What’s New In Deadline 8.0.0.62 (RC 1)
This release includes a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. It also includes the capability to use our new Third-Party Licensing feature, in which you can buy on-demand render time for select products from our participating partners. Details on how to participate in the testing of this feature will be posted shortly.
Application Improvements
General Client Improvements
- Updated Deadline client applications to make the ‘clusterMonitor’ Database role optional.
- Changed local client cache folder naming to prevent parsing issues.
- A proper error message is now displayed when invalid characters are detected in a Repository path or Proxy Server connection string.
- Changed clients to log an appropriate message when exiting because another instance of that application was detected.
- Added an option to Deadline.ini that disables creation of readWrite test files when testing a Repository connection.
- Improved overall stability of clients connected to a Proxy Server on Mac and Linux.
Scripting Improvements
- Event Opt-ins can now be specified on submission via the Job Info file.
- Fixed ‘Label’ type controls in *.param files to not persist their values in the Database.
- Fixed a bug where Custom plugins were not being recognized when submitting a Job through a script.
- Updated incorrect/missing documentation for some Scripting functions.
Installer Improvements
- Fixed a bug where the installer would be checking the old dbConnect.xml file for connection info.
- Fixed a bug in the Submitter installers where they were incorrectly parsing the Deadline version.
- Fixed a bug in the Repository Installer that would try to create Firewall rules when connecting to an existing Database.
- Fixed a bug where the installer might not read the connection.ini file properly.
Command Improvements
- Updated some inacurrate help text.
Launcher Improvements
- Added a recovery action to the Launcher Service so that it tries to re-start itself on failure.
Monitor Improvements
- Changed ‘Synchronize Scripts and Plugins’ to occur in the background.
- Fixed a bug where the Monitor wouldn’t remove deleted jobs from the Job list.
- The selected section will now properly persist in the Job Properties dialog when closing it using the ‘Esc’ key.
- Fixed a bug where loading some pinned/saved layouts wouldn’t restore dock sizes properly.
- Fixed an issue where the Monitor could load incorrect or out-of-date icons for some Plugins.
Slave Improvements
- Changed Slaves to check the Database for running Pulses, instead of trying to connect to Pulse directly.
- Fixed a bug where a certain type of failure could bypass Bad Slave detection.
- Fixed a bug where plugins would get unnecessarily reloaded between Tasks.
- Fixed errors that could occur when Render Threads are shut down after finishing a Job.
- Fixed a bug where the Plugin Sandbox could exit prematurely due to unhandled exceptions in the Plugin.
- Added a feature to prevent Slaves from using UBL credits unless a minimum number of machines are rendering with a full license.
- Added a Repository option to disable Plugin Sandboxing on the Slaves.
- Fixed a bug where the “-aftertask RestartSlave” switch wasn’t working.
- Fixed an error that occurred when running the Slave with the ‘-help’ switch.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the Slave to hang for a long time when saving the Task Log.
Proxy Server Improvements
- Fixed serialization of several data objects on the Proxy Server.
Cloud Improvements
Amazon AWS
- Public AMIs owned by the user should now show up in the relevant cloud dialogs.
- Added validation to the OwnerID setting.
Microsoft Azure
- Changed the Stop Instance code to both stop and deallocate the instance.
Integration Improvements
General Improvements
- Refactored Project Management UIs to be more consistent with each other.
3dsMax Improvements
- Added option to clean up Temp submission folder when processing Batch Job Submissions.
- Added option to cleanUpSubmissionFolders() function to exclude some folders from deletion.
- Fixed a bug where empty folders were being created for disabled Batch Views.
- Fixed the propagation of external files with the Batch Job which was broken earlier.
- Added some try()catch() in reportSubmissionSettings, as a 3rd party plugin was causing unknown errors.
- Fixed the clock of the Job Scheduling which allowed 24h+minutes
- Fixed the handling of AM/PM vs.24 hours time stamps which was wrong before.
After Effects Improvements
- Updated submitters to display a warning if ‘Concurrent Threads’ is set to a value greater than 1.
- Fixed the integrated submitter to work properly in newer versions of After Effects.
Cinema4D Improvements
- Fixed a bug that prevented certain types of errors in the Plugin from getting reported in Deadline.
Draft Improvements
- Updated shipped version of Draft to v1.5.2.59457.
- Added a frame offset parameter to Quick Draft.
- Improved error messaging when Draft cannot get a license.
- Fixed a bug that tried to create the local Draft folder when it already existed.
Hiero Improvements
- Updated integrated Hiero submitter to include Nuke 10 versions.
Maya Improvements
- Updated the integrated Maya submitter to be able to handle Render passes when using Mentalray with EXR output.
- Added an option to enable or disable RenderMan frame dependencies to the integrated Maya submitter.
- Fixed Task Progress tracking when using Renderman.
- Fixed a bug where Maya jobs would fail if no output folder was specified.
- Fixed a bug where dependent VRay standalone Jobs weren’t getting submitted if there were no user-defined layers in the Maya scene.
Modo Improvements
- Updated Modo to be able to path map referenced scene files. We are not mapping the internals of those scene files just pointing the new scene file to the existing references.
NIM Improvements
- Added a dropdown to select the Element Type for the render.
Nuke Improvements
- Added ability to save multiple performance profiles if each node is submitted as a separate task.
Renderman Improvements
- Updated RIB file naming so that it will just change the number instead of the entire name.
Softimage Improvements
- The Softimage submitter now logs which Renderer is being used (Arnold, MentalRay, Redshift, VRay) in the Job Properties.
- Passes are now grouped together in Deadline via in the same Batch name.
- The plugin now ignores non-critical errors for ICE caches which are present but disabled.
VRED Improvements
- Improved out-of-the-box defaults for the VRED plugin.