AWS Thinkbox Discussion Forums

Deadline 6.1.52215 (Beta 1) Now Available

Deprecated Deadline 6 Announcements
#1

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR ALL USERS:

Please read the following threads for important information regarding Deadline 6.1:
viewtopic.php?f=85&t=4484
viewtopic.php?f=85&t=4483

Downloads

viewtopic.php?f=85&t=9954

What’s New In Deadline 6.1.52215 (Beta 1)

This release adds many new features that we wanted to add to Deadline 6.0, but didn’t have time. It also fixes some bugs and adds support for new software. Here are the highlighted changes.

Dependency Improvements

A new Job Dependency View panel has been added to the Deadline Monitor that allows you to view and modify a job’s dependency tree in a node-based view. We’ve also added the ability to make jobs dependent on asset files and on Python scripts. Finally, frame-based dependencies can now have an offset range specified. For example, a frame for one job can be dependent on 2 frames from the previous job.

You can open the new Job Dependency View panel from the Panel list in the Monitor. The buttons in the top left do the following:

  1. Change job properties that are shown in the nodes.
  2. Lock the view to the currently selected job. This allows you to drag & drop other jobs into the view to hook up new dependencies.
  3. Refresh/redraw the view.
  4. If toggled on, “Live Mode” is enabled, which means any connections you create/remove will be committed immediately.
  5. If “Live Mode” is off, this commits any current changes you’ve made.

You can also drag & drop scripts or asset files directly into the node view and hook them up as dependencies.

Advanced Tile Rendering in 3ds Max

A new multi-region rollout has been added to SMTD to give you more control over the tiles and/or regions that you are submitting to Deadline. This feature uses Draft to assemble the final image instead of the old TileAssembler.exe application.

VRay DBR Support for 3ds Max and Maya

A new interface has been created for 3ds Max and Maya to allow VRay DBR to work on your Deadline farm.

The installation instructions for 3ds Max are similar to the SMTD instructions found here (thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … ript_Setup). Just copy over the [Repository]/submission/3dsmaxVRayDBR/Client/Deadline3dsmaxVRayDBRClient.mcr file instead, and choose the new VRay DBR option when customizing the UI in 3ds Max.

The installation instructions for Maya are similiar to the Maya integrated script instructoins found here (thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … ript_Setup). Just copy over the [Repository]\submission\MayaVRayDBR\Client\DeadlineMayaVRayDBRClient.mel file instead, and add this to your existing userSetup.mel file:

source "DeadlineMayaVRayDBRClient.mel";

After you have brought up the new interface, choose the number of Servers to use for DBR, and then click Reserve Servers to submit a special VRay Spawner job to Deadline. The interface will automatically update to show which Deadline Slaves are running the DBR Server. When you’re happy with your lest, press Start Render to render. After you close the interface, the job will automatically be deleted from Deadline so that the Slaves can move on.

Note that Slaves that show up after the DBR render has started will not be able to join the render. We’ve heard that VRay 3.0 will fix this.

Native Python API

Native python modules for Deadline can now be found in the Deadline Client bin folder (Windows and Linux) or the Resources folder (Mac) in “api/python”. For example, C:\Program Files\Thinkbox\Deadline6\bin\api\python. Just add this path to your Python search paths and then import the modules you want to use:

from Deadline import Client, Jobs, Repository

Take a look at the SubmitMayaVRayDBRToDeadline.py file in [Repository]\submission\MayaVRayDBR\Main to see how we’ve used the Python API for the VRay DBR interface in Maya.

General Improvements

  • Added a new Popup Notification System, which is basically the old Net Send system from Deadline 5.
  • The maximum priority can now be configured in the Repository Options.
  • The Slave/Pulse log window can now be minimized.
  • The Slave/Pulse log window should no longer popup behind the Slave, Pulse, or Monitor on OSX.
  • Added a new Maintenance Job type, which is designed to only render once on each Slave in the farm.
  • Added a new Tile Job type for tile-based jobs, and refactored the plugins that support tile rendering to pull tile information from the job itself.
  • Added 10 extra info properties that can be set for Slaves.
  • Added an option for a secondary SMTP server for email notifications in the Repository Options.
  • Jobs can now be dependent on asset files and Python scripts.
  • Jobs with frame-based dependencies can now set a frame offset range.
  • Splash Screens for the Client applications are no longer top-most windows.
  • When choosing files, the “All Files” filter now uses “" instead of ".*” so that you can select files without extensions on non-Windows systems.
  • Added a new Repository Option to have Deadline’s remote control features connect to a slave using its IP address instead of its host name.
  • Added an email notification option to the Repository Options for when the MongoDB server runs low on available connections.
  • The Deadline applications now ignores the system’s PYTHONHOME and PYTHONPATH environment variables to help avoid conflicts with other versions of Python. Additional Python search paths can still be set in the Repository Options.

Installer Improvements

  • The Windows Client installer now creates a Start menu entry for Pulse.
  • The Windows Client installer will now continue if there are Visual C++ Redistributable errors during installation (the error will still be saved to the log).
  • The Linux Client installer now creates Desktop shortcuts in the Client install folder. They can be double-clicked to launch the Deadline applications.
  • The Windows Repository installer now creates a start menu in the Thinkbox folder that contains the shortcut to the uninstaller.

Launcher Improvements

  • Improved the error message when remote administration is disabled.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur during shutdown.
  • The Launcher menu now remains responsive when the Launcher cannot connect to the database.

Monitor Improvements

  • Added new Job Dependency View panel to view job dependencies as nodes.
  • Added line numbers to Job/Slave Report panels.
  • Items in the Filter drop down are now sorted alphabetically.
  • Added option to Tools menu to resync plugin icons and reload the script menu items.
  • User names are now sorted in the Manage Users dialog in the Tools menu.
  • Jobs can now be undeleted again from the tools menu.
  • Updating user group menu item permissions is now immediately reflected in the Monitor.
  • A job’s frame list can now be modified without changing the frames per task, and vice versa.
  • You can now right-click on one or more rendering Slaves and select View Job For Slave to show the job(s) in a new Job panel.
  • You can now right-click on one or more rendering or completed tasks and select View Slave For Task to show the slave(s) in a new Slave panel.
  • Keyboard shortcuts can now be set for Script menus in the Repository Options.
  • Added Job Mode column to job list to show if a job is a Normal, Tile, or Maintenance job.
  • Improved performance when deleting reports for a job.
  • Fixed a job refreshing bug that affected performance slightly.
  • Unicode characters are now supported in the Monitor.
  • The row height in the job list no longer shrinks a bit when sorting a column while the icon column is offscreen.
  • The Monitor no longer disappears when restoring a pinned layout.
  • Improved the error message when a plugin doesn’t have an icon file while synching plugin icons.
  • The VNC script now supports Chicken of the VNC.
  • When right-clicking on slaves, tasks, etc, the VNC script no longer displays the options window if it isn’t necessary. You can always run it from the Scripts menu in the Monitor to change settings in the options window.
  • When configuring script menus, the shortcut and icon controls are now disabled when selecting submenus.
  • Event logs in the Job Reports panel now show what event the log is for in the title.
  • Fixed an issue on Mac OSX when choosing the repository path during the initial launch.
  • Fixed a minor time sort issue in the Task list.
  • Improved the wording of the window that pops up when using drag & drop to set job dependencies.
  • Duplicate dependencies will no longer be set when using drag & drop to set job dependencies.
  • When using drag & drop to set job dependencies, you can no longer drop on to one of the selected jobs.
  • Job dependency properties are now shown in the Job Details panel.
  • When changing the frame range for a job, changing the frame list will now highlight the correct label.
  • Fixed a display issue when purging groups.

Slave Improvements

  • Added a confirmation window when Slave is closed from the user interface while it is rendering a task.
  • Fixed a bug on Windows that could cause the slave to crash when reading stdout asynchronously from a process.
  • The slaves no longer show “Cleaning up orphaned tasks” when verbose logging is disabled.

Pulse Improvements

  • Added a confirmation window when Pulse is closed from the user interface.

Command Improvements

  • The GetMachineList command now sorts the machine names in the list on the left.
  • Added a new GetSlavesRenderingJob command to get the names or IP addresses of the slave(s) rendering the specified job.
  • Added commands to add users to user groups or to remove them (AddUserToUserGroup, RemoveUserFromUserGroup, and SetUserForUserGroup).

Scripting Improvements

  • Added native Python API to the Deadline bin/Resources folder.
  • Python scripts with trailing spaces no longer cause syntax errors.
  • When adding a RadioButton control to the DeadlineScriptDialog, the text for the RadioButton control is now set properly.
  • Added a RepositoryUtils command to submit a job.
  • Added new OnJobErrorCallback event to event plugins.

Submission Improvements

  • Added the Machine List option to the integrated submission scripts that were missing it (Maya, After Effects, etc).
  • The “FrameList” setting in the job info file is now optional, and defaults to 0 if not specified.
  • If the job info file has an empty “Name” value, the job name is now set to “Untitled” instead of being left empty.

Job Transfer Improvements

  • Transfers no longer fail for jobs with more than one auxiliary file.

3ds Command Improvements

  • Fixed some minor issues in the integrated submission script.

3ds Max Improvements

  • Script files are now submitted properly with tile jobs.

After Effects Improvements

  • Added support for After Effects CC.
  • The main submission script now looks for the sanity check script in the correct place.

Arnold Improvements

  • Added an icon to the Arnold plugin.

Command Script Improvements

  • Removed the “executable found” and “arguments found” output messages, since they’re redundant, and could be confusing.

FFMpeg Improvements

  • Some FFMpeg settings can now be configured from the Monitor after submission.
  • Fixed a bug in the file type filter when selecting a Video Preset file.
  • Added an option to not replace frame numbers in input files that have frame padding.

Mantra Standalone Improvements

  • Path mapping can now be performed on the contents of the IFD files.

Maya Improvements

  • Added VRay DBR support.
  • The original submitter and the new VRay DBR submitter are on the same shelf in Maya, and have different icons. If the original submitter isn’t showing the new icon, you can delete the shelf and restart Maya to get it back.
  • Added tile rendering support for Arnold jobs.
  • Fixed some path issues in the global functions for MayaBatch script jobs.
  • Maya job output paths are now stored in Deadline using ‘#’ instead of ‘?’ for the frame padding.

Realflow Improvements

  • Added support for Realflow 2013.
  • Updated progress reporting to work with Realflow 2013.
  • Fixed a bug on Linux where the render executable would get replaced with a *.bin file when doing bitness checking.

Softimage Improvements

  • Added a button to the integrated submitter to set the job name to the scene file name.
Privacy | Site terms | Cookie preferences