Unity's Source Code Control System Bug

You can stop banging your head against the wall because you've had to revert for the 8th time this week. Your co-worker, remote development group, or whomever it is that keeps overwriting your code is actually not at fault (well, most probably not at fault). We have confirmed that at least three other dev firms are running into issues with 2.6's SVN support.

If any representative from Unity is listening, pretty pretty please patch this bug!

Here's the update that I received from our CTO:

"I interviewed someone yesterday who said he ran into exactly the same problem that we did. Even more telling, I had a phone conversation with someone at a game development studio called ******* (they did *******, among other games; there are approximately 60 employees there) and they have not only run into this same problem (although in their case it was using Unity with Perforce) but also, in conversations with Unity about the issue, were told that Unity is working on fixing the problem."

I can't find any public comment from Unity on the Bug... Anyone?

The Two Pizza Paradigm

What is your ideal team size? I'm going to side with Jeff Bezos...

"two-pizza team": If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large. That limits a task force to five to seven people, depending on their appetites.

My new agile mentor Mike Cohn explains why this works:


- There is less social loafing

Psychologist Max Ringelmann coined the concept of Social Loafing, aka the Ringelmann Effect, in 1913.

[wikipedia on Ringelmann Effect] "...the lack of simultaneity of effort in groups, which interferes with efficiently combining individual inputs."

In other words - this concept explains the tendency that individuals have in larger groups to exert less effort because they believe that the mass will overcompensate for their minimal exertion.

- Constructive interaction is more likely to occur on a small team

Mike cites Stephen Robbins here:

[Stephen] has concluded that teams of more than 10 to 13 people have a difficult time establishing feelings of trust, mutual accountability, and cohesiveness. Without these, constructive interaction is difficult (2005, Essentials of Organizational Behavior)

- Less time is spent coordinating effort

This is a no-brainer... More bodies = More logistics. Trying to herd 10 people is exponentially more challenging than half that.


- No one can fade into the background

Yes, yes, and Yes. I don't know if you believe that humans are innately evil or good... but I believe that they're innately lazy. Let me ask you a question. What would you do with $1,000,000.00 lotto winning? Most folks that have taken my informal poll answer something to the effect of... "move to an island." God love them but most humans are lazy or at least exhibit laziness when given the chance.

- Small teams are more satisfying to their members

I concur. You get to feel like you're moving the needle. When you're just one of many, the joy and accolades of your accomplishments can get lost in the clutter.


- Harmful over-specialization is less likely to occur

I'm a fan of the generalist. Why not know as much as you can about numerous subjects?

Unity 3D Terrain Tutorial

Here's a quick tutorial, created by Will Goldstone, that teaches you how to create an island terrain:

Video tutorial on creating a terrain in Unity 3D

It goes over adding/customizing a particle effect, adding a lightbox, adding a First Person Controller, & Etc. The presenter has goes over each aspect at a great pace. Kudos to you Will!

Here's the exact syllabus:

PART 1 covers creating a new project and exploring the interface.
PART 2 covers terrain extrusion and texturing.
PART 3 covers Trees and further environment topography.
PART 4 covers Lighting & First Person Control. In this part we introduce the First Person Controller, a ready made prefab allowing you to walk around using the keys and mouse, and lighting the scene.
PART 5 covers Water Elements and Light Flares.
PART 6 covers using a particle system to add smoke to our volcano.
PART 7, the final part covers improving our volcano's particle system by creating a material for the smoke.
This tutorial series is a great way to learn how to create an entire terrain from start to finish including effects and lighting in Unity 3D and is a grea lesson to learn how to use the Unity 3D game engine software.

You can see how mine turned out here:

(use the W,A,S,D keys to navigate)

http://www.jasonleon.com/unityTerrainTest/unityTestIsland.html


Here's a picture if you're too lazy to click on the link:

Ain't she a beauty?


Following this tutorial is a great way to get familiar with the tools that Unity provides!