Collaborate 2.0.0-15 preview announced

https://blogs.unity3d.com/2019/05/2...promo_2019-05-23_collaborate&utm_content=blog

Branching yaaaay!

 

I love Tortoise SVN outside of Unity as a file-system integrated Source control (for free in windows) and there are many collaboration tools out there.
Is there any need for this or is it just another potential revenue stream?

 

Its based on Git now, so thats good

 

It was always based on Git from the get go.

It's your job to decide. Take it or leave it whatever works for you. As a lone dev myself I use it, because it's simple and efficient for my needs. But I would choose an external version control if I had a team.

 

• Leverage existing Git LFS technology to perform version control operations rather than custom logic, increasing stability for both small and large projects.

Your correct, I meant without the custom logic.

 

Personally I don't think so. There are solutions out there which are more flexible, more robust, industry standard and either free or more competitively priced. There are also systems out there which potentially fit "large projects and teams" much more effectively.

The only benefit about it I can think of is the "ease of use" factor. The thing is, existing solutions aren't especially hard to use. I have never heard someone say "I learned Git and then ditched it, it made my work harder". The problems with existing version control solutions are that newbies are unaware of the advantages and there's no single place to start if they want to give it a try.

Unity is in a great place to help people overcome both of those. That said, I don't know what their underlying objective was when they started on this. If that was their goal then I'd have thought that they could build a Git client into the Unity Editor, have some 1st party training material, and provide (or partner with a provider for) Git LFS hosting without having to mess with modifying anything in the version control's back end?

Did it stay that way? In the new post they specifically say that they're moving from "Collaborates proprietary snapshot solution to a Git-based solution".



Also worth note... this is in fact their third attempt at a version control system. The first was in Teams quite a few years ago, and back then it made sense since Unity's data formats didn't play nicely with 3rd party version control. It was rightfully deprecated and retired after formats were updated to be version control friendly because, as I was told by Unity staff, existing 3rd party solutions were better.

 

Wait, do they sell git?


LMAO

I've always thought it was a custom solution.

 

Honestly, I'm not sure, because obviously I have no access to their systems, but the .gitgnore worked forever, so I think we can assume, that the base of this whole service was git (apparently) with some custom solutions.

Why would that be? Collab is more convenient for users than an external git. I think it's a valid service, although in present form mainly just for loners, but with the 2.0 maybe even for teams. Will see.

--
BTW, there is a GitHub asset on the AS so in theory any git solution can be used in-editor nowadays, although I haven't tried it yet, so IDK if the LFS works or not with that.

 

I guess they also do hosting, so that counts.

 

Why would a loner bother with collab when they can set up a github repo in like five clicks?

 

Yes, the part that they sold was the hosting rather than the software. Still, it's worth noting that it's perfectly ok to sell a lot of open source software, as long as you don't interfere with the license in doing so.

 

That link has nothing in it to support that Collaborate was based in Git.

 

It's in the comments.

 

https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-collaborate-vs-git.446652/#post-2899115

https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-collaborate-vs-git.446652/#post-2906778

At this point I don't think even Unity knows.

 

You mean one guy didn't know in 2016 December.

I guess they tried the git-base and they evolved somehow. But whatever, it's not that important after all.

It's less problematic than GitHub. I personally am lazy as f* so I don't really care, whatever is at hand and gets the job done. For a loner, Collab does get the job done so I have no reason to move to GitHub at this point. Why would I do that? Not to mention that I have 26 Gigs of storage on Unity's solution (combined), comes with the Plus subscription, meanwhile I would have to pay extra for Github if I exceed the 1Giga storage.

 

Sure, but GitHub != Git, and there are plenty of lower cost Git alternatives, including free ones with much larger limits.

But that's kind of the issue. Until you already know Git, it's hard to find out where to get started with Git.

 

To get back on topic, Unity didn't really "announce" Collaborate 2.0.0 preview 15. That is actually out now, and it gets rid of the checking for changes dialogue. In return it becomes much worse overall. I'll give it another shot when a non-preview version of 2.0.0 is out.

What they did announce is that in typical Unity fashion, they are more or less abandoning the current solution and are re-writing it.

And I mean the new UI stuff looks good, but in the meantime I still have to wait 1-2 minutes every time I pull, 1-2 for each conflict resolution, plus random checking for changes, so I was kinda hoping this would be fixed before they abandoned it and restarted it, which I'm sure it will bring a whole new host of issues.

 

is still too expensive for the thing that it gives. If Unity won't give more storage for the basic plan, then I will still sue Github for my repos.

 

Examples? Maybe next time (or outside of Unity) I can use any of them. I know and trust GitHub and Bitbucket (neither of those worth the effort and money to use when I have "free" 25Gb storage at Unity and can commit inside the editor). Is there any others with decent offer and more importantly trustworthy?

 

Gitlab. Free for small team, private repos, up to 10 GB per repo (I think? May be more).

 

As far as I'm concerned, thanks to Microsoft, github has more storage room for each repo

 

Could be... but Microsoft's own Azure DevOps has "unlimited" Git hosting and is free for teams of up to 5 people. Comes with a bunch of other tools, too.

"Unlimited" is that they don't enforce an arbitrary size limit. In their blog one of the staffers calculated the theoretical limit based on hardware/software, and... well, don't worry about hitting it.

For people not using Pro, the free offering from Unity is only 1gb. That was my point of comparison.

 

It's Plus. So I, personally don't have any reason to choose anything else at this point.

Oh yeah, I always forget them.

 

Not any more? The Teams site very clearly says it's "Free with Unity Pro".

https://unity3d.com/get-teams

 

Hm. That's interesting. Although it is possible that I bought it on a sale.

 

If you were using Collab in the beta you were grandfathered the extra storage.