Deadline not rendering latest file

Deadline
1

Hi all,

Been fighting with this for a while now,
When submitting a changed Maya or Nuke file, Deadline (4.0.0.40330) does not render using the updated scene,
but gives me the same render result. Upon checking the slave’s local temp folder, where the Deadline job and scene files end up,
I see that the old file is there and being used, instead of the one that I changed and submitted.
But when I check the repository, in the job folder, the updated Maya file is right there.
This only happens on slaves that have previously rendered a Maya scene with the same job- and maya file name.

Is there a fix for this without having to update to a new version in mid-production?

Cheers!
Dennis

2

Hi Dennis,

This behavior was introduced in 4.0 and is by design, for 2 reasons:

  1. Deadline uses checksums to compare files when syncing up the local slave folder because we found that file size and last write time weren’t always reliable (especially in mixed platform setups). When these checksums are performed on large files (like scene files), it’s detrimental to performance. That’s why only the job info file and plugin info file for the job are checked.
  2. Usually, the reason for submitting a scene file with the job is so that the job is tied to that particular scene file (in case you need to access it later). If you want to change the scene file during rendering, there is the option to not submit the scene file with the job. This allows you to tweak the existing scene on the network, which will then be reflected in future renders.

The change is mentioned in the release notes here:
thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … ob_Folders

However, we soon discovered that some users found the ability to modify the scene file that was submitted with a job to be useful. So in 4.0 SP1 (which is the version you’re running), we added a job property called “Synchronize All Auxiliary Files”, which you can find under the Advanced tab in the job properties dialog in the Monitor. Enabling this will force Deadline to check all files that were submitted with the job when performing a sync. This is meant for special cases, as enabling this on a global level could seriously impact overall farm performance.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
3

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for the quick response.
Disk speed is not an issue in our farm (slave cpu load outweighs disk/network load by far)
Is this “Synchronize All Auxiliary Files” an entry we can put into our custom submission scripts?
For a global setting would we then add “true” to our scripts?

Cheers!
Dennis

4

As usual, the docs are your friend… :wink:

SynchronizeAllAuxiliaryFiles=<true/false>

Put this in your submission script to enable the old behaviour of checking all job files.
For advanced users you can also add a checkbox/radiobutton to your custom submission GUI,
how to do this will depend on the software you use.

Cheers!
Dennis