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Upgrading project in between.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Adarshorganic, Feb 11, 2020.

  1. Adarshorganic

    Adarshorganic

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    Dec 2, 2019
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    I have heard that earlier there were issues in upgrading project in between. Is it still? I really want to upgrade to 2019.3 but I'm scared. Help!
     
  2. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Apr 29, 2014
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    Question to ask is, why do you want to upgrade?
    What is new, what can not do already?

    Just make Bacup copy, install new Unity version and test it, if you think, there are any benefits of it for you.

    You will most likely deal with other issues, rather upgrading itself.
     
    aer0ace and Joe-Censored like this.
  3. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    As long as you have a backup of your project there's no danger in giving it a go.

    What version are you upgrading from? The smaller the upgrade the less likely you are to run into issues.

    In any case, assuming that you have a backup the upgrade itself isn't really the issue. It's any (manual) testing you need to do to make sure that the engine changes haven't introduced any bugs into your project. These aren't necessarily from bugs in Unity, by the way. For example, I recently upgraded Unity version on a project and had to solve some issues solved by deliberate, documented changes in the physics system.
     
  4. Adarshorganic

    Adarshorganic

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    @Antypodish @angrypenguin I understand your points. I was just wondering that maybe if I upgrade to new version I will get some performance improvement. I read somewhere that if I have 2019.2.x version then upgrading in any version in 2019.2 will not cause any issue but as soon as it is changed from .2 to .3 or something else, there is a danger. What is the best backup practice? Except github because I have a free account and my project is really big. Plus, my project has collab activated. So if I copy my project and upgrade the copied one, will collab take that as a new project?
     
  5. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    I have no idea, as I don't use Collab. However, if you're using Collab your project is already backed up, right? As long as you've submitted all of your work, if you break it I would hope you can just re-download a fresh copy from there.

    If you want to make a local backup, I'd suggest closing Unity, finding the root folder of the project, right-clicking it and (assuming Windows here) selecting Send To -> Compressed (zipped) folder.
     
  6. pcg

    pcg

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    Nov 7, 2010
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    292
    In the blog post about 2019.3 unity recommended waiting for 2019.4 if you have a game in development - I think this would be anything thats got further than prototype.
    Having had a project on the go for the best part of 2 years which is currently on 2019.2, I think I'll be waiting ;)

    As for collab, I've had some freaky stuff happen in the past, so you might want to log out of your profile before opening the project and/or disconnect from the internet until you have tested the upgrade and are happy.

    I created a backup of my project, changed a couple of things and then discarded the backup but collab still thinks "another user" has changes to the files I played around with. Its not a bit deal, just irritating.
     
  7. Adarshorganic

    Adarshorganic

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    @pcg Yup, I too just read that. Thanks a lot for this information. I will do the same. Meanwhile I will upgrade to the latest version of 2019.2. I don't know why it feels good to be one the latest version. I hope this is safe because I'm still on the base version.
     
    pcg likes this.
  8. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

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    Mar 26, 2013
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    11,847
    If stability and bug free is your top concern, you are crazy to consider any version which ends in .0. That isn't a Unity specific thing either. Your answer is baked into the version number. Start considering again around the time 2019.3.2 releases. That's just the nature of things when new features or other large changes are rolled out in very complex software like Unity.
     
    aer0ace likes this.
  9. Adarshorganic

    Adarshorganic

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    Yes, totally right said!
     
  10. aer0ace

    aer0ace

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    Don't do this. If there is absolutely no reason to upgrade, don't do it for S***s and giggles. If upgrading fixes something critical to your project, then by all means, but seriously, don't ever upgrade just because it "feels good".

    This part of game development is the computer engineering part, not the art part. Treat it with the scientific method. If Unity has released a version that claims to fix a problem that you have with your game, back up your project, and then test out the new version and verify that your problem is fixed. If it isn't, ask questions, and provide examples to Unity Technologies that it is not fixed. If the problem is indeed fixed, then, it is your decision whether to stick with that new version or revert back to the old version.

    Also, for future reference, do your due diligence, and scour the forums and release notes for any updates to specific Unity features and systems that you may be interested in, or may fix a problem. We do not know your game. YOU do. YOU know if you need optimization in animation vs a fix in the terrain generation. YOU know if you are encountering a prefab bug vs a lighting issue. YOU know if you need Android permissions fixed vs a fix to the physics colliders. The point is, it's rare that software improves ALL features on the same release build. Sometimes, you will need to accept a fix while introducing a problem in another area. Unity Technologies has hundreds, if not thousands, of engineers working on the engine, and to expect them to make releases completely bug-free is just ridiculous. This is when you have to weigh out all your options, and decide on the "lesser of two evils".

    Personally, I had been on 5.6.3 up until last year. I had no need for any new DOTS features (and I still don't). When I upgraded to 2018.2.21 (NOT 2019.x), and it was after days of research. I was really sold on Cinemachine, so I narrowed in on which version of Unity + Cinemachine I should go with. I work on the same project on three separate machines of varying ages, so not only do I test the upgrade on my main machine, I upgrade and test on the other two older machines as well.

    @Adarshorganic It certainly sounds like I'm picking on you, and I'm sorry about that, but this question comes up every now and again, and if everyone would just do their own homework it will help to better inform them of whether or not to upgrade.

    As @Joe-Censored mentioned, it's not really a good idea to use a .0 release. Almost always there are issues, and the higher point releases will most likely patch up any problems from the .0 release.

    And now I have a post I can link to whenever this topic comes up again.
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2020
    angrypenguin likes this.
  11. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    No. If anything performance will be worse the newer the release. Linked below are some charts compiled by @Peter77 showing performance differences between two older releases and the initial beta of the current release.

    https://forum.unity.com/threads/performance-overview.735185/
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2020
    pcg and aer0ace like this.
  12. Jajakrusso

    Jajakrusso

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    Jan 31, 2019
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    Sorry, but I agree with Ryiah. Most often (but again not always) it is new releases that are worse in performance and optimization than older, especially final versions. This is due to little testing.