Assets Server?

Ok I am trying to figure out what the point of the assets server is over SVN. What files can the assets server handle the SVN can't? What functionality does the assets server have over SVN? I thought it was level files but from what I have read both the assets server and SVN can't merge them (which makes sense since they are binary files but I though maybe the assets server would be able to do something special in order to merge them). I mean if both the assets server and SVN can't merge binary files (which I can understand), what is the point of the assets server when it has less functionality than SVN (for instance is it missing locking).

I am not trying to bash the assets server (even tho it may sound like it), just trying to figure out why we would need to speed 500 per developer on it if we are still going to have to make sure no one is working on the same binary file at a time ourselves?

 

SVN (and P4) are great at handling things like scripts, largely text based assets. Where they struggle a bit is with binary files, on the simple side are images which can be managed, but on the more complex side are things like prefabs which SVN won't quite know how to handle. The Unity Asset Server is designed to effectively manage all assets and of course do so in a way that's built right into the editor. While many assets still cannot be effectively merged there are still some functional benefits to the UAS solution.

 

Currently Unity doesn't play well with SVN. Most Unity assets have a non-trivial amount of metadata in a separate file; it's difficult to keep this metadata in sync.

Unity has put SVN support on their roadmap (check the blog), but for the time being the only serious solution for production use is the asset server.

FWIW, we really like the asset server. Its workflow is non-obtrusive and functional. Even with future SVN support the asset server makes much more sense for us.