Godot + Perforce

rene-derks

Hi all,

I'm considering using Godot for a university project. University curriculum requires me to set this up in Perforce, but Perforce's "we lock all files by default unless you check them out"-policy does not seem to agree with Godot. Godot has difficulties saving files, and I need to manually find them and add them to my changelist. Not an acceptable workflow.

As far as I can see no-one is really using Godot with Perforce yet. and there is no VCS add-on available for it. So these two do not seem to work together at this point. I do not need fancy editor integration. Only thing I require is that when Godot tries to save a file, Perforce adds it to my changelist.

Am I missing something? Anyone can point me in the right direction?

Take care, Rene

rene-derks

To clarify the post above: Perforce automatically sets files to "read-only", so I need to get Godot to set a file to "write" before saving it.

Bimbam

Knowing next to nothing about Perforce, it appears at least this odd-sounding behavior can be overridden, but whether you have access to do this is another matter as it's probably server-side: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48195633/prevent-perforce-from-marking-files-as-read-only

Seems there is also an option to check out a whole project which would I assume then make all files RW (which Godot should have no issue with) and be in line with how your VCS works: "Checkout All in Project to check out the project file and all files in the project" which may be what you need? https://www.perforce.com/manuals/p4vs/Content/P4VS/managing.editing.html

I can't imagine it is a good idea to try and workaround the behavior defined by your VCS. I mean, it's entirely possible if you do not 'checkout' the file that it simply is no longer tracked (I'd have to RTM to confirm), so overriding the RO manually is gonna result in a bad time. Should also clarify this file locking behavior sounds like it would impact far more programs than Godot, so I'd probably confirm with your lecturer first and ask them how it should be done before trying to work around it. If you DID want to try working around it, you could just set up a bash/batch script to alter file permissions before opening Godot, but I seriously wouldn't risk it if it means you could arbitrarily lose work.

Could you alternatively use GIT within Perforce instead (sounds like there is integration with 'Helix4Git' if available)?

Does seem like a crazy design decision. Were I speccing a VCS for soon to be employed students, I would base it on what is almost unequivocally the most popular VCS system used across workplaces to give them the best chance of experiencing what they will likely actually end up using, which also happens to be opensource . . .

rene-derks

Yes I can indeed set everything to "write" in my Perforce workspace, and then "reconcile work" before submitting. It's a feasible work-around.

As a teacher, I want to teach the common practice in AAA gamedev, where Perforce is often preferred over GIT. The workaround above goes against the core tenet in Perforce's workflow as it tries to ensure your local version is the same as on server. Normally in Perforce you always manually set up your 'delta', instead of first making changes and then later seeing what your 'delta' is.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

Bimbam

... the common practice in AAA gamedev, where Perforce is often preferred...

I stand corrected, though still think anyone doing any programming should learn GIT (as well) given its ubiquitous nature.

bchang

Hello! Apologies for resurrecting this old thread, but I have the same issue. In the course I teach, we cover multiple engines, including Godot. I use Perforce throughout the course so the students have one consistent VCS. The workflow I had my students use was to Check Out the whole project in P4V, then edit in Godot, then in P4V Revert Unchanged before submitting the changelist. Not ideal, but it works. Also a bad habit to get into for other engines ;)

Another option which I haven't tried but could work, is in the Workspace settings, in the Advanced tab, turn on the "allwrite" option. The docs say that this "leaves unopened files writable by the current user"

Would be nice to have P4 integration, though...