Windows: start render task minimized

Deadline
1

Hi !

We are working with Cinema 4D on Windows.

When Deadline Slave starts the C4D render executable, it brings it foreground and gives it focus. Which is very distracting if you are working on something!
I tried to trick the deadline plugin to start the executable with ‘start /min c:\program…’ but i have no success.

Do you see a way you could implement such feature? The best would be that the c4d.exe runs minimized without the focus when it starts…
thanks !

2

Hello,

I think our best idea on this one would be to run the launcher as a service, and then c4d will stop stealing focus from you. You can find more info on how to do this at thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … _Or_Daemon

3

Hi !

Thanks for the answer. seems like a great solution.

i’ve installed Deadline as a service and gave it credentials. but what next ?
i see the deadline service is running, but if i open Deadline Monitor, i don’t see my computer in the slaves list.

also, i can’t launch Deadline Launcher nor Deadline Slave… it just doesn’t show up when i want to open it.

What’s the procedure to start/stop slave when in service mode ?

Thanks !

4

Hello,

In Windows, when running the launcher and consequently the slave, as a service, there is no GUI for them. If you need to start and stop the launcher, you would do so from the services tab of task manager. You would need to stop the deadlineslave process from the process list in task manager separately. As for why the machine isn’t showing up in the list of slaves in the monitor, it could be a few things, such as the user given to the service doesn’t have access to the database or repository, but if you can send over a deadlineslave log(choose the help menu in monitor on the affected machine, then explore log folder) and we can get an indication from there. Thanks.

5

Hi !Thanks for the explanations.

here is the log file.
the slave was showing in the slave list before i installed it as a service.

here is the log file.Thanks
logs.zip (85.8 KB)

6

Hello,

So looking over the log, it looks like there is a decent chance that the issue is the path isn’t mounted for the service user, because the service environment is not the same as a logged in user. Can you use the UNC path to the repo?

7

Hi !

i gave the service my user login infos… and it’s the same user that was used when deadline was not installed as service.
and the path to the repo is working

what’s UNC ?

8

Hello,

UNC, or Universal Naming Convention, is a standard for identifying servers, printers and other resources in a network, which originated in the Unix community. A UNC path uses double slashes or backslashes to precede the name of the computer. On Windows especially this is the recommend format for sharing, as it doesn’t require a drive to be mounted. An example would be “\server-01\files\file.dot”