Collaboration

There are several considerations when collaborating on complex scenes with other people. We will go over some generic, as well as polygoniq addon specific, topics.

Blender Versions

It will save you a lot of headaches if you all use exactly the same version of Blender. Same version number, same build, same branch. If possible use exactly the same installer or portable ZIP.

Verify which version you are using

The version you are using is displayed on the splash screen when Blender starts and in the bottom right corner of the main Window.

Blender versions are "backward compatible". If you save in Blender 2.83, you will be able to open the .blend file in Blender 2.93. If you save in Blender 2.93 and then try to open in an older version, you may run into trouble. You could be using a datablock or just a field of it that is not supported in the older version. In a best-case scenario you will get something that is noticeable, like "Undefined Shader Nodes". Worst case your Blender crashes immediately when loading the .blend or randomly while having the .blend open. tl;dr: If you value your time do not mix Blender versions on the same project. The headaches are not worth it.

Operating System (if possible)

We heavily recommend using the same OS if you are cooperating on a project. Operating Systems have subtle differences that can bite you. For example paths are case insensitive on Windows (texture.jpg and Texture.jpg are the same file), can be case sensitive on OSX (those two would be different files!) and definitely are case sensitive on Linux.

Use correct path cases even on Windows

Use correctly cased paths even if you do not have to. That way you will not run into issues when sending your render to a render farm. It can vary but most render farms will use Linux which is a case sensitive operating system.

Paths

Most addons including botaniq use asset linking. When you spawn assets, the mesh data will be linked from another .blend file and your scene will remember the path to it. If you collaborate on that file with others and they have the addons in various places the filepaths will not match and you will get missing textures and missing blends. In botaniq you can fix this by clicking "Find missing files", saving the file and reverting. But it is really annoying to have to click this every time you open the file. By clicking it you are fixing the paths for yourself but breaking it for your colleagues.

If you are using the same operating systems you can achieve consistent paths with the custom path method in installation documentation.

File Sharing

Close co-location and Samba or NFS are superior to most cloud file sharing solutions but not a viable option for all organizations.

You can use Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox or a similar solution to share files. We recommend turning on Blender's file compression to minimize file sizes.

Do not use a shared folder for addon installation

Using cloud file sharing for installing addons is usually a bad idea. These services are not 100% reliable, you will run into issues that can be avoided by having the addons installed locally.