Tools of choice
by Gary Preston · in General Discussion · 09/19/2004 (12:48 pm) · 8 replies
I've been reading a number of articles addressing game design issues, a few of which touch on the project management side. Such as timelines, milestones, gantt/pert charts etc
This got me thinking, other than cvs, sourcesafe I've had little experience with tools for asset management. So, aside from the above two, have you used any tools that would prove useful in asset managment and/or project management. I've read about AlienBrain, but not really a lot else.
Any product names or links are appreciated so I can do a little further reading :)
edit> fixed my spelling :P
This got me thinking, other than cvs, sourcesafe I've had little experience with tools for asset management. So, aside from the above two, have you used any tools that would prove useful in asset managment and/or project management. I've read about AlienBrain, but not really a lot else.
Any product names or links are appreciated so I can do a little further reading :)
edit> fixed my spelling :P
#2
09/19/2004 (1:28 pm)
Subversion >>>>> CVS >>>>> SourceSafe
#4
With SourceUnsafe you have to do pretty much daily backups of the repository and restore from them frequently. To compare, in my roughly 10+ years of using RCS, CVS, Subversion, Perforce and even the not very pleasant MKS SourceIntegrity, sure I've done backups, but not even once has any of those lost any data nor have I had to restore from backups, even when I've done something incredibly stupid.
T.
09/20/2004 (2:29 am)
SourceSafe is pretty much the only SCM system that actually *LOSES* data for you. In fact, it's so famously bad that it's referred to more often as SourceUnsafe then by its real name.With SourceUnsafe you have to do pretty much daily backups of the repository and restore from them frequently. To compare, in my roughly 10+ years of using RCS, CVS, Subversion, Perforce and even the not very pleasant MKS SourceIntegrity, sure I've done backups, but not even once has any of those lost any data nor have I had to restore from backups, even when I've done something incredibly stupid.
T.
#6
Use SVN if you're on a budget, or Perforce if you have the money to buy Sourcesafe seats (although you can use Perforce with two clients for free)
09/20/2004 (3:28 am)
What tom said. Really. Don't use Sourcesafe : it's costly, and well, hmm, unsafe... Use SVN if you're on a budget, or Perforce if you have the money to buy Sourcesafe seats (although you can use Perforce with two clients for free)
#7
But, I agree that SS probably isn't a good choice for game development. Too many small, binary files which it isn't that good at tracking .. can be a performance problem. And maybe that's where it starts losing files - binary. Other than a few key dlls, I typically only store my code.
09/20/2004 (10:13 am)
Hmmm... I've been using SS for all of my "day-job" projects for the past six years. Not once have I lost a file. And most of the time, I use the "check-in-daily" method since I've either worked solo or in a small team, so there has been a decent amount of activity.But, I agree that SS probably isn't a good choice for game development. Too many small, binary files which it isn't that good at tracking .. can be a performance problem. And maybe that's where it starts losing files - binary. Other than a few key dlls, I typically only store my code.
#8
In my opinion, and as well as other people's, this is not enough to offset the data corruption you regularly get : you simply can't use SS in a production environment without daily backups of the repos (which is what we do at work)
And even then, you regularly lose some work :)
This is a common occurence not only in teh game industry but also in general IT software development.
09/20/2004 (3:25 pm)
Actually, SS is pretty good with binary files, and allows you to lock them for single user checkout, which is something a lot of artists rely on in many game studios :) (But a lot of those same studios are moving to Perforce or even Alienbrain....)In my opinion, and as well as other people's, this is not enough to offset the data corruption you regularly get : you simply can't use SS in a production environment without daily backups of the repos (which is what we do at work)
And even then, you regularly lose some work :)
This is a common occurence not only in teh game industry but also in general IT software development.
Torque 3D Owner Pat Wilson