svn not sutable for large multimedia assets?

This is a "prove me wrong and make me happy" mail :-)

I love svn for my code, but i fear that we can't use it for multimedia
content in the foreseeable future. I am specifically talking about game
development here, our current solution is "alienbrain".

We are doing multiple projects simultaneously, each having about 20 GB
of working copy in 25000 files and 150 GB history. I see the following
problems:

(1) Most files are binary. We need file locking. I see this is one of
your top priorities in the roadmap. (fine)

(2) We need a way of removing old versions from the database. Our
projects grow with the performance of graphics cards. We will produce
more than 500 GB worth of history-data next year. Deleting old versions
is acceptable, while "taping" or "burning" them away is of course much
better.

(3) It seems that there are many reports that very large repositories
get slower and slower. If this is a function of the number of revisions
stored in the repository, we should be save. But if it is a function of
the size of the database, we have a problem here.

(4) Subversion stores a hidden, local copy of each file. This is good
for source-codes, but my working copy of all projects is 50 GB at the
moment, doubling that would hurt. I also fear that it slows down
updating the working copy, because of all the disk access. Updating all
clients after a large batch export is painfully slow.

(5) Some files need no revision control since they are automatically
generated, or come from an application that does it's own revision
controlling. The revision control system is misused as an instrument of
deployment. I don't want to feel guilty of doing a batch export, being
punished by having to burn 5 CD's for the history backup.

On the other hand, the differenced data storage and free branching would
  be really nice to have. I think the first three points are critical,
the other two are acceptable. Once you have file-locking implemented, I
will surely try out svn in smaller projects. Is there any estimate on
the release date of version 1.2 ?

-- 
<<< Dierk "Chaos" Ohlerich, 49Games >>>
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