Monday, March 17th, 2014 Posted by Jim Thacker

Shotgun integrates Pipeline Toolkit with Perforce

Shotgun Software has integrated its Shotgun Pipeline Toolkit, its collection of modular pipeline tools, with the Perforce version-control system.

Formerly known as Tank, SPT provides functionality for file management and forking file-system configurations. The new functionality will be of particular interest to in the game industry, where Perforce is widely used.

And that’s it. Perforce integration is currently in beta, and will be on display this week at GDC 2014.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
Shotgun, the creative industry’s trusted system for secure, efficient production management and review, has integrated its pipeline tools with Perforce to speed game development by streamlining team collaboration. The solution provides game studios with a cohesive art and asset pipeline that links tracking, scheduling, publishing, review, and more with Perforce source control, directly from within the tools artists use every day.

Shotgun/Perforce integration is a free software update to Shotgun’s Pipeline Toolkit for all clients. Built on Shotgun’s open platform, it can be easily modified and customized to meet any team’s requirements.

“More and more of our customers have been asking us about Shotgun and how our products work together. We’re excited to have an integration that makes it easier for gaming companies to do what they do best – create cool games – without worrying about chasing down the latest version of an important piece of code or artwork,” said Christopher Seiwald, founder and CEO of Perforce.

Shotgun/Perforce integration features an artist-friendly UI, the ability to connect data and tasks and an automatic project update feed, streamlining process for everyone on the project; specifically:

  • Artists can check assets in and out of Perforce directly from within Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop and other top tools, using Shotgun’s artist-friendly user interface – never having to leave their creative applications.
  • Managers can easily connect art-tracking data such as character art lists and tasks directly to Perforce check-ins in each asset’s update stream, to keep teams apprised of latest versions. Reports based on Perforce check-ins and the option to query and drill down into check-ins provide access to asset details.
  • Pipeline engineers can leverage the growing library of Shotgun Toolkit applications — launchers, loaders, publishers, asset browsers and more; with source available on GitHub — to customize, extend, and build essential artist tools quickly and deploy them rapidly to their teams. Shotgun provides frameworks to handle Perforce interaction so engineers don’t have to start from scratch.
  • Leads have immediate access when the review process and notes from Shotgun are connected to the assets checked into Perforce. Studios can link reviewable media with Perforce check-in and/or automate the creation of reviewable media with check-in.
  • All project participants can see important asset information such as creative briefs and notes in the same location as the Perforce check-ins. Through an automatic project update feed, thumbnail images for each check-in are created and added into Shotgun’s update streams so everyone can see the latest version of any specific asset or across the entire project in a familiar social-media style feed.

Perforce integration for Shotgun is in private beta and will be available as a public beta during the Game Developers Conference (March 17).

Read more about Perforce integration in Shotgun on Shotgun Software’s website