[samuelstros]

Improving on "git not handling non-text files" is a semantic understanding aka parse step in between the file write.

Take a docx, write the file, parse it into entities e.g. paragraph, table, etc. and track changes on those entities instead of the binary blob. You can apply the same logic to files used in game development.

The hard part is making this fast enough. But I am working on this with lix [0].

[0] https://github.com/opral/lix

[jayd16]

What's the plan for large files that can't be merged? Images, executable binaries, encrypted files, that sort of thing?

[samuelstros]

Simple left or right merge. One overwrites the other one.

The appeal or structured file formats like .docx, .json, etc. Images are unstructured and simple "do you want to keep the left or right image" is good enough.

[jayd16]

That doesn't really address the game dev use case then. Artists and designers want to prevent conflicts, not just throw away half the work and redo it.

[samuelstros]

track the source of the asset and it works. take ui design. dont track the svg. track the design file itself

[jayd16]

Ok well what if I draw the foreground and you add something to the background and now my changes visually block your changes? Even if the file is merged, our work is wasted and must be redone. P4 is often popular in industry because artists can lock files and inform others that work is being done in that area.

If you actually want to capture those customers it's a use case that needs to be addressed.