Two Deadline versions

Deadline
1

I have Deadline 5.2 and 6.2 installed as part of a test phase at the studio. While I can submit to either using the submission scripts and depending on repo choice, when I try and submit from 3dsMax, the submitter says its the 5.2 script but it shows Deadline 6 as the repo its going to even though I have the 5.2 repo active.

Is it possible to have both installed and have max recognise what I need to do in this situation or can I edit a config file on the machine to make this work?

Thanks

2

Hi!

The problem seems to be in the code that is supposed to resolve where the Repository is.
The MAXScripts call “deadlinecommandbg.exe -getrepositoryroot” without an absolute path, depending on the PATH env. variable of Windows to resolve the binary. As result, the first deadlinecommandbg found will be executed, and in your case that happens to be the Deadline 6 one.

These calls are made in several places - in the Client MacroScript which loads the scripts from the Repository to launch the SMTD (SubmitMaxToDeadline) UI, and in the SubmitMaxToDeadline_Functions.ms which performs the actual submissions, pool and group queries and so on.

So to make 5.2 work together with 6.x, you would have to modify the Client MacroScript and the Functions script by adding the absolute path to the Deadline 5.2 deadlinecommandbg.exe binary to force it to run instead of the Deadline 6 one.

For example, in the “\[DeadlineRepository]\clientSetup\3dsmax\Deadline-SubmitMaxToDeadline.mcr” MacroScript of 5.2, you should change the line

ShellLaunch "deadlinecommandbg.exe" commandArguments

to something like

ShellLaunch @"C:\Program Files\Thinkbox\Deadline\bin\deadlinecommandbg.exe" commandArguments

where the path is the actual installation location of your 5.2 binaries. Hopefully the path would be the same for all workstations.

Similarly, in \[DeadlineRepository]\submission\3dsmax\SubmitMaxToDeadline_Functions.ms, locate any occurrences (I found 3) of

ShellLaunch "deadlinecommandbg.exe" commandArguments

and add the path in the same manner.
Do NOT modify the line

SMTDPaths.DeadlineBGExec = SMTDPaths.BinDir + "DeadlineCommandBG.exe"

because at that point SMTDPaths.BinDir will be set to the correct binaries folder of the Deadline version whose deadlinecommandbg was called in the previous steps.

Do not modify your Deadline 6 files, assuming Deadline 6 is always found before Deadline 5. If you find a workstation where deadline 5 SMTD is launched, edit the PATH variable to have Deadline 6 and Deadline 5 binary paths swapped.

Once you have modified these two files, run the “\DeadlineRepository\clientSetup\3dsmax\Deadline-SubmitMaxToDeadline.mcr” script on every Workstation to update the Deadline 5 Submitter’s launcher. When you launch SMTD5, the Deadline 5 binary should resolve to the Deadline 5 Repository, and load the actual SMTD scripts including the modified Functions script with the explicit Deadline 5 binaries path.

Please note that I have not tested this myself, it is from top of my head. If you find any problems or have any questions, please let me know!

Also, back up all files before modifying them :slight_smile: