Multi User Scene Collaboration Beta

Hello Unity3d community,

I work with a team that makes tools for Unity meant to help developers build games faster. As a part of this we want to make sure that the development community is a part of our projects so that they can help us shape the form of the tools we are making. To do this we need your help: we have recently launched our multi user scene collaboration tool, Scene Fusion, and we want to extend an open invitation to any developers that would like to try it. With your help we will be able to make Scene Fusion much better than we would on our own.

You can sign up for a free month here:
http://www.kinematicsoup.com/scene-...neFusionLandingPageUnityForum&utm_medium=post

A bit more about Scene Fusion:

Scene Fusion allows multiple users to collaborate within the same scene together. Users are able to see changes other users are making in the scene, in real-time. We are not replacing your source control with this tool. Scene Fusion works in tandem with any source control you are already using.

Here is a brief summary video of Scene Fusion at work:

And here is a video of how Scene Fusion works with Perforce:

For more information, visit
http://www.kinematicsoup.com/scene-...neFusionLandingPageUnityForum&utm_medium=post

Please don’t hesitate respond to this post or contact me directly with any questions. Thanks everyone!

edit: No longer in beta and updated links.

 

I haven't look into it too much- so please forgive me if this is answered somewhere.

What happens in this scenerio:

1)Dev A makes changes to a scene(but is still working, so doesn't commit the changes yet)
2) Dev B comes to work later and starts working the same scene an hour after Dev A started

How is this handled? Does Dev B first download the state of the scene from Dev A over a PtP system?

 

I notice that users have to be added via the website, is this simply for account tracking or does this mean project assets go through a cloud service to be shared? Or is it that assets are shared directly from user-to-user?
If it is a cloud-server based system, are there intentions to have a self-hosted option?

 

This looks amazing. Our small team is having issues with scenes and collaboration and would welcome any possible solution.

I have the same questions as above. How would this be delivered?

 

Thanks for your questions everyone! Answers below:

So, the first thing I will clarify is that we do not share or distribute physical assets - we are not replacing a source control system. What we are doing is syncing the scene's state. The data we collect is just metadata such as transforms, object names, property values, etc. and then we sync the scene and its hierarchy through a cloud based platform.

So in your example, as long as Dev B starts with the same project that Dev A started working with, Dev B's scene would sync to the current state of Dev A's scene.

The system is a cloud based system. That said, we are not sharing/transferring assets at any point. You would still have to use a source control option/share the projects manually. The only thing synced on the cloud system is scene metadata. The reason for this is twofold:
1. We don't want to interrupt your current development workflows - we want you to be able to use the same source control you were using previously to our tool. The only difference should be now you can work a lot faster and far more collaboratively within scenes.
2. We understand that intellectual property is really important to all developers. We only wanted to sync metadata and not physical assets so that everyone using the tool feels comfortable that their IP is safe.

Thanks! I hope the answers above helped address your questions. If not, please feel free to PM me or respond on here.

Thank you everyone for your awesome questions. Feel free to keep them coming!

 

Hi there,

I can expand on the answer to this a bit:

Dev A and Dev B must both have the same version of the project. Dev A can start a scene and work away. Dev B can join later. The system brings the changes that Dev A has done over the Dev B, and they work from the same point.

As a side note, Dev A should be the one to push the scene work back into the source control. Scene Fusion has to have custom code for several built-in Unity components, which is a bit of a maintenance nightmare. There is a list on the Scene Fusion console where you can see a list of the built-in components and which properties are known to work. The good news is that about 90% of them do work, and more are supported with every release.

 

Hello everyone,

I wanted to drop by and let you know that we have released a major update today!

Scene Fusion now supports object hierarchy syncing! What this means is that you will no longer have to rely on prefabs in order to use the system. This was a frequently requested feature from our beta users, so we are very excited to be launching this update.

The free open beta is still active, so if you haven’t had a chance to try out multi-user scene editing in Unity, now is a great time!

For more information, visit:
http://www.kinematicsoup.com/scene-...neFusionLandingPageUnityForum&utm_medium=post

Cheers!

edit: Updated link

 

Hello all,

Scene Fusion has had another major update. Basically, almost everything syncs now, events work, FBX works, adding/removing components works, and it works with Collaborate. We have a few items, such as the Sun, which don't sync yet, but we should be able to get that in shortly.

Here is a video of how much it can speed up level creation:

 

Any word on the cost? We are using the beta and so far it looks good. However, we were asked to add our team members and then we discovered each team member has to have a beta account. I understand that when released, a copy for each team member will be required, but how does that work if there is any sort of cloud billing?

 

We will be charging a fixed subscription amount for a team of a given size. Contact me in PM and we can chat. We are going to start billing fairly soon, and we'll let everyone know ahead of time that it's happening.

How has your experience with it been? Have the new updates improved it significantly for you?

 

So far, good. I am not sure we have updated yet. I will ask my team members later and let you know.

 

Glad to hear it's working well for you! I sent a PM.

 

Hi,

Does it work with script added/removed from a GO in the currently scene session ? What if the script is a new one and does not already exist in other user session ?

Thanks

 

Hi Kuipe,

It doesn't support scripts directly, partly because Unity recompiles all scripts, including Scene Fusion, when a script is added of changed, and partly because Unity is extremely fragile when multiple people can add scripts in real-time. We are looking at it, but Unity has so many strange edge-cases that introducing it would probably cause far more problems than it would solve.

Instead, add scripts to prefabs, and use PlasticSCM, Helix, or Collaborate to distribute them while using Scene Fusion. See the perforce video in the first post to see how it works.

 

Watching thread for updates.. Currently pretty much a one-man team but I have started working with someone to help layout points of interests for new packs I will be working on. I think this could work out well once we both have the scenes in order for him to present changes to me and then be able to easily see changes I make to what he has done to make them fit more into my vision.

My biggest concern would be the costs involved for smaller, say 2-5 person teams and whether it is a team cost or a per-person cost.

 

Hey Shawn67, I'll send you a PM and we can discuss pricing. We are trying to make the pricing packages very reasonable - especially for early adopters.

 

You will love Scene Fusion, Shawn. It is perfect for what you want to do.

 

Thanks Teila!

 

Oh, and support is fabulous!!!

 

It is @Teila's fault that I'm here @AThiessenKS.. She was talking about getting her project ready for her team for the sessions stuff in a group we are both in.. So if I end up getting on your nerves, it's her fault.

Yup. My only problem at this point is I don't really have a team. If I can get my one guy actually working, I can see it being helpful. So it is kind of up in the air at this point. We'll have to see how it goes. I'm planning on testing it myself with two accounts in the next few days. Thanks again for mentioning it again in the chat group. I meant to look into it when you talked about it before.

That is always a huge plus!

 

Well so much for the project I was working on, I was doing this exact same thing LOL.

 

Hahaha sorry about that! It turned out to be a very complex project in the end, but we have managed to get it running really well.

 

Haha i bet. Its all good though, i had just started it, so didnt loose out much on that lol. Urs looks sick though

 

Thanks!

 

Just so you all know, we have updated Scene Fusion again. We are now on version 0.9.0, and it has received some significant performance boosts for large and complex scenes.

I have to apologize for not keeping our youtube videos up to date, in particular the ones that talk about set-up and usage.

Despite what we say in the old videos, we no longer require your assets to be based on prefabs, and we support adding/removing/changing components on gameObject instances. We have also added decent support for terrain editing, though high resolution terrains are a bit slower to transfer.

As of this post, we are on version 0.9.0. It should handle everything that 99% of people require. I may not work with all other plugins out there, in particular the plugins that modify asset files, though we are working on that.

 

Hey everyone, just wanted to pop in and provide another update since it has been a while.

We are now on version 0.9.4 and a few exciting things have been added since our last update:

• You can now enter play mode while in a Scene Fusion session. So feel free to test your changes as much as you want while using Scene Fusion.
• We have added a chat window that everyone in a session can use.
• We have added camera following, so if you want to see what someone else is looking at, you can choose to follow their camera.
• Improved terrain editing indicators.

We will be releasing some feature videos soon to show you how these features work!

As always, feel free to comment with any questions, thoughts or feedback. The more information we have (even if it is just an initial impression) the better!

Thanks!

 

Hi AthiessenKS,

This looks impressive! How does the scene sync work with editing script variables through the inspector?

Thank you!

 

Hi Gustav_Bok,

Thanks! Any serialized property changes made in the inspector will be synced for all users. I hope that answers your question.

Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know!

Alex

 

I would also like to point out that Scene Fusion is now at version 1.0!

 

This is very promising software I've dow loaded and curious to see how it develops. The cloud based integration and focusing purely on scene syncing I think is very smart. This is the closest example of legitimate cloud based collaborative world building I've seen yet, BUT... it's aimed at developers not users

I'm wondering if you guys have ever considered developing a version for users... of a VR application for example. Consider any user with a headset.. running a local desktop, unity built VR app downloaded off Steam for example... possible to build in app and sync scenes using scene fusion?

 

That might be possible already. Scene Fusion supports live edits while in play mode, and it has an API. All that would be needed to to wire up your game logic to the API to get the desired effect. Some examples of how to use the API are included. The API is being added to and tweaked between releases, so we haven't created any end-user docs for it yet, though we can help people out via discord (my signature has the link).

 

Crashes on Compile

 

Bug and crash reports like yours are what every developer looks for. Believe me, the amount of information you have provided is second to none. With your 3 word crash report the universe is thankfully going to be in a better place, a better time. Prospering not from idiots, but from champions of submitting bug reports.