Git basics#
ℹ️ Requires a Pro or Team plan
For frictionless collaboration in Unreal Engine you need version control. A version control system replaces incremental saving and a file syncing service like Dropbox or Google Drive. Rather than synchronizing your files continuously, you upload and download a list of files manually.
Git is a version control (or source control) system that allows you to store snapshots of a file, without changing the filename. When you use Unity, Unreal or Godot or when you develop software, that’s the way to do it. Game engines cannot handle increments like “_v001”. They won’t find the files anymore. A version control system allows you to store all older file versions on a central server as snapshots or checkpoints. This way, you can always roll back if something breaks.
Anchorpoint supports a subset of Git that is relevant for artists. This includes connecting to repositories, automatically configuring Git LFS, committing, pushing and pulling. Anchorpoint adds extra features such as file locking and understands file types such as .uasset, .umap, .fbx etx.
What is Git#
Git is a versioning system, which among other things is behind the well-known platform GitHub. The task of Git is to record all file changes within a folder (a repository) so that these can be saved (committed) as a version. Git is the most popular versioning system in software development. It is open source and has lots of plugins and extensions. It is possible to host Git projects on numerous servers such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure Devops.
Git does not store versions incrementally. So you don’t have to adjust filenames. When creating a new version, it takes a snapshot of a file and puts it in a hidden directory. You can restore old file versions with Anchorpoint or any other Git software. If you are completely new to Git but read about it on internet forums, you can also check how to avoid confusion around Git.
Git repositories in Anchorpoint#
Creating a Git repository requires creating a project and choosing a project folder. All files inside that folder are beeing tracked. As soon as you add a new file, rename it, move it or overwrite it, Anchorpoint detects this change and shows it to you with an icon. In the timeline all changed files are shown again and can be versioned. With versioning you create a snapshot of this file and upload it to the central server.
Using Git in Anchorpoint with other Git clients#
You can use other Git clients with Anchorpoint such as SourceTree or GitHub desktop. Keep in mind that these tools cannot use selective checkout or clean the Git cache. If you have previously cleared the git cache in Anchorpoint, you may find that when you pull into GitHub Desktop, it downloads the entire cache from the server.
We recommend using it only for Git operations that are missing in Anchorpoint (e.g. cherry picking, rebasing, etc.), not for pulling and pushing.
Git first steps