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SOLVED Sprites gone

Dogey11

Member
tried running my project to find multiple errors. Reopened GMS2 and all my sprites are gone except 3.
 

Roderick

Member
Looks like it's time to restore from your most recent backup.

You have been doing regular backups, right?
 

Dogey11

Member
Looks like it's time to restore from your most recent backup.

You have been doing regular backups, right?
By backup you mean saving the project yes? Backing it up as in making a copy of the project.... no lol. Guess I learned a lesson here, still confused though as to how every sprite disappeared. I wasn't far in development so I'm more concerned on that part then actually loosing everything
 

lost

Member
Yes, this has happened to me, which is why I use Gitea to keep a free, LFS local git repository with all of my private gamemaker projects. I commit to it that way I don't lose everything.
 

Dogey11

Member
Yes, this has happened to me, which is why I use Gitea to keep a free, LFS local git repository with all of my private gamemaker projects. I commit to it that way I don't lose everything.
So no way of getting them back, just a gamemaker bug? Thanks for the help though I will look into that
 

Dogey11

Member
K I fixed it I think. Somehow all the sprites were moved to a different folder. Will for sure start making backups now!
 

Rayek

Member
Gitea might be a bit much if you are looking for a tool that keeps track of regular backups. A very simple and effective tool is DSynchronize on Windows. While I use Git / Fork / GitLab for purposeful versioning, I also have DSynchronize running in the background while working on projects to automatically mirror the project folder changes to another folder on a different drive.

DS also offers automatic versioning - each change you make is saved as a version in local history. And filters for folders and specific file types to ignore are there as well.

Git is great and all, but perhaps not the simplest method if only an automated backup is all you need.

That said, I haven't worked with Gitea yet - @lost thanks for the tip. What are the advantages over a local git repo and remote GitLab private repo? (I use Fork to manage my git repos, btw )

*EDIT* @lost Just tested Gitea! Wow, that is pretty cool! I had been interested in hosting a GitLab / GitHub type server locally, and Gitea makes that extraordinarily simple. I've been playing around with it, and Fork works without a hitch. Just like running a local web server, really. Pretty cool - and I can set up a secondary remote on GitLab for pushing to a remote repo. Excellent to keep things tidy on the remote repo.

Thanks for mentioning Gitea! Still some testing to do, but I intend to include it in my future projects' pipeline.
 
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Dogey11

Member
Gitea might be a bit much if you are looking for a tool that keeps track of regular backups. A very simple and effective tool is DSynchronize on Windows. While I use Git / Fork / GitLab for purposeful versioning, I also have DSynchronize running in the background while working on projects to automatically mirror the project folder changes to another folder on a different drive.

DS also offers automatic versioning - each change you make is saved as a version in local history. And filters for folders and specific file types to ignore are there as well.

Git is great and all, but perhaps not the simplest method if only an automated backup is all you need.

That said, I haven't worked with Gitea yet - @lost thanks for the tip. What are the advantages over a local git repo and remote GitLab private repo? (I use Fork to manage my git repos, btw )

*EDIT* @lost Just tested Gitea! Wow, that is pretty cool! I had been interested in hosting a GitLab / GitHub type server locally, and Gitea makes that extraordinarily simple. I've been playing around with it, and Fork works without a hitch. Just like running a local web server, really. Pretty cool - and I can set up a secondary remote on GitLab for pushing to a remote repo. Excellent to keep things tidy on the remote repo.

Thanks for mentioning Gitea! Still some testing to do, but I intend to include it in my future projects' pipeline.
So do you recommend Gitea over using github? I've started making backups with github now because I'm familiar with it. Does Gitea have any major advantages over it though?
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
So do you recommend Gitea over using github? I've started making backups with github now because I'm familiar with it. Does Gitea have any major advantages over it though?
I've not used Gitea(but I know what it is doing). The advantage of Gitea will be that the backup is local and doesn't depend on internet to work fully. That is also a disadvantage in that it won't work if you PC itself dies(or whatever local drive you have it storing). This is why many people have multiple forms of backup like I do. I have a local backup that isn't actually a source control but just a direct file backup. Then I have Github as well.

And just FYI, a trick to source control is to not use GMS's internal stuff, rather to just make the GMS project a part of it. This means you include other directories as you wish, like media files that are in progress, documentation you have, basically, anything you want. If you have anything bigger than 100MB(a single file) it won't directly work on Github though, unless you add LFS support.
 

Dogey11

Member
I've not used Gitea(but I know what it is doing). The advantage of Gitea will be that the backup is local and doesn't depend on internet to work fully. That is also a disadvantage in that it won't work if you PC itself dies(or whatever local drive you have it storing). This is why many people have multiple forms of backup like I do. I have a local backup that isn't actually a source control but just a direct file backup. Then I have Github as well.

And just FYI, a trick to source control is to not use GMS's internal stuff, rather to just make the GMS project a part of it. This means you include other directories as you wish, like media files that are in progress, documentation you have, basically, anything you want. If you have anything bigger than 100MB(a single file) it won't directly work on Github though, unless you add LFS support.
Thanks I'll keep that in mind. I haven't looked at Gitea yet but I will later. File size shouldn't be a problem though cause the project is only 600KB right now. I've started to upload the .yyp and .exe files along with all the assets to a private repo on github
 

Rayek

Member
So do you recommend Gitea over using github? I've started making backups with github now because I'm familiar with it. Does Gitea have any major advantages over it though?
Gitea and GitHub/GitLab are almost the same in terms of workflow. All three offer a browser-based interface to manage development (feature tracking, bug tracking, wiki page, etcetera).

Using Gitea doesn't exclude the use of GitHub or GitLab (I prefer GitLab myself over GitHub): you get the best of both worlds, rather. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Gitea is more than just a backup system - much more. Like GitLab and GitHub it provides a full versioning system with a web-based backend in your browser to create issues, bug tracking, and so on.

Here's how I am planning to set up my next project:
  • Gitea running on one drive
  • local project on another drive git tracked
  • local project with two remotes: [1] gitea 'local' remote, and [2] GitLab online remote
  • DSynchronize pointed at local project folder and automatically mirroring the files on a third drive (with automatic versioning enabled).
With Fork as my preferred Git GUI client. (And don't forget to install Git on your local system as well).

For many this is probably overkill, and if you do not need Git, do not work with a team of people, and/or its advanced versioning/branching then an automatic backup tool such as DSynchronize plus an online file backup is probably all that is required to prevent nasty surprises and losing your work. The advantage of DS is also that the individual developer doesn't have to think about versioning or backups: it is an automatic background process.

If manual versioning and an automated backup only are required:
  • install Git
  • install DSynchronize
  • install Fork (or a different Git GUI client of your choice - but avoid GitHub Desktop in general)
  • set up your project folder and initialize as a git repository
  • point DS at your project folder and have it automatically backup/mirror that project folder to another drive (optional: also activate automatic versioning of files)
  • Work on your project, and use Fork to manage your own versioning/feature branches.
No need for GitHub or GitLab. But still possible to set up a remote repository later for an online backup at GitLab or GitHub if wanted.

In the end it all depends on a developer's needs and wants in regards to versioning, development tracking, and backups.
 
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