Blend files as plain text
Personally, I've often encountered the problem where I don't know what version a certain file was made in. Hence, I've tried looking in the file itself, by opening it in a text editor, but was greeted with a binary file.
It would be amazing if blend files were to be saved as plain text. That way we can easily inspect it ourselves, like for example, check which version a file was made in (as this gets saved, because Blender knows and gives a warning if the file is from a newer version).
I've discovered this old post on the same topic, in which the poster suggested saving the preferences and such as plain text as well, which I support fully too!
Of course, not everything in a Blender file can be saved as plain text, like images, but couldn't they be saved as binary in a plain text file?
8 Comments
Technically, even if binary, you can open the file with a hex editor or a text editor that have hex editing tools, and see the version number.
See blender.stackexchange.com/a/627/53447
bpy.data.version
Anyway.. still problems about back compatibility when open/save warnings. blender.community/c/rightclickselect/pkX2/
Yea, make file format worse (slower to save and load) just to prove single information that should go to metadata.
I wouldn't consider being able to read the file's building version a compelling argument for ASCII format, but I wouldn't cast out ASCII either.
Maya gives the option to do both (hence two extensions: /ma /mb). While the ASCII is theoretically slower to save and load, the difference isn't always significant.
But ASCII files allow version control tools to update just bits of text instead of the whole file. A corrupted ASCII file is usually always functional with just some potential missing parts, whereas a corrupted binary file tends to be fully broken with no means to recover anything.
I've seen pipelines use both in different scenarios: binary as final asset data, ASCII as work files.
Yes i know that ASCII have its upsides - i do save in ASCII in formats that provide that option, but forcing everyone to ASCII due to very rare corner case that should be deal otherwise is not good reason to do that. ASCII as option "Ok", but as standard that just worse for regular users.
@pablovazquez for some reason i cannot like L0Lock comment above, something broke here
You can, but it's not updating visually until you refresh the page or something. I got 4 likes notifications from you x)