Version Control in Unreal Engine 5 - Git, Github and Gitlab

Content/Static/** filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
Support the channel on Patreon:
/ cobracode
In this video you'll learn how to apply version control to your Unreal Engine 5 projects through git.
And also the differences between using github or gitlab as your repository hosting service.
Git:
git-scm.com/
Github Desktop:
desktop.github.com/
Gitlab:
about.gitlab.com/
Github Desktop tutorial reference:
www.simplilearn.com/how-to-us...
If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe: / @cobracode
● Twitter: / cobracodedev
● Discord: / discord
Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
0:33 Git Setup
1:15 Github Desktop Setup
4:00 Git LFS
6:35 Making Commits
7:10 Discarding changes
8:58 Publishing Repositories
12:50 Workflow tips and tricks
Icons made by Freepik (www.freepik.com) from Flaticon (www.flaticon.com/)
🎵 Music By:
mell-ø - thinking about you
Provided by Lofi Records
Watch: • mell-ø - thinking abou...
#cobracode #gamedev #unrealengine #ue5

[@RandomPolygonsStudios]

You have no idea how useful this video is. Easy to understand and follow, good explanations, nothing missed.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

A twinkle of paranoia has been reminding me that if I do not use some competent version control then I will certainly pay for that mistake. Thanks for this.

[@CobraCode]

Yeah, very true. I've learned it the painful way and now set up version control, no matter how small of a project it is.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

@@CobraCode I try to learn my lessons the easy way. Doesn't always work, of course.

[@cubez5863]

Thanks for all the video's you make you've really helped me out with ue5 id probably still be struggling without your videos ❤

[@CobraCode]

Thanks for watching and the nice comment :)

[@ccart2343]

Thank you, great video and a good topic. I use Github but gitLFS and GitLab were usually abit of a struggling point that i didnt realy grasp to understand.

[@manuelmeekattukulam]

Thanks a lot bro! Just starting my Unreal Journey!

[@seyff367]

good point, not many devs talk about this on youtube!

[@mercai]

Thank you for this video, it helped us in setting up Github for our UE5 indie game!

[@jack_of_nil]

Working with Unreal Engine 5.3.2. I moved blueprints from the FPS starter project into a new dynamic folder via the unreal editor content browser. I got the same warning you did in the video. Fixing up redirectors failed and I couldn't delete the folder even though there were only folders left. Then the UE5 editor kept crashing at launch. Ultimately fixed it by deleting the Saved, Intermediate, and DerivedDataCache folders. Then opening the config files and modifying any paths that referenced the moved content to include the new Dynamic folder. Just throwing it out there in case someone else hits this issue. All seems to be working fine now. Edit: Maybe less than great. Copied his steps for using gitlab and most of my starter world is gone. fun stuff.

[@tanyacc2004]

So i guess ill skip that step lol ?

[@cristiancortesguzman3136]

This man is a hero by giving away all this knowledge for free

[@user-ho6wo1ln8l]

But he's not. A good chunk of his videos are behind a paywall on Patreon. And he's made promises he didn't keep

[@CobraCode]

Hey, thanks for the criticism! It would help me out a lot if you could elaborate a bit on the promises I broke, cause I wanna make sure to keep that to a minimum. At this point I'm aware of 2 things that I promised that I sadly haven't been able to follow through on: - Have votes on future videos for 12$ patron (Sadly I don't have much freedom with the direction I take anymore because I need to create videos months in advance to keep up with all the work, therefore having others decide what releases when would just add additional stress) - An advanced long tutorial about Top Down Games (Again sadly top down turned out to be quite complicated and so I decided to first create a simple tutorial about top down games which many people enjoyed. The long version sadly takes a lot longer to make than I thought and is therefore on hold. However I do still plan to work on that eventually) If there are any others that are noteworthy then please let me know. But after I noticed that I haven't been able to pull through on these I generally stayed away from making promises and my answer when people ask me for videos is usually "I do want to make that, however that's still far off in the future". I hope you can understand that I'm not gonna get every little thing right. I've just been doing this for about a year and a half now and am still figuring out many things and also how to balance my life with all the work this channel comes from. It's very hard to understand from the outside, but even a simple 10 minute video needs Brainstorming -> Research Time -> Prototyping -> Recording -> Voice Over -> Editing -> Thumbnail Creation -> Descriptions .... etc. So it generally takes me 3~7 days for a simple video, which is a lot of work. I actually had to stop working full time as a software engineer to be able to even keep up with this workload and be able to continue working on the channel. I make a good living as engineer, so by working on the channel instead I'm basically loosing 1200$ ~ 2800$ for every video that I make. So I hope you can understand that I need to find some way to make this even remotely sustainable through the patreon, sometimes taking on sponsorship deals and also working on udemy courses. I'm not quite sure what 'good chunk' you're referring to that is locked behind patreon. It's all just early access and will eventually come to KZbin. The only thing that is exclusive is the paper 2D cheat sheet, but that is something I would have never had the time to create in the first place if it wasn't for patreon. So if you still have criticism after reading all of this, please let me know what I could do better. Thanks!

[@carlosrivadulla8903]

@@user-ho6wo1ln8l this guy is more expensive than netflix

[@matthewcassity8941]

​@CobraCode Hey! I've been a Patreon supporter since the beginning and I've always felt that your content has been worthwhile. Re-assessing the prioritized content is to be expected as your channel grows, so don't worry about finding better ways to spend your time as a content creator. You're filling knowledge and documentation gaps for a lot of us and the content you make coincides with exactly the material I need pretty often. I think your tutorials are the best out there right now. Keep it up!

[@CobraCode]

@@matthewcassity8941 Thank you so much for being a supporter and for the reassuring words :D

[@johnrex7108]

Video really helped me a lot, man. Thanks for making it.

[@OokileyGMR]

Just gotta say thank you for this video! It saved my life, since I made a huge mistake today and forced delete all my assets. Had I not followed this guide a month ago and committed my project to Git, I would have to start all over.

[@CobraCode]

Awesome, glad to hear this was helpful! Nowadays I don't really touch any project anymore without making a repository first and it also saved me countless times.

[@Novica89]

Sometimes I wonder how do people accidentally force delete things :D

[@OokileyGMR]

@@Novica89 not knowing better and being completely noob to the field , maybe that :)

[@Novica89]

For sure, but even so, it says delete, right? :D There are worse things, like deleting the whole database in production which had happened to some guy I know and I'm still wondering how he'd done it@@OokileyGMR

[@Ratchet2022]

@@Novica89 Just recently I wanted to move a bunch of files in subdirectories into their parent directory, but I didn't see the previous command I ran brought me back to my computer's TOP directory, so when I ran the command, it started moving All the files in my computer! Fortunately it stopped and asked if I wanted to overwrite a file pretty early on, and I saw it was moving the wrong files, so I quit the command, but I still had to spend maybe half an hour collecting all those files and putting them back where they belong. 😆😅

[@Dead_Fish0]

Amazing video - clear and concise thanks :D

[@jann8262]

Man you're saving us a lot of time, Thank you so much for this

[@caldercockatoo2234]

5:40 Just so you know, the line isn't actually in the description.

[@zensic]

Thank you! Didn't know LFS was a thing!

[@famider]

This is such a good tutorial!

[@CobraCode]

Thank you :) Glad it was helpful!

[@janbonte6422]

Thanks for the video, very good advice. I struggle to follow though, i'm completely new to Unreal so it all goes a bit fast for me. I came here after the recommendation on your Udemy course

[@TSMDBC]

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[@LoofaOfDoom]

*lfs

[@ChrisCohen]

Thanks

[@CobraCode]

Thank you :D

[@bart8805]

Hi, thanks for making this guide. A couple issues at around 6:06 - 1. Saving the .gitattributes file with the added line did not cause all those other files to show up for me in the left-hand Changes tab. 2. The preview window for the asset is only showing "This binary file has changed. Open file in external program." for all .uasset files, so I can't check if it's made the git-lfs change. I'm afraid to try opening this file type in another program, as I don't want to damage anything in this current state. I'm not the most code-savvy, so I might be missing something here. Thanks in advance.

[@77992daniel]

At 19:40 you copy all the contents of the folder to the new folder, so my project that I will open in Unreal will be located in this new folder? instead of the old one? Doesn't this cause any conflict with unreal?

[@DelightningVFX]

I agree with all of this except for the static / dynamic folder split. For personal projects it works, but if you try to do this for an Unreal project at work you will be set on fire for messing with the directory structure.

[@CobraCode]

The alternative would be to introduce more complex rules in the .gittatributes, but since this video is mostly targeted at beginners I think that would have overcomplicated it

[@DelightningVFX]

@@CobraCode I've tried this on a personal project. I'll report back with my gitignore file when I find settings that work.

[@UnrealEnginecode]

Is there an option to distinguish lfs files as UASSETS type why not choose it?

[@kenalpha3]

Ty. 3:53 Can you direct me to the video that sets up your camera angle change? Is the 90 degree turn automatic [at certain branch paths] or player input?

[@CobraCode]

Hey, I don't have a tutorial about that, but you can at least check out the devlog I made about creating that game. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmKqnYKnbZaHkJY

[@kenalpha3]

@@CobraCode Ty. I saw that before and subbed when I saw it. This is the most ive see kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmKqnYKnbZaHkJY (Thats the camera change) So can you explain which nodes you used to Activate then change Player axis? Im guessing: If Constraint plain = Y, then Set constraint plane to X. And do we have to Set Camera arm Rotation to extra 90 to match the new axis? (But I need help: If Player was already pressing A (Left) and now goes Up [in your vid] (as cam spins to make it look as the new Left), ... then does UE make the movement keep going while A-Left is pressed? (meaning smooth movement, no jerk or other directional keypress needed?) And can player change angle anywhere or only at a collision volume - on Overlap?

[@LittleArsi69]

how would you solve revert changes in commit merge error?

[@LucydDev]

Quick question! I have been working on a project for a while now and already have an established file/folder hierarchy. The project is fairly large and I finally am getting around to committing to GIT. It seems that the way you showed setting up LFS is great/easy for fairly new projects, however, for a project that is large it seems like a very lengthy and tedious task. I set up my project folders to contain both scripts AND assets that pertain to whatever subcategory of game object and there are many. I really don't want to go through hundreds of files and separate them into different folders, not to mention fixing all of the redirectors. How would not having LFS effect my repository? Am I screwed and basically have to spend hours sorting already established project file directories? Is using GIT to push going to just be really slow/unoptimized? Or is there another solution? Thanks

[@CobraCode]

Hey. Yeah it's a bit hard to apply this to an existing project. The problem is that with Unreal Engine pretty much everything is converted to a .uasset file, so you can't really set git LFS rules to make it decide based on the asset type. So I believe you will have to separate things in folders to some degree, but instead of putting everything into static you could write down multiple different folder paths in your .gitattributes file.

[@slothsarecool]

You could setup the LFS .gitattributes rules to match your current structure, the match patterns should be able to accommodate pretty much any nested structure even if it's not black & white like static/dynamic

[@mprotos9192]

I like how you made us to do splitting only to tell afterwards that we can't use it...

[@CobraCode]

Hey, not sure what part exactly you're referring to. You can use the splitting for handling LFS and non LFS files separately. Sorry if things were a bit hard to follow along, I was under a lot of pressure and had a bunch of tight deadlines around the time I was making this video. I also tried to pack to much info in here which made it a bit confusing.

[@mprotos9192]

@@CobraCode i meant that you talking about lfs and how to do it in github desktop, but github doesn't provide you with enough storage so i got full almost immediately.

[@CobraCode]

@@mprotos9192 Thanks for the explanation. You can also use github desktop with gitlab though. The best way to do it in that case is to create a repo with a readme ready on the gitlab website and then download it through the github desktop client to sync it.

[@mprotos9192]

@@CobraCode wow, i thought it would only work with github repos

[@CobraCode]

@@mprotos9192 It works with a bunch of different repos and services that use 'git' under the hood! Sorry I didn't make that clear enough!

[@quentinhaberlay4157]

Hello thank you very much for your effort to bring knowledge like that ! i have a question : when we move asset and particulary maps and the thirdPerson folder your wrote : before making a build you'll need to set up your pawn and map again. Can you explicit what does it mean ? I got two issues from that, one of my levels turn fully black and i cant build the level. and the caracter movement disapear on my first map. i put back the thirdPerson folder in content and the movement were fixed but my other map is still unuseable. if you could help me on that it would be awsome !!! thanks

[@CobraCode]

Hey! I believe you only have to go to Projects Settings -> Maps and Modes and re-select the map and game mode you moved around. You might also have to open up the game mode and set the default pawn again.

[@beeteebeats]

@@CobraCode This did the trick for me, thanks!

[@denys.martyniuk]

Nice video, thank you! I have a few questions: 1. What is the point of creating Static and Dynamic folders when using Git LFS? Do you make it for your own purposes like, to keep project organized or is it something specific for LFS setup? 2. Working with binary files such as BP's, static meshes, etc. : How do you manage workflow on them? For example: using Perforce you can see such option as Check Out - it tells us that another user is already working on this file and you have to wait until he reverts/submits changes, so you can't work simultaneously on the same binary file(you can only make local file changes that are not managed by Perforce), and this prevents conflicts for binary files(which, as we know, not the most pleasant thing) How do you manage these processes using Git? Is there an analog for Check Out? Or you just tell other devs that you're working on a certain asset?

[@CobraCode]

Great questions! 1. Yeah it's for git lfs because in the .gitattributes file you have to define which folder is handled by lfs. You could probably also go for a different setup, but I found splitting it like this was the easiest method 2. I didn't know perforce had that right out of the box, that is pretty awesome. Yeah with git it's a bit of a struggle. For small teams I found that just communicating and telling others what you're using is enough. For bigger teams you'd probably have to make use of git lock, which I haven't tried out yet.

[@gustavherbst8208]

Hey my gitlfs doesnt look like it was setup correct, because I dont have the text that you had for checking if lfs is working and I get a mistake when pushing of a to large file (170 mb). .gitattributs and file name is correct and git lfs should be installed, so whats wrong or what I forgot?

[@slothsarecool]

I ran into issues force-pushing a new repo to Github, some weird network errors. Just in case other people run into this, you an push a new branch, then assign that to your default branch in GH, and you can delete the original.

[@jirkafornous7162]

Really nice video, thank you. But I have one question: Is there a possible way of how could two persons work on the same file(for example blueprint) at the same time while not having any conflict?

[@CobraCode]

Blueprints and maps are binary data, so NO only one person can edit them at a time. Merging files only really works for text files and code. So you'll have to communicate with your teammates on who uses what to not cause merge conflicts. There's also a locking system where you can check out files to let others know they're not allowed to touch them, but I haven't personally used that yet.

[@dehrk9024]

i also just like git because its like you can commit something and then call it a day and otherwise im always tryna quickly do some more stuff etc xD

[@TheKr0ckeR]

Great guide, I have a project derived from Lyra framework, I want to push it to the Github but i am afraid of changing folders since the framework depends a lot to the folders. So how would i push it with Git lfs by editing git attribute more deeply? What should i send to the git lfs

[@CobraCode]

Hey, yeah you can change stuff in the git attributes to target other folders. In that case I would just send everything to LFS that is already there and only have your own stuff you'll edit frequently on non-lfs git.

[@TheKr0ckeR]

@@CobraCode Hmm, that is a good idea. So i need at least git-lfs subscription for that. I heard git-lab downgraded from 10gb to 5gb. I think that wont be enough for me.

[@CobraCode]

@@TheKr0ckeR Thanks for letting me know... I didn't know they downgraded to 5GB... that's horrible. I can still use my 20GB repos, but maybe that's only because I've been a member before they changed the rules

[@MsPillzhere]

Great tutorial but you should probably lead with how much you are allowed to upload on github and gitlabs and not after the create repository bit

[@CobraCode]

Thanks for pointing that out. Yeah could have planned out the flow better now that you mention it.

[@goldenboy7885]

Is it possible to use this function as a backup ?

[@brianborrero4584]

do we have to pay now for GitHub storage? I was working in a project and its giving me an error about -> batch response: This repository is over its data quota. Account responsible for LFS bandwidth should purchase more data packs to restore access. I am new at this and i am learning in my own

[@CobraCode]

LFS storage on github is not per project, but per user account AFAIK. So maybe another project is already using bandwith.

[@psychxx7146]

I've been switching branches and merging files while my project was open. It would often crash when I'd start the project and eventually one day broke and corrupted my files...

[@Valhallaeiru]

But what about handling merge conflicts between branches on binary files? How do we solve this?

[@CobraCode]

You can't, as far as I know. I would recommend against using branches as much as possible when working with binary files since I found branches just add to the risk. You need to make sure merge conflicts don't happen in the first place by communicating with your team or locking files.

[@gevorghambardzumyan2375]

and what about branching? We mostly use different branches in web development, but what about benching for ue?

[@CobraCode]

Hey, for Unreal Engine I find that using branches only increases the chance of having unsolvable merge conflicts and I generally avoid it.

[@gevorghambardzumyan2375]

@@CobraCode thx for the answer.

[@tobito4397]

I keep getting this remoted disconnected message whenever i try to publish the branch. Is there anyway to fix this. Both my friends got it work. I tried on both my pc and laptop and it show the same messages.

[@seanethofthesith5363]

I have this same problem. I published one of my new Unreal projects successfully, but whenever I try publishing my larger project that I've been working on for a while, I get this error. Edit: My project is about 22 GB and I have Git LFS data packs

[@tobito4397]

@@seanethofthesith5363 Ye the only way i solved it is split them into smaller commits. It worked fine but seeing a lot of commits might ruin the organization and watste your time.

[@tobito4397]

@@seanethofthesith5363 was you able to fix it with Git LFS?

[@lukafi]

I really don't want the game files to be split into two different folders for LFS.. I have a project with a decent amount of stuff already and it would be incredibly hard to move all of the binary files specifically, into another folder.

[@CobraCode]

You could set rules for specific file types and such... however since pretty much everything in Unreal Engine is converted to a uasset file that won't do any good. Might have to set rules that dig into multiple folder layers for LFS then.

[@_Garm_]

on a different topic :) curious in Paper 2d an UE5 what kind of cool effects can you do thinking of lights and other similar things :)

[@psychxx7146]

Does using git branches with unreal tends to break things?

[@CobraCode]

Yeah I'd refrain from using branches for this since it's very easy to mess things up. You generally don't want to do any merges with blueprints since it can corrupt binary data.

[@chameleonedm]

Not sure if you've noticed or care, but you flashed your personal email in this video. You may want to reupload. Thanks for the guidance though! Very clear!

[@CobraCode]

Hey, thanks for pointing that out. Just went through the whole video, but couldn't find where it's shown. Can you please give me a time stamp?

[@chameleonedm]

@@CobraCode I emailed your business email listed on the channel

[@FlockersDesign]

You need GITLFS anyway if you want to upload and even doenload more than 1GB to github

[@CobraCode]

Are you sure about that? I remember having repos that are multiple gigabytes large without LFS. Of course the upload and download speed is not great that way.

[@FlockersDesign]

@@CobraCode yep im sure got two actual projects one there not jist a tamplate and spend atleast 20 per month for 200GB space It eve says it on github itself

[@janbonte6422]

I do not see the clone button on the gitlab page

[@CobraCode]

The button should appear after you created a new repository. It needs to have at least a readme or some file in order to be able to be copied.

[@phartmandius]

"before making a build you'll have to setup your pawn and map again" please... dude... please do a video on this.

[@CobraCode]

Just gotta open up project settings -> maps and modes and set the default map again. Also in the game mode set the default pawn. That's it!

[@dennisgonzales9521]

why UE's Git in beta though?

[@CobraCode]

It's just the integration into the editor, which I wouldn't recommend using in the first place. I guess they started working on that but then other higher priority things came up, which happened a couple of times with other features.

[@marcapouli7805]

Is it free? Is there limitations like project size?

[@CobraCode]

Hey, that's all explained in the video if you listen closely. Github is free till 2GB afaik. Gitlab is free without limitation (there is a 20GB limit on all repos in general though), you can only invite up to 5 members to your project on the free plan though.

[@marcapouli7805]

@@CobraCode Ah thank you! I guess I'll try to find an other tool. 20 gb isn't enough (1 meta human and 2 megascan assets and that's over 😅 ), and I don't have anyone to invite.

[@user-yk2dc6yr7q]

11:30 left off here,

[@Lyserus]

First!

[@omegacrimson2809]

video jumps around too much and loses sight of what they're trying to explain. confusing video, go next.

[@CobraCode]

Thanks for the feedback. I might have wanted to explain too much in this one which made it feel a bit unfocused.

[@slothsarecool]

Thanks

[@CobraCode]

Thank you for the support :D

[@MrBagarai]

Content/Static/** filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text