Backing up non-text based assets

Question

I'm using a Source Control Management tool (git) for backing up configurations, code etc. But how do I manage art assets and other game assets that are in binary formats, and tend to be big (animators, audio sources etc)?

The working theory is to backup all assets using cloud storage services like Google Drive or similar. But how do you effectively manage your projects? That would work for me being solo, but if I added another team member, how would I effectively manage projects while multiple developers/artists are contributing?

I'm working with Unity, if it's relevant.

Answer 1

If you specifically mean revisioning large assets, GitHub has recently come to your rescue: Git Large File Storage :)

Git LFS is supported by GitHub, BitBucker Server, Visual Studio Online, and GitLab. I'm sure some of the more boutique Git services have it as well, and you can install git-lfs on any servers you've manually configured.

There's also source revision systems designed with game-like development in mind. For instance, Plastic SCM has a kinda-sorta git-like model, support for large binary assets, various GUI tools optimized around 3D assets, and they even have a Unity plugin ready to go.

Alternatively, you could use a non-distributed revision system. Many developers in our industry really have no use for the "distributed" model of git or Mercurial and mostly just want the cheap branching and merges. Perforce and the like are slowly getting less terrible in this regard.

Answer 2

For game development, Perforce is an excellent version control system. The reasoning is, aside from being able to handle anything you throw at it, it works well for the developer who only works from the command line, to the artist who prefers having an application to manage their assets.

The Perforce server has a free model that you can use, either for open-source projects or for yourself at home.

If you need to work in a disconnected fashion, Perforce supports it's own native DVCS in addition to already having support for Git.

I am currently using the DVCS feature in Perforce for a small iOS game I'm been doing on the side: I prefer the p4 command line apps over the git ones as it is something I worked longer with and is easier to grasp over git.