T3D 1.0 to Alpha

#1 This is pretty much "the way". Merges between versions are NOT trivial things. It is of the utmost importance that you develop a workflow that works for you, for merges. It gets faster the more you merge a certain codebase, because you begin to develop a very good sense about what changes can just be copied directly over without much of a second-look, and what code needs to be merged more carefully, or hand-copied/reimplemented.

My tools: Git version control, Beyond Compare 3, patience

#2 I use a SVN and SynchronizeIt combo. First I keep a branch in my repo where I store the unmodified T3D version the project was based on, with a project based on the empty template using the same name as mine.

When a new version comes, I branch the old T3D version branch, and use SynchronizeIt to sync it to the new T3D. This will delete files, add new files and modify existing files. I then review the changes and search for renamed/moved files, fixing them using TortoiseSVN "repair move" feature, and make sure truly missing files are flagged as deleted and new files are flagged as added. Then I commit.

Done that, all I need to do is to go into my project's branch and merge the changes on the new T3D branch into it. This merge contains only what changed from the previous version to the new one, and is much easier to merge with my changes (and it's also loads of fun to see what changed).

#3 Wow thanks for the BeyondCompare idea! This is remarkable... 3 way merges =)