll simply not pull commits on the persistent world which seems to always want to be saved or changed from the most trivial save of the sublevels.

Thanks for your reaponse. I respect video game development all the more if they've really been single person editing levels in FFVII remake and such and then passing it off to the next specialist everyone waiting in a queue to make their changes to a level.

[dusk dove]

wtf is this log path jenkins is using?

[simple lodge]

You can just pull and regenerate

[dusk dove]

seems like it also failed to actually create that file

[woven sluice]

Lol jenkins definitely feels a little rough around the edges sometimes. Did you set jenkins to run as SYSTEM btw? I found a couple small anomalies when I did the first time... one of which was that you can't run SSH commands from windows as SYSTEM with a ppk key

[rotund bobcat]

We use teamcity now instead of Jenkins

[upper merlin]

Hi Everyone, I'm trying to setup UnrealGameSync to push pre-compiled binaries, but I hit a snag with my perforce setup and how RunUAT tries to submit it to the depot.

when I runUAT Buildgraph .. -p4 -submit it creates a Workspace for the stream it's submitting to (//depot/Dev-Binaries in this case), but it makes some wrong assumptions as to how to it setup

It grabs the computer name and uses as Host, rather than grabbing the P4HOST variable from the P4 Environment settings.

So it returns a 'COMPUTERNAME_ArchiveForUGS' can only be used from host 'COMPUTERNAME' error when trying to submit

my Server provider requires that the P4HOST is set to a particular value.

So I guess the question is, is there a parameter I can pass to RunUAT (or perhaps a hardcoded value in the P4Environment.cs under AutomationUtils that I can change to make sure that when the workspace it builds or uses is correct?

I tried fixing the workspace, or creating a new one with the correct setup so one doesn't get created, but ultimately the process actually goes and changes the workspace in perforce back and pushes the COMPUTERNAME into the Host: setting, which in turn prevents the workspace to accessing the depot (because of the server provider).

[rotund bobcat]

feels much more user friendly imo

[woven sluice]

i should try TeamCity, other guy on our team said his last company used it and it kept breaking down but IDK if it was just user error or what. it's free for typical small team use too right? or is the free version too limited to be useful

[simple lodge]

just change the code to use the env variable rather than the p4 host value?

[upper merlin]

Yeah I figured. Just having a hard time figuring out exactly where. I'll do some more digging.

[upper merlin]

yeah. hardcoding the host values to the CreateClient function in P4Utils and HostName in the P4Environment worked. Ugh... hardcoding these values makes me unease, So I have to do some more digging.
I can't figure out where the P4 Environment variables are being extracted from, because it sure doesn't seem to reflect whatever p4 set returns.

[simple lodge]

itll have to be somewhere

but tbh hardcooding will be fine unless you change hosts

[karmic meadow]

If you self-host perforce, are you still paying? Or is it that you pay for the software?

[simple lodge]

They maybe doing the cloud hosted one

its like $50/dev/month

[karmic meadow]

We're currently using git lfs but it seems like it will still do a ludicrous amount of changes with binary assets. Which is why we're looking elsewhere currently.

[simple lodge]

You can make git lfs work just fine

I have repos passing 1.7TB with it

[karmic meadow]

Oh - we're not running into bugs or anything like that.

[simple lodge]

its not bad, you just need to ignore a lot and not commit every 5 min

[karmic meadow]

Yeah - we have a lot of stuff on ignore.

Apparently - if we change anything on a map, it needs to upload the entire file again.

[simple lodge]

Thats the same in any source control

you cant diff binaries

its just how it works

Well unless you write some deserialisation merge logic, but realistically...

p4 is just a little better at storing thousands of copies of a binary

[karmic meadow]

Yeah, I know that. I just thought it would've been handled a bit more eloquently honestly.

[woven sluice]

but p4 is also just infinitely better at not storing thousands of copies of a binary 😄

[simple lodge]

I mean arguably so is git if you filter prune the revision history 😄

[karmic meadow]

So is there a way to only have one copy of the binary in git? I don't really care about the history of the binary.

[simple lodge]

if you get fancy with filter prune on commit hooks sure

(assumign you mean automagically)

[karmic meadow]

So - I could probably set up a way to only store like the previous 2 versions of a binary asset. Just guessing here.

[simple lodge]

Sure, but I wouldnt bother

Unless your project is really huge youll be fine with plenty of copies; then just prune your repo one in a while

Or make a repo, work in the fork, then squash merge back into the main repo with a PR every so often

if your project is big then p4 is "better" (at least for the binary files)

[woven sluice]

trivial to set up automatically in Perforce (ignoring that Perforce will be hard to learn if you don't know it already), I have no idea how pruning works in GIT

[simple lodge]

p4 ui is godawful tho

[karmic meadow]

We have more than 5 people working on this project and we plan on releasing the game for free; so ideally we don't have a price tag on our VCS

[simple lodge]

And the pricing isnt very indie friendly

if you use old version of p4 there is a 20/20 license

I think it was 2015.2 that was 20/20

but dont quote me on that

[woven sluice]

don't need to use old version if you're willing to share a log in (e.g. Admin, Coders, Designers, Misc logins)... team size limit is about 15 people for perforce, assuming only one project and allowing a few extra slots for CI or temporary stuff

[simple lodge]

ehh i really dislike login sharing

[karmic meadow]

If we're sharing a login - that means we can't have more than two people on at the same time though, right?

[simple lodge]

You can with workspace mappings IIRC

[woven sluice]

nobody is ever "logged in" to perforce

i haven't actually tested it but it should just handle requests as they arrive

[simple lodge]

I think it works

I'd just use the 20/20 binary

[karmic meadow]

Okay - so you check something out, have to use the login, then check something in, have to use the login. That's pretty much it?

[simple lodge]

not like they really did anything in the last 5 years that will affect him much

[woven sluice]

the only caveat is that it means person A can go and sneakily modify person B's workspace mappings. it's not an issue unless you have some stupid dick team member

[karmic meadow]

@simple lodge How does git prune actually work?

[upper merlin]

I think Perforce is free to 5 users, 20 workspaces. so yeah, you could share logins I guess, just set up different workspaces.

[simple lodge]

You can have it just remove files older than x etc

[karmic meadow]

Oh snap - that sounds glorious

[simple lodge]

Im building a CI system based on git 😉

So I am a little biased 😛

[karmic meadow]

Well, we're all already using git and it'd be ideal if most people can keep the same workflow

Even if I'm the one who has to do the prune from time to time.

Any tips on doing things properly @simple lodge?

I've never used prune.

Anything I need to set up?

[simple lodge]

read some docs, practice on a fork

[karmic meadow]

I've found something about pruning branches.

[simple lodge]

you can also do squashes etc

also there is git filter-branch

I can think of 5? ways to achieve it, its super dependent on what git workflow you like

[jolly fog]

why is there a rtx build on github? i can enable rtx in normal ue4

[simple lodge]

Or its the gameworks fork

with all the other NV GI stuff

[marble monolith]

Newish to game dev and trying to work with others - whenever we push changes and then try to pull those changes from one another the project completely fucks up -- Blueprints aren't build, project settings are messed up, etc. We're using this for our .gitignore: https://pastebin.com/q6NqQzLd (found googling for unreal git ignores)

Haven't really found anything on google related to this. Any help is appreciated.

[raw tundra]

Can someone help me

I don't know what's going on

[simple lodge]

Newish to game dev and trying to work with others - whenever we push changes and then try to pull those changes from one another the project completely fucks up -- Blueprints aren't build, project settings are messed up, etc. We're using this for our .gitignore: https://pastebin.com/q6NqQzLd (found googling for unreal git ignores)

Haven't really found anything on google related to this. Any help is appreciated.
@marble monolith
Looks fine, just baer in mind you will need to hit build in editor to regenerate lighting and stuff, prohect settings should be fine though.

@raw tundra means you have the file open in another program

[craggy swan]

is there any guide about managing codelines in perforce?
can't really wrap my head around it

[boreal pilot]

So my SCM (Perforce) ignored my local Engine's DDC (like intended); however, it ALSO ignores "Engine\Source\Developer\DerivedDataCache\Public", which is now causing build error: "error : Could not find definition for module 'DerivedDataCache', (referenced via Target -> Launch.Build.cs -> SessionServices.Build.cs -> Core.Build.cs)"

Should this directory be included in Perforce, and if so how should that look in my .p4ignore?
I currently have this line in my .p4ignore:
DerivedDataCache/

If this should not be in Perforce, how do teams usually access the \Source\Developer\DerivedDataCache\ path for building? Do they usually cache this on the Shared Network DDC with the actual cache contents? Thanks.

[limpid obsidian]

@boreal pilot DDC is a data cache. ie. compiling a shader for the target platform
it should not be checked into P4
it can be a shared location on a network drive. Each person needs to set an environment variable with the path
it's covered quite well in the docs: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Basics/DerivedDataCache/index.html

if you're having a build issue, try deleting your Intermediate folders before generating project files

if you're using bash, you can do this from the command line using: find . -type d -name Intermediate | xargs rm -rf

[dusk dove]

that source path obviously needs to be not ignored

put a / at the start to make the path relative to the ignore file and specify where the actual derived data cache is

[tender sleet]

heello

I made a small change in ue4 4.25.3 which fixed my compiling issue,
thought to push it as suggestion for the offical UE4 repo

it's just i never done this before and im not sure how to do

[rotund bobcat]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/GettingStarted/DownloadingUnrealEngine/ContributingToUnreal/index.html

[tender sleet]

ty

[raw tundra]

Can someone help me

My friend keeps getting errors from source control

I had pushed an actor and he pulled

then he get's an error

[ornate willow]

tell him not to get an error

[raw tundra]

It worked thanks

[rotund bobcat]

would be nice if you told us what error though

[scarlet copper]

How do I properly download a version of my project from github? I tried downloading the code as a ZIP but when I try to open the project, it says I've got a module missing and then asks me to rebuild from source. But my vs solution isn't there, I only see this

[woven sluice]

Right click on your project and press generate sln file

[paper rain]

does anyone knows the difference between the branches 4.26 and release-staging ? ( :heavybreathing: )
when 4.26 becomes release, which branch will be continued to be work on?

[quaint obsidian]

4.26 will contain all hotfix changes as they come in

[oblique comet]

does anyone have any experience with git LFS 2 or some other git plugin for ue4? strong feelings for/against git as a source control tool in this context?

[simple lodge]

git works fine upto a point with some tweaks, perforce works but has its own quirks

Unless your project is going to be really massive with a very large team its a wash

the lfs2 plugin public version does have a couple of bugs but it mostly works fine

[dusk dove]

release-staging is used to merge fortnite changes into master, and actually has nothing to do with a release

[minor flume]

Hey everyone, I think I've messed up my git object database by moving it to another hard drive, I always get "invalid object" errors now when I'm trying to commit, the good thing is git hash-object -w fixes this for the specific file. The bad thing is that I have to do this for 50+ files individually that are in the commit. Is there a way I can just generate the object hash for all files?

[simple lodge]

I dont know if this will work, but did you try a fresh clone, then copy over and recommit?

Failing that youd have to write something to iterate over tracked files

[limpid mason]

Whats everyone's opinion on building and using the tools from the UnrealEngine repo? Things like UnrealGameSync or RoboMerge need to have their own CI setup. I am finding as we add more support for building more of their tools my hate for this mono repo of theirs to grow greatly.

Do you just suck it up and add an ever expanding CI to the one repo?

Or break them out into their own repos somehow?

[simple lodge]

I put them in their own repos usually

[limpid mason]

DOCKER_REGISTRY_NAMESPACE=epicgames
DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME=${DOCKER_REGISTRY_DOMAIN}/${DOCKER_REGISTRY_NAMESPACE}/${EPIC_BUILD_ROLE_NAME}

Thanks Epic, how fucking kind of you to build all your tooling around your internal infrastructure
that you don't share

They don't even share the actual Dockerfile

https://giphy.com/gifs/angry-frustrated-annoyed-p8Uw3hzdAE2dO

[limpid mason]

OK, I lied. The Dockerfile does exist. It is just part of the GitDependencies (I was browsing GitHub repo).

[severe orchid]

Hey guys, i have started a UE4 project and i want it to be stored in VSTS, but i can't figure out how to add it to VSTS, can someone point me in the right direction?

[woven sluice]

googling is that $2 per GB per month?

[simple lodge]

I think you get a load free, or maybe they have on premise depoyment with TFS

As to adding it, there is not an unreal integration afaik, but you might be able to hijack the git integration to work with UE4git, else they will have to manage the repo outside of UE4.

[scarlet copper]

Using git, how would I clone specific commits?

[quaint obsidian]

what exactly are you trying to do?

only download repo up to a certain commit?

[simple lodge]

I guess you could do a clone, then a branch based on x commit, then obliterate the history

[ivory zealot]

Hey! Does anybody knows how to add Map BuildData to Git lfs?

[rotund bobcat]

just add the .uasset to the gitattributes

[ivory zealot]

Ohh I thought I could do something like _BuildData.uasset. Thanks!

[rotund bobcat]

well

you need to add *.uasset technically

this is the gitattributes we use

[ivory zealot]

Thx dude

[simple lodge]

you need to make sure its not ignored

a lot of the templte ones ignore *_BuildData.uasset

Its kinda wasteful to keep in source tho (unless you are on a very fast connection to the git repo)

[ivory zealot]

I added the maps folder to the gitignore but it does not seems to be ignoring it

[rotund bobcat]

why would you want to ignore all your maps

[lean nacelle]

i placed my SourceControlSettings.ini file in in the engine folder Engine/Config/Windows, but it doesn't seem to work. do i need to put it somewhere else?

[jolly fog]

is there a way to select any/all changed (blue) files in p4v for submit?

[rotund bobcat]

for normal project yes

if you ever make some PS4 or switch stuff you'll have to track somefolder inside of it

but generally it can be ignored

[keen cipher]

Hey, Perforce users! Really dumb question, but if I don't want to submit unchanged files, do I change the P4V On submit settings to Revert unchanged files or Don't submit unchanged files?

[ivory hinge]

Hi. I've cloned an unreal project from github. For some reason I can't generate visual studio files, it does not appear any unreal option when I right click the uproject. Windows does not know how to open it. I've set it to open with UE4Editor.exe but still I can't generate them. Someone knows how can I set this up? Thanks!

[simple lodge]

did you run setup.bat? it is literally written in the readme of what to do

[ivory hinge]

Got it working this way. Thanks anw 👍

[keen cipher]

Ayyy figured it out. I was indeed being dumb.

[next kayak]

How do I merge blueprint files with Perforce? I heard that the Unreal Merge Tool is broken so should teams just ideally never work on the same file ever?

[south ingot]

Does anyone know the current storage limit per repository on GitLab?

10GB?

[quaint obsidian]

Yes

[jolly fog]

should I just make my .cpp and .h files read write when trying to add them to my project files in vs?

[pearl fulcrum]

Hello! I’d like to setup a webhook in discord that posts a message whenever someone makes a submit on our perforce depot. I’ve read some about perforce triggers, but I’m still a bit unsure how to set it all up. Anyone who has done something like this wanna point me in the right direction? 🙂

[simple lodge]

use a trigger and pass it into a program that can send a webhook message

@pearl fulcrum

[jolly fog]

Hey guys i have a quick question:

• Did anyone try to use tunneling to create an illusion of local-area-network.
• Then use perforce and set it up
• Use another PC on the tunneled network to connect to the source control on host-PC

I'm thinking of using RadminVPN... or Hamachi or.... eh... does anyone have any experience in regards to this specific workflow?

[simple lodge]

Why would you want to?

[jolly fog]

Because i want to work with my friends on the same project. And we are in no position to use cloud server

So i thought... maybe a work-around solution is possible?

[simple lodge]

I mean sure you can, but getting a repo hosted shouldnt cost that much

ideally youd want it on a dedicated machine in your house tho -> but it opens up firewall complications and security and everything

[jolly fog]

Having complications is part of the "fun" isn't it? 😂

[wispy flame]

Hello, everybody. We are starting a project with no experience at team work. What are the pros and cons of the 4 source control providers present on UE4? We started to google but your help would be really appreciated. Thanks for your responses. (We are a team of 4)

[jolly fog]

in p4v is there a way to automatically select changed files for submit?

[woven sluice]

@jolly fog do you know about the "reconcile offline work" command? right click on any folder e.g. the project root folder and try it if you don't know about it

[jolly fog]

@woven sluice sweet, thank you

[woven sluice]

@jolly fog eh, i mean just to make sure, you know you don't need to use perforce via a LAN or use helix's "cloud hosting" right... are you behind a firewall which you can't open ports on (like living in a dorm), or on a dynamic IP that changes a lot and will be annoying for other team members to update server IP all the time? then you might want to try tunneling, otherwise it's just an additional step imho

[jolly fog]

@woven sluice Yeah, we gonna try Tunneling... again. I think the main reason we failed yesterday was due to firewall being an ass. Do you have any tips or tricks in making perforce work in such a way? Thanks in advance! 🙂

[woven sluice]

not really, sorry 😦 have access to my router so it's trivial for me to just open the port if I want to host. always sucks if you're not in a position where you can do that . good luck!

[jolly fog]

@woven sluice Ugh! I only wish we were like... in one building connected to the same router. It would make things so much easier. Team being really close to encourage game dev + source control working like charm 😅 I will keep dreaming...

Oh i got another quick question. Why people in unreal hate so much GIT or Subversion?

[woven sluice]

i mean, if the person hosting the server has access to the router and knows how to operate it properly fixing this is supposed to be a 30 second job

lots of people love GIT. each VCS has its + and -

(i hate GIT btw )

[jolly fog]

Oh hell yeah, it didn't take more than 30 seconds to find the one who is biased! This is a good sign! I asked the right question at the right place! hahaha

So if we fail with this, i'm thinking of using classic GIT and commiting stuff.... while having a logistical nightmare of constantly checking "who is doing what at the moment"

[woven sluice]

i don't understand, if you can't figure out how to host a perforce server due to networking issues, GIT will be the same poop different pile

[jolly fog]

Would it? Because i'm sure you can have your own GIT repository free of charge?

[woven sluice]

people hate perforce because it's more complicated to setup, but ... a port forward is a port forward (or a network tunnel is a network tunnel)

eh, no. unless your game is roughly Doom 2 in size for art assets, you won't really get anything for "free"

[jolly fog]

During the 48h game jam, all the project files were around 900mb and it scared the shit out of me 😂

@woven sluice Thank you for the time fellow developer 🙂

[south cipher]

does GIT LFS work okay with projects?

[weak matrix]

anyone know if it possible to have more than one project a single digital ocean droplet?

[simple lodge]

does GIT LFS work okay with projects?
@south cipher Sure as long as you understand the caveats

Hello, everybody. We are starting a project with no experience at team work. What are the pros and cons of the 4 source control providers present on UE4? We started to google but your help would be really appreciated. Thanks for your responses. (We are a team of 4)
@wispy flame
Right now Id pick between git and perforce.
If your project is larger then basically choose perforce, git-lfs works fine with a bit of tweaking and understanding. you can do file locking as well.

[jolly fog]

@simple lodge Yeah, we'll try a few more times... but if Perforce fails, we'll have no other option but to use git

[simple lodge]

how many of you?

[jolly fog]

@simple lodge We are a team of 4

[simple lodge]

self hosted perforce isnt a bad plan

but git works well too

[jolly fog]

I'm just scared of having a logisitcal nightmare of "who is dying what" type of thing 😄

[river tinsel]

idk

in what alternative universe git work for big content heavy project

[simple lodge]

with a bit of thought you can manage it just fine @jolly fog

in what alternative universe git work for big content heavy project
@river tinsel We just passed 1.8TB and its doing ok

[river tinsel]

all I can say congrats

[jolly fog]

Holy mother of size...

[river tinsel]

I didn't have patience

[jolly fog]

1.8TB project files? Not including binaries?

[river tinsel]

to get plugins working correctly with unreal

[simple lodge]

1.8tb is whole repo size

[jolly fog]

Jesus

[river tinsel]

it's not that big

at work we have about 5TB

on perforce

[simple lodge]

requires a fair amount of effort to get it to work properly, but for indie teams its enough

And yes perforce is better for very large products.... but how many indie teams go that big...

[river tinsel]

i decided that my time os worth the perforce cost : P

[simple lodge]

That’s fair, though git is just much better for code

[river tinsel]

let's be honest

in games

95% is binary content

or text content which doesn't make difference it's still not really mergable content

in unreal in particular

the content alwyas must be in sync with code

or ot breaks

you have to work in centralized git

then, why even bother ?

[simple lodge]

Sure, I actually said if your project is very large perforce is a good choice.
I am building a CI/Release tool thing and that uses a git backend, but it can pull from plastic and perforce as well

For most indies however you can make git do just fine and save a whole truck load of money if you are like a 10-15 person studio

I havent kept up with costs for perforce but at a guess a 15 person studio over 3 years would set you back around 30k including the infrastructure to run it and what not

So if your game isnt hugely asset heavy then git can work just fine

[rotund bobcat]

main issue with git is that it does not have proper file locking like perforce does, at least on most providers

other than that it works perfectly fine

[simple lodge]

we have file locking 🙂

[rotund bobcat]

yeah it's possible

[simple lodge]

well i say we, but I contract so all the people I work with do

[scenic ember]

I’d also suggest taking a look at plastic as an alternative, if Perforce pricing is a concern. I’ve been making use of the tool and the in-editor integration and I’ve been impressed.

[rotund bobcat]

Unity bought plastic 😢

still available atm though, idk what their plans are

[woven sluice]

They might frown upon it but you can run ~15 people on the free perforce workspaces using shared task group logins after all. It will definitely suddenly become very very expensive for a large team though

[neat grotto]

Perforce's business model is frustrating for small teams. 5 users is free, yes, but going from 5 to 6 means paying over $3,200.

You pay for all 6 users at ~$45/month, and you can only pay annually. They don't do monthly plans.

[honest dagger]

git is free. it's just a bit of a different way of thinking than perforce though.

[neat grotto]

Indeed. Of course it's not free to host it, but I really enjoy the GitHub platform and the git ecosystem at large.

I actually just recently set up a client's project on GitHub, complete with file locking. Locking is a little slower than Perforce, but other than that it's working smoothly. It's a small indie game with a ~5 GB repo.

[honest dagger]

you don't need to host it. it can be entirely decentralized if you want.