Git next steps#
ℹ️ Requires a Team plan
Git LFS#
Anchorpoint uses Git LFS for binary data. Basically, anything that is not a plain text file is a binary file and is versioned via Git LFS. You don’t need to install any additional plugins. LFS data is not put into the Git repository, but into a separate cache. There is no limit to the size of a single file.
.gitignore#
The gitignore filters file types and folders from the version tracking. They are also never uploaded to the server. These are often cache files or temporary files created by the game engine. Here you can learn more on how to modify your custom .gitignore for Unity and Unreal Engine.
Anchorpoint provides presets for the .gitignore. You can also create your own presets. It will also check if a .gitignore is available in the project and display a warning if it is not.
Check-in/check-out workflows#
If you are coming from tools like Perforce, you may be familiar with the check-in/check-out workflow. Git has no such concept. You just edit your files and commit them. A commit is like a changelist in Perforce.
Usually check-in/check-out workflows are used to lock files. You can also do this in Anchorpoint by right-clicking on a file in the browser and clicking “Lock”. When you use the Unreal Engine integration, you will be able to use a checkout workflow. Once a file is checked out in Unreal Engine, it is locked in Anchorpoint.
File locking#
File locking is an essential feature when collaborating in Unreal/Unity or Godot projects. With file locking you prevent multiple team members from working on the same scene. Anchorpoint automatically locks files when the first person saves them. For all others these files are then locked. Learn more about file locking.
Storage requirements#
Because Git is a distributed version control system, it keeps a copy of the entire version history on your hard drive. If you have used other Git desktop applications, you will find that you need at least twice as much disk space as your project, plus additional space for committing new versions. Unlike other Git applications, Anchorpoint cleans up the storage overhead for file versions older than x days. You can adjust the interval period in the Workspace Settings / Git.
You can control how often Anchorpoint clears the cache on push and pull.
“Always” - Anchorpoint will clean immediately
“Files older than one week” - Anchorpoint will clean files older than one week after each push and pull.
“Never” - You must clean these files manually
If you want to clean files manually, you can do this in the Project Settings / Git and run the Clear Cache command.
Advanced settings on joining a Git repository#
Settings, that are applied on cloning a Git repository.
Initialize submodules#
Some Git repositories contain submodules (which are essentially linked Git repositories). You can tell Anchorpoint to clone these submodules if they are part of the repository. Anchorpoint will also update the submodule on every pull to the main repository.
If you need more granular control on each submodule, you have to disable this option and use the command line for controlling submodule behavior manually.
git submodule update --init --recursive SUBMODULENAME
This will only update the manual initialized submodules on Pull.
Limit Number of Commits#
This is using Git shallow clone. If you want to clone a repository that has a deep commit history, this process can take a long time. You can speed up the clone process by downloading only a set of recent commits. Sometimes this can also help to overcome server problems, since a shallow clone request requires fewer server resources.
If you want to make a Git repository “unshallow” and download the whole history later, you can use this Git command:
git fetch --unshallow
Reconcile existing files#
If you already have your files on your computer and want to join a Git repository, you don’t have to download them again. Anchorpoint will check all the files in the folder you provide and reconcile them to match the correct version in the repository by checking the SHA of each file.