FreeGameDev

Is it a good idea to put game data under version control?

I'm currently doing an svn checkout from http://code.google.com/p/jgge/ and it's taking pretty long, a lot of the data being game art, as well as some dlls!

I remember having had the same problem with some other game engine once (lots of dlls in the repository).

While having third-party libraries (as well as any compiled binaries in general) in the repository is clearly a bad idea, I'm not so sure about art.
Should art go under version control too?

The problem is that it makes checkouts huge over time, especially with all the new decentralized version controls (git, hg, bzr) where even old versions get checked out.

Solutions I see:
1) No version control for data. Available as standard download on site, with older versions still available eventually (manual version control).
2) Data in specific VCS (Version Control System) directories indicated on the website, so that users can do separate checkouts of code and data
3) Centralized VCS for data for projects using decentralized VCS.

Note:
JGGE checkout just finished:
2.1 GB jgge-read-only
Game downloaded from website: http://www.underworldhockeyclub.com/cms ... nload.html
175 MB

While it might be applicable to put art under a RCS, your RCS should be capable of dealing with binary files.

However, dll's and other pre-compiled files have no business at all in a code repository. I've seen a case where even directx dll's were included! If you ask me, that's just looking for trouble.

So, art is ok (as long as your rcs can deal with it, but pre-compiled code isn't as it's sloppy.

In general yes because its easier to manage the files and nearly impossible to lost something
But it would be easier to checkout only the code if the directories exist next to each other not nested within the trunk.

However, dll's and other pre-compiled files have no business at all in a code repository. I've seen a case where even directx dll's were included! If you ask me, that's just looking for trouble.

It depends. It's quite helpful for technically unsavvy users, such as testers or artists, to have compiled builds in the repository (maybe in a separate branch or whatever).

wograld has a seperate CVS folder for assets.