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Official What’s new with Collaborate in the 2018.3 Beta?

Discussion in 'Unity Collaborate' started by StaceyH, Oct 1, 2018.

  1. StaceyH

    StaceyH

    Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2018
    Posts:
    44
    Stability
    Based on your feedback, 2018.3 changes to Collaborate focus primarily on stability. Our most significant change moves Collaborates proprietary snapshot solution to a Git-based solution. The initial release further reduces unexpected behavior, eliminates disk vs. repository integrity problems and allows us to implement more advanced features in the future. This move is still in progress and will continue through future package releases.

    Please see the list of included fixes and known issues below for more information.

    Distribution & Installation
    Another major change is that we have started moving Collaborate to a package, rather than having it bundled directly in the editor. This will enable us to deliver new features and stability fixes quicker as we will no longer be tied to the release cadence of the editor.

    Requirements
    1. 2018.3 Beta
    2. Project must be on scripting runtime version .NET 4.x Equivalent (This is the default for new projects in 2018.3 Beta. Instructions on changing your project can be found here.)
    Installation
    If you are using the 2018.3 beta then you will have a Collaborate 1.2.x package installed by default. The stability changes mentioned above are part of version 1.3.x+, which is currently being offered as a preview-only package on the staging repository. You’ll need to update your manifest to install a package in staging.

    Here are the steps:
    1. Make sure the Unity Editor is open.
    2. Open manifest.json, which is located under the Packages folder in your project root.
    3. Change the existing “com.unity.collab-proxy” dependency from “1.2.9" to “1.3.0-preview.2

      Code (CSharp):
      1. "dependencies": {
      2.     …,
      3.     "com.unity.collab-proxy": "1.3.0-preview.2",
      4.     ….
      5. }
    4. Add the following line to the end of your manifest:

      Code (CSharp):
      1. {
      2.     “dependencies”: {
      3.     …
      4.     },
      5.     "registry": "https://staging-packages.unity.com"
      6. }

      Note: Make sure to include a comma after the dependencies closing brace.

    5. You will be asked to migrate to the new .collabignore. You must accept for the package to work correctly. Click Continue to accept.

    6. Close Unity without checking in pending changes to Collaborate. On relaunch you should be good to go as usual.

    Included Fixes
    1. Files can now be renamed and/or moved in the same check in that an edit has occurred without losing the changes on upload.
    2. The snapshot is no longer treated as the single source of truth. Instead, Collaborate will check against the latest revision on git. This prevents the case of users being out of sync with what is actually published and not being notified.
    3. Collabignore now works exactly the same way as Gitignore. Aside from the format parity, this means that changes to a file you have previously published will be tracked even if the file is covered by ignore rules later on. This allows for the creation of blanket ignore rules while still letting tracked files through.
    4. The Collab toolbar will show the correct number of pending updates.
    Known Issues
    1. Sometimes Collaborate will not prompt you to migrate your .collabignore file when upgrading. If you run into this, you can replace the old Collab file located in the root directory of your project with the file attached to this post. (Make sure to extract it.)
    2. You will be asked whether you want to migrate .collabignore when downloading a project for the first time, even if you have already done so.
    3. Custom folders outside of the Asset folder are not supported.
    4. Sometimes the toolbar will indicate that you have “zero files to publish” rather than telling you that you are fully synced. Note: this issue is also in the 1.2.9 package.
    Frequently Asked Questions

    Q: Does this remove the "Checking for changes" at startup?
    A: Unfortunately, moving to Git does not help with Collaborate checking for changes at startup. We know that this is an annoying behavior and are planning on addressing it in an upcoming release.

    Q: When is branching coming?
    A: One of the benefits to moving to Git is that we will be able to add branching support to Collaborate. We do not have a timeframe yet, but it is high on our roadmap. We will share more details as soon as we can.

    Q: Can I use the Git Command-Line now?
    A: Not currently. We need to add additional support to Collaborate to support this and it is on our roadmap. We will share more details as soon as we can.

    Q: Can I publish to git providers such as GitHub or BitBucket using the Collab UI?
    A: Currently, the architecture only supports pushing to the Collab service.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Oct 2, 2018
  2. pvloon

    pvloon

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2011
    Posts:
    591
    This sounds exciting! I have to admit I actually moved away from Collab to GIT LFS, but seems this shift to keep versioning more like plain GIT might fix the issues & frustrations I had. I really hope the 'checking for changes' is removed soon.

    Something that's nice about using git is that other tools understand the versioning information, and can show changes / blame information. Will this work now / in the future after these changes?

    Looking forward to it!
     
  3. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2013
    Posts:
    3,964
    You need to fix "checking for changes" issue first. That is the most blocking problem to large enterprise scale projects currently, and why we are cancelling all paid unity teams subscriptions.
     
  4. bennett_apps

    bennett_apps

    Joined:
    Oct 9, 2018
    Posts:
    41
    Will 2018.3 address the prefab breaking problem as seen here? It has really been a pain to deal with.
     
  5. AdamKane

    AdamKane

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2012
    Posts:
    134
    It sounds like a good approach/strategy to switch from a proprietary snapshot solution to a standard Git-based solution. I'm guessing that may eliminate significant wheel-recreation and already-solved-issue discovery and correction. Nice call.
     
    Ryan-Unity likes this.
  6. PixelPounder

    PixelPounder

    Joined:
    Feb 11, 2014
    Posts:
    56
    The problem I see with Collab is when you have a large project... the unity editor is incredibly slow... and it will intermittently lock up for awhile and you have to wait... and the initial loading of the project to the point when you can start working on it is also slow. I have a really fast computer and it happens... I can only imagine how painfully slow it would be for those who don't have a $3K+ machine to work on. Has this well known issue been fixed?
     
  7. Omzy

    Omzy

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2013
    Posts:
    31
    Good to see you guys are working on improvements. Also waiting for the 'Checking for changes' fix, as others have noted--that's the only major problem I have.
     
  8. iamtommo

    iamtommo

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2017
    Posts:
    3
    can't we just get a flag/setting to disable checking for changes? if that means making sure not to modify anything then so be it
     
  9. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2013
    Posts:
    3,964
    So after posting this back in november nothing has changed.

    We have cancelled unity teams and switched to github, which is both cheaper and works far better. It has a plugin so it integrates into the editor, like collab, but unlike collab it is functional.

    EDIT: cleaned up this post to be less ranty
     
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2019
    Marc-Saubion likes this.
  10. pvloon

    pvloon

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2011
    Posts:
    591
    While the post above is a little ranty, totally agree with the sentiment.

    I had a bunch of projects that were on github, but pulled out a few months ago. Git LFS is pretty mature by now, has a good workflow, and none of the issues Collab has.

    I think Collab and having VCS directly in Unity makes so much sense, but it just isn't very functional at the moment.
     
    MadeFromPolygons likes this.
  11. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,594
    Are you using this for integration? ( https://unity.github.com )

    Is it any good?
     
  12. thanhle

    thanhle

    Joined:
    May 2, 2013
    Posts:
    162
  13. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2013
    Posts:
    3,964
    Yeah its really really good and has literally turned everything around for us!

    Give it a go! Make a free github account and a test public repo just to see what its like. I also use the github desktop app, mostly for initial cloning of a repo but its not necessary and that integration has a fully functional GUI within unity

    No idea, you would have to ask a github rep but I cant imagine why not, git is built for that as long as it has LFS enabled it should be fine.
     
    syscrusher and AcidArrow like this.
  14. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,594
    I'm thinking of setting up a github repo on our own server, assuming I can still use that integration plugin with a custom server.
     
    MadeFromPolygons likes this.
  15. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,594
    So I tried the "preview" build of collaborate and it seems I have permanently lost the ability to roll back, since trying to rollback now gives me an error ([Collab] FindChangedFile failed: ).

    If that's a preview of what's to come for 1.3.0 and beyond... Well... I don't know what to say.
     
  16. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2013
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    3,964
    I believe you can but dont quote me on that! Would be interested to know how you get on! :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2019
    AcidArrow likes this.
  17. nrodemund

    nrodemund

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2018
    Posts:
    16
    Does the preview fix the "folder-issue"? (when syncinc a project with several new folders editor is creating its own .meta files in backround so a conflict is created. As resolving confilicts needs about 5min per file (checking for changes at each override) this takes hours to resolve...waste of good programming time...