[Bf-committers] Gooseberry VCS?

[Gavin Howard]

     Hey all,

     Right now, I'm listening to the Blender Podcast Episode 27, talking
about the upcoming Gooseberry project, with its "distributed studio"
requirements. With those requirements in mind, I thought I would again
bring up a suggestion I made a long time ago.

     This suggestion is based on the fact (or myth, whichever is the case)
that blend files are merely a "binary dump". Because Gooseberry will
require coordination with studios across the globe, I think that
implementing an internal "version control system" specifically for blend
files would make it MUCH easier to manage all of Gooseberry's assets.

     In my mind (twisted as it may be), I see it using Git-like algorithms.
Because blend files are binary dumps (which as I understand it, means that
each section, or property in the file is separate from the others), it
would generate diffs based on different sections. For example, say we have
a blend file with a model and a material. The artist takes the file,
changes the material, and recommits the file. The diff would show that only
the material changed.

     Obviously, artists make a lot of changes between uploading, so that
may not be entirely feasible. However, if we were to add the concept of
"micro-diffs", that might help. In my mind, a micro-diff is ONE change
only, and a diff would be a list of micro-diffs. (This actually could also
help clean up the undo/redo system too.)

     Of course, I have a lot more in mind than I'm saying, but before I say
more, I want to hear devs' opinions. If this is really not feasible, I'm
fine with that. I know that I don't understand even a sliver of what goes
on (as demonstrated when I failed this summer in GSoC). But I wanted to at
least get it out there and see what real devs think. Thanks!

     Gavin Howard