GitHub LFS (Version Control)

A version control system is a necessity when working in such a group project, and a concept necessary to understand before entering the industry- when working between huge teams of people.

Version control systems allow you to: compare files, identify differences, and merge changes. This is accomplished through the management of branching-- duplicates of the main version which can thereafter be modified seperately and in parrallel. Versioning is also a great way to keep track of application builds, by being able to identify which version is currently in development, or production. Enabling all members to collaborate correctly, within the most recent project.

Furthermore, If any issues do occur, versions can quickly be reverted and managed; since all changes are tracked. Providing a desired "transparancy" between members work.

To bring version control to our project I started looking into GitHub, other softwares are available such as: Perforce, CVS, SVN and Mercurial. However GitHub had everything I was looking for: it is frequently used with industry setting; added benefits for students; free and open source; user freindly Git GUI for other, less versed, group members. Best of all, Unreal supports a Git soruce control plugin.

Unreal projects are usually large in size; upwards of 1gb. However, GitHub blocks pushes that exceed 100mb-- this limit can be exceeded though. Through the use of Git LFS (large file storage). As grand as this seems, GitHub limits user storage, based on the users chosen billing plan. For the free plan, a user is limited to 500mb of storage a month-- which is surely not enough storage. Luckily, students get GitHub pro for free! Which is still only 1gb of storage...

Seeing as our project itself has ranged upwards to 1 gigabyte, this method wasn't viable, I asked Mike for possible funding, for said GitHub plans. Unfortunately, this fell through, and it would of costed a lot-- especially for all group projects, within our class.

We defaulted to moving files between Google Drive and keeping mental notes on changes; keeping track of various version names. This has fortunately worked throughout the year, somewhat flawlessy, however we have had the occasional hiccup here and there.

I had GitHub version control fully fuctional, but due to these limitations, it wasn't possible. However, knowing what I know now, it could always be a helpful application in a future project.

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