Note

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Release History

Deadline 10.1.23.6

This release makes Deadline free to use. Customers no longer need to purchase Deadline licenses to use Deadline. See the release notes below for more information.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Deadline is now free to use. Deadline licenses are no longer required to use Deadline.

  • Draft licenses are no longer required to use Deadline’s Draft functionality (Jigsaw, region rendering, Draft annotations, QuickDraft image and video encoding, and the Draft Python library). “Draft Pro” features will still require a “Draft Pro” license.

Worker Improvements

  • Fixed an issue where an assigned Task’s ExtraInfo fields would be empty when connected to a Remote Connection Server.

Application Plugin Improvements

3dsMax

  • Dropped support for Python 2 when using Draft. Draft is used in Jigsaw or Tile Rendering (with Pixel Padding) when V-Ray is configured to output split and/or raw buffer files. Please see the Python Upgrade documentation for instructions on how to use the 3dsMax plugin with Python 3.

Draft

  • Dropped support for Python 2. Please see the Python Upgrade documentation for instructions on how to use Draft with Python 3.

  • Dropped support for the VP8 codec.

Event Plugin Improvements

Draft Event Plugin

NIM

Shotgun

Deadline 10.1.22.5

This release removed a component (which was incorrectly included in the previous build) that time-limited the software to expire on July 9th, 2022.

Aside from this, this build is identical to the Deadline 10.1.22.4 release outlined below.

Deadline 10.1.22.4

This release adds support for 3ds Max 2023, Adobe Media Encoder 2022, C4D S26, and Maya 2023. Added systemd support for Deadline Launcher.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • The Deadline Launcher will now launch using systemd on Linux when installing the Launcher as a daemon.

  • Added a Worker Interval performance setting that allows the modification of the frequency at which a Worker checks for limits based on task progress percentage.

  • Removed deprecation warning from the UpdateDatabaseSettings command.

Worker Improvements

  • Fixed an issue where pools or groups would not be re-checked when reassigning the Worker’s preferred Job.

Remote Connection Server (RCS) Improvements

  • Added error handling for an exception that was thrown in the RCS when Updating Tasks.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added support for 3ds Max 2023.

  • Added path mapping for 3dsmax V-Ray Buffers.

Adobe Media Encoder

  • Added support for Adobe Media Encoder 2022

Cinema 4D

  • Added support for C4D S26

Maya

  • Added support for Maya 2023.

  • Fixed an issue where the Maya submitter installer would remove the Client folder from the Deadline Repository.

V-Ray

  • Fixed a python 3 compatibility issue that would cause V-Ray jobs to crash when using Tile Rendering.

Deadline 10.1.21.4

This release includes support for After Effects 2022, Houdini 19, Keyshot 10 and 11, and VRED 2022, along with minor improvements and bug fixes. See the release notes below for more information.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Added configurable timeouts for job assignment.

  • Improved the wording on the Import Settings page in the Repository installer.

  • Fixed an issue in the Client installer that could cause it to ignore the value passed to the –licensemode flag.

  • Fixed a Repository installation failure that can occur when upgrading from Deadline 10.1.9 or earlier if authentication is enabled on the database and the certificate is password protected.

  • Fixed an issue in the Repository installer that could prevent it from connecting to an existing database with user authentication enabled.

  • Bug fixes and additional cleanup from upgrading Deadline’s Python version to 3.7.

  • .NET Core version updated to 3.1.118.

Monitor Improvements

  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Monitor to crash when opening the Manage Identities window.

Worker Improvements

  • Reduced initialization overhead when the Sandbox process launches and connects to the database.

  • Fixed bug where the Worker would reload plugins between tasks if a “__pycache__” folder was created in the plugin directory.

Remote Connection Server (RCS) Improvements

  • Implemented several performance and stability improvements, including exponential backoff for task assignment to prevent RCS overloading.

  • Improve the log format of errors and alarm messages.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • In SMTD, added support for V-Ray 5 render element artifacts from Cryptomatte, BackToBeauty and LightMix.

  • Fixed an Unexpected Exception that could occur in customize.ms when rendering with Corona 6/7.

After Effects

  • Added support for After Effects 2022.

Houdini

  • Added support for Houdini 19.

Keyshot

  • Added support for Keyshot 10 and 11.

Mantra

  • Fixed an “import Mantra” error that could occur when rendering tile jobs.

Nuke

  • Fixed a “No module named pwd” error that could occur when submitting from Nuke.

Octane

  • Fixed output directory path-mapping issue in Octane 4 and later.

VRED

  • Added support for VRED 2022.

  • Added support for VRED 2021.1, 2021.2, and 2021.3.

Event Plugin Improvements

Spot Event Plugin

  • Fixed an issue where the plugin would never recover if the Resource Tracker was in a bad state.

Deadline 10.1.20.3

This is a patch release for 10.1.20.2 that fixes an issue present on macOS 11 and later where Deadline client applications would fail to launch properly. Refer to the 10.1.20.2 section below for the complete release notes.

Deadline 10.1.20.2

Deadline now uses Python 3.7.12 as the default for all applications and plugins. Visit our Python upgrade guide for more information. Python 2 will be removed in a later release of Deadline. This release adds support for Adobe Media Encoder 2019, 2020, and Cinema 4D R25. Other minor improvements and various bug fixes are included in this release as well.

For more information about known issues with the current and previous releases, please refer to the release issues and for more information about upgrading Deadline, please refer to the upgrading documentation.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Python 3.7.12 has now replaced Python 2 as the default for Deadline applications

  • Updated the Repository installer to remove support for versions of Ubuntu older than 18.04 and updated the version of MongoDB installer downloads to properly support Ubuntu 18.04

  • Fixed an issue where Deadline Workers running on AWS Portal were failing to transfer compressed jobs reports that were over 1 MB

  • Added ability to find root home directory for Linux/OSX without using $USER

  • Exporting Permission Groups Settings now includes Script Features

  • Added a ‘-subnetTemplate’ parameter to the ‘runawsportaltemplate’ Deadline Command

  • Fixed the compatibility issue between API requests from the Web Service and Deadline Python API clients that are pre-version 10.1.16.

  • The Deadline client installer has removed the option to automatically launch a worker when the option to install the RCS or Web Service is selected.

  • Added a new SubmitMultipleJobsV2 Deadline Command for submitting multiple jobs to Deadline at the same time.

  • Fixed the UI in the Monitor’s Change Repository dialog so that changing the selected Remote Server will populate the port input box with the previously used value for that option, rather than resetting the input box to the default port.

Application Plugin Improvements

  • All render plugins will now use Python 3.7.12 by default. Learn more about how to switch Python versions for individual plugins.

  • The Python version is now logged in the job output

Adobe Media Encoder

  • Added support for Adobe Media Encoder 2019 and 2020

Cinema 4D

  • Added support for Cinema 4D R25

Nuke

  • Fixed a syntax error in Python script running in Nuke 13

Event Plugin Improvements

All event plugins will now use Python 3.7.12 by default. Learn more about how to switch Python versions for all plugins.

Deadline 10.1.19.4

This release adds support for Corona 7 Standalone, Corona 7 DR, and Corona 6 DR. Several render plugins are now using Python 3 by default. Usability improvements for Secrets Management, other minor improvements and various bug fixes are included in this release as well.

Upgrading

Warning

Deadline Client applications for Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only connect to a Remote Connection Server (RCS) with a minimum version of 10.1.13. If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.12 or earlier, you must upgrade your RCS before upgrading any connecting Clients.

Deadline Workers for Deadline 10.1.12 and earlier will not be able to render Arnold, Max, Maya, or RenderMan jobs with Usage Based Licensing (UBL) when connecting to a License Forwarder with a minimum version of 10.1.13. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only support UBL for these applications when using AMIs with Deadline Worker versions 10.1.13 or later. If you have built Custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require UBL, you will need to build and use new AMIs with a minimum version of 10.1.13.

Info

We recommend updating your MongoDB database to the latest available 4.2.X version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

We recommend using GPG to verify the authenticity of the Deadline installers for Linux. Learn more about the verification steps here.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

Secrets Management Improvements

  • Added ability to rotate the master key in the Deadline Monitor.

  • Added ability to remove identities from the Deadline Monitor.

  • Added additional Deadline commands to assist with automated identity registration for Secrets Management. See the full list of commands.

  • Managing identities in the Deadline Monitor now only requires admin credentials. The Monitor no longer requires having a secrets management role.

Application Plugin Improvements

The following render plugins are now Python 2/3 compatible and will use Python 3 by default. Learn more about how to switch Python versions for individual plugins.

  • After Effects

  • Arnold

  • Cinema 4D

  • Mantra

  • Nuke

  • RenderMan

  • Maya Batch

  • Houdini

  • Redshift

Blender

  • Fixed an issue where the integrated installer removes the plugin’s Client folder in the Deadline Repository files.

Cinema 4D

  • Fixed an issue where jobs that failed due to license errors were displaying “Rendering” instead of “Failed”.

Corona Standalone

  • Added support for Corona 7 Standalone.

  • Added support for Corona 6 and 7 DR.

Houdini

  • RenderMan 23 export jobs from Houdini are now submitted properly submitted.

  • Fixed an issue where the integrated installer removes the plugin’s Client folder in the Deadline Repository files.

Maya

  • Added support for Maya 2019, 2020, and 2022 when using V-Ray Spawner.

  • Redshift export jobs can now use custom output path.

RenderMan

  • Added a special token to represent frames in the file path.

Deadline 10.1.18.5

Upgrading

Warning

Deadline Client applications for Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only connect to a Remote Connection Server (RCS) with a minimum version of 10.1.13. If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.12 or earlier, you must upgrade your RCS before upgrading any connecting Clients.

Deadline Workers for Deadline 10.1.12 and earlier will not be able to render Arnold, Max, Maya, or Renderman jobs with Usage Based Licensing (UBL) when connecting to a License Forwarder with a minium version of 10.1.13. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only support UBL for these applications when using AMIs with Deadline Worker versions 10.1.13 or later. If you have built Custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require UBL, you will need to build and use new AMIs with a minimum version of 10.1.13.

Info

We recommend updating your MongoDB database to the latest available 4.2.X version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

We recommend using GPG to verify the authenticity of the Deadline installers for Linux. Learn more about the verification steps here.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Added an “Advanced TLS Options” section to the Repository selection window when using a Remote Connection Server (RCS). It supports a new option to connect to the RCS with just a CA certificate.

  • The Resource Tracker now uses the “Number of minutes before an unresponsive Worker is marked as Stalled” from the Repository Options to determine if a Worker is healthy or not.

  • Updating the local PythonSync package on the Deadline Client is now part of the auto-upgrade process.

  • The Repository installer now only requires ‘root’ privileges on Linux if a new MongoDB database is being installed, or if open permissions are being set on the Repository folder.

  • Fixed an “unable to authenticate” error that could occur in the Repository installer when updating a TLS-enabled Repository/Database.

  • .NET Core version updated to 3.1.116.

Monitor Improvements

  • The “Test” button in the Job Dependency panel now updates the colors of the node labels. Previously, only the socket colors were updated.

  • The “View Worker History” window now uses the YYYY/MM/DD date format, which is consistent with how dates are formatted everywhere else.

Application Plugin Improvements

Houdini

  • Fixed an error in the Houdini submitter when checking the version of Python being used.

Event Plugin Improvements

Spot Event Plugin

  • The Spot Event Plugin now respects Plugin-level Limits.

Deadline 10.1.17.4

This release adds support for Corona 6 Standalone. The Standalone Python API is now Python 2/3 compatible. Various bug fixes and minor improvements are included in this release as well.

Upgrading

Warning

Deadline Client applications for Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only connect to a Remote Connection Server (RCS) with a minimum version of 10.1.13. If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.12 or earlier, you must upgrade your RCS before upgrading any connecting Clients.

Deadline Workers for Deadline 10.1.12 and earlier will not be able to render Arnold, Max, Maya, or Renderman jobs with Usage Based Licensing (UBL) when connecting to a License Forwarder with a minium version of 10.1.13. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only support UBL for these applications when using AMIs with Deadline Worker versions 10.1.13 or later. If you have built Custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require UBL, you will need to build and use new AMIs with a minimum version of 10.1.13.

Info

We recommend updating your MongoDB database to the latest available 4.2.X version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

We recommend using GPG to verify the authenticity of the Deadline installers for Linux. Learn more about the verification steps here.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Allow Deadline Workers to use ‘Workers Excluded From Limit’ feature in Limit creation panel for limits with AWS exclusive UBL products selected (Autodesk + Renderman).

  • Changed repository settings importer to skip importing settings that already exist instead of failing.

  • Fixed incorrect help text for SetUserForUserGroup in the deadline command.

Scripting Improvements

  • The Standalone Python API is now Python 2/3 compatible.

Web Service Improvements

  • Removed the support for executing a non-script command.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added Corona 3, 4, 5, and 6 parameters to 3dsMax.

Corona Standalone

  • Added support for Corona 6 Standalone.

Houdini

  • Now creating Redshift output paths before rendering in the Houdini plugin.

Nuke

  • Fixed an import issue when trying to import re.Match.

Deadline 10.1.16.9

This is a patch release for 10.1.16.6 and 10.1.16.8 that fixes an issue with Spot Event Plugin workers failing to report their health. Refer to the 10.1.16.6 and 10.1.16.8 sections below for the complete release notes.

Deadline 10.1.16.8

This patch release includes minor improvements. See the release notes below for more information.

Upgrading

Warning

Deadline Client applications for Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only connect to a Remote Connection Server (RCS) with a minimum version of 10.1.13. If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.12 or earlier, you must upgrade your RCS before upgrading any connecting Clients.

Deadline Workers for Deadline 10.1.12 and earlier will not be able to render Arnold, Max, Maya, or Renderman jobs with Usage Based Licensing (UBL) when connecting to a License Forwarder with a minium version of 10.1.13. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only support UBL for these applications when using AMIs with Deadline Worker versions 10.1.13 or later. If you have built Custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require UBL, you will need to build and use new AMIs with a minimum version of 10.1.13.

Info

We recommend updating your MongoDB database to the latest available 4.2.X version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

We recommend using GPG to verify the authenticity of the Deadline installers for Linux. Learn more about the verification steps here.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • The Client installer simplifies the process of choosing to install the normal Deadline Client, the Remote Connection Server, and the Deadline Web Service.

  • The Deadline Repository and Client bin directories have improved file permissions. We recommend you upgrade to improve your overall access control. See the Repository Installation and Client Installation documentations for more information.

Deadline 10.1.16.6

This release adds support for 3ds Max 2022, Maya 2022, After Effects 2021, Cinema 4D S24 and Nuke 13. It also adds Amazon DocumentDB as an alternative database choice when installing the Deadline Repository. Various bug fixes and minor improvements are included in this release as well.

Upgrading

Warning

Deadline Client applications for Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only connect to a Remote Connection Server (RCS) with a minimum version of 10.1.13. If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.12 or earlier, you must upgrade your RCS before upgrading any connecting Clients.

Deadline Workers for Deadline 10.1.12 and earlier will not be able to render Arnold, Max, Maya, or Renderman jobs with Usage Based Licensing (UBL) when connecting to a License Forwarder with a minium version of 10.1.13. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.13 and later can only support UBL for these applications when using AMIs with Deadline Worker versions 10.1.13 or later. If you have built Custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require UBL, you will need to build and use new AMIs with a minimum version of 10.1.13.

Info

We recommend updating your MongoDB database to the latest available 4.2.X version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

We recommend using GPG to verify the authenticity of the Deadline installers for Linux. Learn more about the verification steps here.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Added Amazon DocumentDB as an alternative to MongoDB in the Repository installer.

  • Updated all AWS instance metadata calls to use IMDSv2.

  • In the Client installer on Linux and macOS, a user account must be specified to install the Launcher as a daemon.

  • Fixed an issue where the Repository installer failed to connect to a MongoDB database that was installed manually.

  • Fixed an issue when upgrading to Deadline 10.1.11 or later that occurs when the MongoDB database requires a certificate password.

  • Fixed an issue on macOS that was blocking access to the RCS certificate.

  • The Deadline Repository and Client bin directories have improved file permissions. We recommend you upgrade to improve your overall access control. See the Repository Installation and Client Installation documentations for more information.

  • Increased the number of worker logs that are shown in the worker report panel from 256 to 1000.

  • Specified that AWS instance metadata is a strict requirement when using Deadline on AWS (including AWS Portal and the Spot Event Plugin). See AWS EC2 Considerations for more information.

Launcher Improvements

  • The Deadline Launcher service on Windows no longer gets stuck in a “stopping” state when it receives multiple requests to stop.

Web Service Improvements

  • The Deadline Web Service now supports TLS.

  • Listening port is now configured using the local deadline.ini file, instead of a global Repository setting.

Command Improvements

  • Improved general help text for deadlinecommand.

  • The RunCommandForRepository command now accepts passwords from stdin.

Scripting Improvements

  • The Standalone Python API now supports connecting to a TLS-enabled Web Service.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added support for 3ds Max 2022.

After Effects

  • Added support for Adobe After Effects 2021.

Cinema 4D

  • Added support for Cinema 4D S24.

  • Fixed the default path for R23 on macOS in the Cinema4DBatch plugin.

Houdini

  • Improved frame range support in the Houdini Submitter.

  • Improved path mapping performance.

Maya

  • Added support for Maya 2022.

  • Fixed an issue where dependent Draft jobs in Maya failed to submit when AOVs were turned on.

Nuke

  • Added support for Nuke 13.

Deadline 10.1.15.2

This release adds support for both MongoDB 4.2 and Amazon DocumentDB with engine 4.0.0, and updates the Deadline Repository Installer to install MongoDB 4.2.12. It is recommended to update to MongoDB 4.2, as 3.6 is no longer supported by the vendor. Deadline will still work with existing installs of MongoDB 3.6.

This release increases the number of workers allowed in License Free Mode to 10, support for VRED 2020 and 2021, and some general improvements.

This release removes support for Debian 8, and Ubuntu 16.04 and older. This release adds support for Debian 9. Please review the Deadline System Requirements before upgrading to this version.

Upgrading

It is advised that you update MongoDB to the latest available 4.2.X version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

Warning

10.1.15 Deadline Clients can only connect to a Deadline Remote Connection Server (RCS) with a minimum version of 10.1.13. If you are upgrading from a pre-10.1.13 version, you must upgrade your RCS before upgrading any connecting Clients.

AWS Portal

If you use AWS Portal, there are special instructions that need to be taken to upgrade Deadline. Please follow the “Instructions for Updating Deadline when using AWS Portal” section in the User Manual for the detailed instructions.

Warning

Deadline Workers pre-10.1.13 will not be able to render Arnold, Max, Maya, Renderman jobs with usage-based licensing when connecting to a 10.1.15 License Forwarder. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.15 will be incompatible for rendering these jobs with AMIs that have Deadline Worker versions pre-10.1.13 installed.

If you have built custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require third-party usage-based licensing, you will need to build and use new ones with a Deadline 10.1.13 or newer version of the Deadline Client installed.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Increased the number of workers allowed in License Free mode from 2 to 10.

  • Deadline now supports MongoDB 4.2 and installs MongoDB 4.2.12 for new Repository installs.

  • Fixed a bug which could cause Remote Commands to fail to run when sending a command to a repository path that contains whitespace.

  • Fixed an issue which caused the Remote Connection Server to not accept requests when behind an Application Load Balancer.

  • Added the ability to specify passwords in the Deadline Installers and Deadline Command using Env:<EnvVariable> formatting.

  • Added support for additional AWS regions, including GovCloud and China, for Free on AWS licensing.

  • Upgraded .NET Core to version 3.1.113.

  • Fixes a bug which causes the DeadlineSandbox to fail when overriding the PATH environment variable.

  • Enforce that at most one Remote Connection Server can run at the same time on a machine.

Application Plugin Improvements

  • Made changes to the Blender, Houdini, Maya, Nuke integrated submitters to be installable without a connection to the repository, and to be installable without administrator permissions.

3ds Max

  • Exposes the last submitted JobID, last submitted Tile Assembler JobID, and the submitted scene path to maxscript.

Cinema 4D

  • Added the ability to disable OpenGL from the integrated Submitter.

  • Fixed a bug introduced in 10.1.14 which caused the submitter to fail to open for Cinema 4D R22 and lower.

VRED

  • Added support for VRED 2020 and 2021

V-Ray

  • Updated Plugin and Submitter Icons.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Added Houdini 18.5 AMIs.

  • Fixes issue where Spot fleet requests did not appear in the Deadline monitor.

Event Plugin Improvements

Spot

  • Fixed minor UI issues with the Spot Event Configuration Utility script.

Deadline 10.1.14.5

This is a patch release for 10.1.14.4 that fixes an issue that prevented the Deadline Web Service from serving requests. Refer to the 10.1.14.4 section below for the complete release notes.

Deadline 10.1.14.4

Deadline is currently undergoing the process of migrating from Python 2 to Python 3, and this release includes an experimental feature to dynamically switch between these versions. Python 2 remains the default, but if you make use of custom scripts or workflows within Deadline, see our Python 3 Upgrade Guide for more information.

This release includes a new Spot Event configuration utility to simplify the configuration of the Spot Event Plugin, and adds support for Redshift 3. Some general bug fixes and improvements are also included.

This release removes support for Windows 8.1. Please review the Deadline System Requirements before upgrading to this version.

Upgrading

It is advised that you update MongoDB to the latest available 3.6.x version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

Warning

10.1.14 Deadline Clients can only connect to a Deadline Remote Connection Server (RCS) with a minimum version of 10.1.13. If you are upgrading from a pre-10.1.13 version, you must upgrade your RCS before upgrading any connecting Clients.

AWS Portal

If you use AWS Portal, there are special instructions and ordering to be taken to upgrade Deadline. Please follow Instructions for Updating Deadline when using AWS Portal for the detailed instructions.

Warning

Deadline Workers pre-10.1.13 will not be able to render Arnold, Max, Maya, and Renderman jobs with usage-based licensing when connecting to a 10.1.14 License Forwarder. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.14 will be incompatible for rendering these jobs with AMIs that have Deadline Worker versions pre-10.1.13 installed.

If you have built Custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require third-party usage-based licensing, you will need to build and use new ones with a Deadline 10.1.13 or newer version of the Client installed.

Spot Event Plugin

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 and earlier and use the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps:

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Deadline can now execute plugins and scripts in either Python 2 or Python 3. Python 2 remains the default, but plugins and scripts can be customized to use Python 3 instead.

  • Upgraded .NET Core to version 3.1.111.

Command Improvements

  • Improved the help formatting for several commands.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added a popup ignorer for “SiNi Software” dialogs that can occasionally block network rendering.

Cinema 4D

  • The default C4D plugin folder is automatically added to the search paths when rendering with Cinema 4D R23, which works around a known issue in R23.

  • When exporting a project before submission using the integrated submitter, it is only exported once and the active scene is no longer modified.

Modo

  • Fixed a bug that would remove reference files from the Modo scene file during path mapping.

Redshift

  • Added support for Redshift 3.

Event Plugin Improvements

Spot

  • A new Spot Event Configuration Utility script has been added to the Scripts menu in the Monitor (under Scripts > Configuration). This utility simplifies the configuration of the Spot Event Plugin.

Deadline 10.1.13.2

This release has two main areas of improvement. First, this release expands third-party application support to include Houdini 18.5, Nuke 12.2, V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max, and After Effects 17.5. The AWS Portal AMIs for 3ds Max and Maya now use V-Ray 5 and a new Cinema4D R23 AMI with Arnold is now available. In addition, notable improvements were made to the performance of a Deadline render farm when using the Remote Connection Server. The release also addressed bugs in third-party integrations.

Upgrading

It is advised that you update MongoDB to the latest available 3.6.x version for the latest security/performance updates and bug fixes.

Warning

Deadline Clients with version 10.1.13 or later can only connect to Remote Connection Servers that are also version 10.1.13 or later. If you configure clients to connect to a Remote Connection Server, please upgrade the Remote Connection Server first.

AWS Portal

If you use AWS Portal, there are special instructions and ordering to be taken to upgrade Deadline. Please follow Instructions for Updating Deadline when using AWS Portal for the detailed instructions.

Warning

Deadline Workers with versions earlier than 10.1.13 will not be able to render Arnold, 3ds Max, Maya, Renderman jobs with usage-based licensing when connecting to a 10.1.13 or later version of the Deadline License Forwarder. Due to this restriction, AWS Portal infrastructures launched from Deadline 10.1.13 or later will be incompatible for rendering these jobs with AMIs that have Deadline Worker versions earlier than 10.1.13 installed.

If you have built Custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for AWS Portal using these applications and require third-party usage-based licensing, you will need to build and use new ones with a Deadline 10.1.13 or newer version of the Client installed.

Spot Event Plugin

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 and earlier and use the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps:

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Made performance improvements to the Remote Connection Server and its commmunication with Workers

  • Repository installer now installs MongoDB 3.6.21

  • Added ability to disable TLS on Deadline Database by re-running the Repository installer

  • Arnold, Max, Maya, and Renderman usage-based licensing can be used on AWS outside of AWS Portal

  • Deadline Linux installers are now code-signed with GPG

  • Fixed an issue where auto-upgrades on Linux would not update libssl or libcrypto

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Added C4D R23 AMI with Arnold

  • Updated to V-Ray version 5 for the Maya and 3ds Max AWS Portal AMIs

Scripting Improvements

  • Deprecated RepositoryUtils.AddOrUpdatePluginConfigSetting and replaced with RepositoryUtils.AddOrUpdateEventPluginConfigSetting

  • Deprecated RepositoryUtils.DeletePluginConfigSetting and replaced with RepositoryUtils.DeleteEventPluginConfigSetting

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added support for V-Ray 5 with 3ds Max

  • Allowed specifying frames per task for V-Ray Standalone export workflow

  • Fixed 3ds Max SMTD V-Ray Standalone Workflow bug where exporting in file per frame mode was always saving the first frame only

  • Fixed bug in IFL path mapping and asset transfer

After Effects

  • Added support for After Effects 17.5

Houdini

  • Added support for Houdini 18.5

  • Changed the integrated submitter to use Houdini packages

Maya

  • Fixed a MayaBatch plugin GPU Affinity error when the “VRAY_GPU_PLATFORMS” environment variable is not set

Nuke

  • Added support for Nuke 12.2

V-Ray

  • Added (CUDA) and (RTX) options to the “V-Ray RT” engine options of the V-Ray Standalone plugin, the V-Ray Monitor submitter, and the 3ds Max SMTD V-Ray Standalone export Workflow

Event Plugin Improvements

FTrack

  • FTrack updated to version 2.0.0

NIM

  • Updated NIM python client to use the latest 4.0.x version.

Spot

  • Fixed a bug where idle on-demand instances were terminated if they contained Workers for the same Deadline group configured with the Spot Event Plugin.

Deadline 10.1.12.1

This release of Deadline adds support for Cinema 4D R23 and V-Ray 5 for Maya. Some general improvements and bug fixes are also included. The Messiah plugin is no longer included in the Deadline Repository installer, and it can now be downloaded from the Thinkbox Downloads website.

Upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or Earlier

If you use AWS Portal or the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps when you upgrade:

AWS Portal

  • When you upgrade Deadline, you must also upgrade to the latest AWS Portal Server.

  • AWS Portal requires new permissions on your AWS Portal IAM User. Learn more about how to grant the required permissions.

  • You must stop any running AWS Portal infrastructures before you upgrade Deadline or change your AWS Portal IAM User’s permissions.

Spot Event Plugin

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Fixed an issue on macOS Catalina that could prevent Client applications like deadlinecommand from running.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Increased the default Idle Auto Shutdown in the AWS Portal Fleet configuration from 1 minute to 5 minutes.

Worker Improvements

  • A job with a single task and a post-job script will now trigger the OnJobFail event if the job fails.

  • Removed unnecessary blank lines from Worker logs, and prefixed certain error messages with “ERROR” to make them easier to find.

Command Improvements

  • Fixed a validation inconsistency when creating Groups using DeadlineCommand. A case-insensitive check is now performed on the Group name.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added support for V-Ray GPU rendering to the V-Ray Standalone workflow in SMTD.

Cinema 4D

  • Added support for Cinema 4D R23.

Maya

  • V-Ray 5 for Maya is now supported.

  • V-Ray GPU Affinity can now be set when using the MayaBatch plugin.

Event Plugin Improvements

Spot

  • Fixed a “Server Data not found” error that could occur after upgrading from 10.1.10 or earlier. This backwards compatibility issue is only present in the previous 10.1.11 release.

Deadline 10.1.11.5

This release of Deadline adds support for Fusion 16 and for Usage Based Licensing on AWS for RenderMan Standalone, RenderMan for Maya, and RenderMan for Houdini. Some general improvements and bug fixes are also included.

Upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or Earlier

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or earlier, and you are using AWS Portal or the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps when you upgrade:

AWS Portal

  • When you upgrade Deadline, you must also upgrade to the latest AWS Portal Server.

  • AWS Portal requires new permissions on your AWS Portal IAM User. Learn more about how to grant the required permissions.

  • You must stop any running AWS Portal infrastructures before you upgrade Deadline or change your AWS Portal IAM User’s permissions.

Spot Event Plugin

Upgrading from Deadline 10.1.10.6 or Earlier

Spot Event Plugin

Upgrading from Deadline 10.1.10.6 or Earlier

If you use the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps when you upgrade:

  • Ensure any Spot Fleets that are currently in use are terminated before proceeding with the upgrade.

  • Upgrade all Deadline Clients, including Monitors, RCS, Pulse, and Workers to the latest version.

  • Use the latest version of the Deadline Monitor to configure the Spot Event Plugin again. This is important, otherwise Deadline will report “Server Data not found” when trying to launch a new Fleet.

  • When configuring the Spot Event Plugin again, note that Pools and Groups now need to be entered separately. Refer to the documentation for information.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Added new Deadline commands for importing/exporting of Deadline Repository Settings.

  • DeadlineCommand --RenderJob now can be used without connection to a Deadline server of any kind by specifying the —standalone flag.

  • Documentation for the ScriptControl class is now included in the Deadline Scripting Reference.

  • “ERROR:” has been added to more log messages, making them easier to spot.

  • Installer now creates proper network permissions for the RCS when usernames contain spaces on Windows.

  • MongoDB credentials are now stored in secure local storage.

  • Updated MongoDB version to 3.6.19

  • Added the “command line monitor” preview feature. This allows running the monitor in a console via the -nogui flag.

  • Changed Worker file-syncing behavior to correctly handle run-as-user workflows.

  • Deprecated the “Use /tmp for worker data” setting for Linux workers. New versions of the Linux Worker no longer need this to function with run-as-user workflows, and will ignore the setting.

  • Added SQS notifications about Deadline events (beta).

  • Fixed a bug where a cloned region could be named ALL or NONE (which are reserved names).

  • Fixed an issue with Single Frame Tile jobs rendering incorrect frames for each tile.

  • Fixed an issue with AbortRender failing the task.

  • Fixed an issue when the Worker cannot be woken up if UBL limit is applied to a job.

  • Fixed a bug where trying to restore the Worker, Pulse, or Balancer application causes a crash on macOS if “Hide When Minimized” was enabled.

  • Fixed a bug where restoring the Worker, Pulse, or Balancer application did not cause them to activate (bring to forefront).

  • Fixed a visual bug on macOS where the scaling of a few dialog windows (“Configure Repository Options” and “Configure Worker Scheduling”) prevented users from accepting or cancelling.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Added support for RenderMan 23.4 Standalone Usage Based Licensing on AWS.

  • Added support for RenderMan 23.4 Usage Based Licensing for Maya on AWS.

  • Added support for RenderMan 23.4 Usage Based Licensing for Houdini on AWS.

  • Added new RenderMan 23.4 Standalone AMI.

  • Added new Maya 2018, 2019, and 2020 AMIs with Renderman 23.4.

  • Added new Houdini with RenderMan 23.4 AMI.

  • Fixed a bug that caused task interruption on UBL licensing error when rendering V-Ray/Yeti jobs on AWS Portal.

  • Fixed UBL licensing error for Katana and Maxwell preventing license checkouts.

Application Plugin Improvements

Cinema 4D

  • Fixed an issue with using the $take token in the output path.

  • Adding the ability to suppress Redshift floating license acquisition in C4D. This can be done by setting the environment variable REDSHIFT_LICENSE_MAXON_DISABLE to “True” or by submitting a non-Redshift render through the integrated submitter.

Command Line

  • Progress reporting now works when using “Execute in shell” option.

Fusion

  • Added support for Fusion 16.

Houdini

  • When rendering with RenderMan, render progress is now reported properly.

  • Override Output now works correctly with RenderMan 22 or higher.

  • Added NIM to the supported project management settings when using the Houdini integrated submitter.

Maya

  • RenderMan 22 and higher will now generate texture files (.tex) automatically.

Octane

  • Fixed a bug in Octane Standalone renderer where start and end frames were not being respected.

RenderMan

  • Added support for Usage Based Licensing for RenderMan on AWS.

  • RenderMan Standalone can now take into account Deadline’s path mapping settings.

Event Plugin Improvements

  • Spot Even Plugin now uses default boto3 credentials if local credentials are not configured.

  • Data transfer between the Remote Connection Server and Spot Instances spun up by the Spot Event Plugin has been reduced significantly.

Deadline 10.1.10.6

This release of Deadline introduces the Secrets Management feature, which securely stores secrets (passwords and API keys) managed by Deadline, and also supports the secure storage and retrieval of custom secrets.

For more details, please refer to the Deadline Secrets Management documentation.

This release also adds the ability to use multiple Remote Connection Servers (RCS) with an Application Load Balancer (ALB), automatic upgrade of the Resource Tracker, performance improvements, and other bug fixes.

Upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or Earlier

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or earlier, and you are using AWS Portal or the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps when you upgrade:

AWS Portal

  • When you upgrade Deadline, you must also upgrade to the latest AWS Portal Server.

  • AWS Portal requires new permissions on your AWS Portal IAM User. Learn more about how to grant the required permissions.

  • You must stop any running AWS Portal infrastructures before you upgrade Deadline or change your AWS Portal IAM User’s permissions.

Spot Event Plugin

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Improves performance for the Worker and sandbox with reduced network usage between the Worker and the Remote Connection Server (RCS) or Deadline Repository.

  • Adds ability to run multiple Remote Connection Server (RCS) with an Application Load Balancer (ALB) for increased redundancy. Tutorial here

Repository Installer

  • Running the repository installer provides you with the option to use Deadline Secrets Management, and is strongly recommended.

  • Note that Deadline Secrets Management is intended to be used with a Remote Connection Server only. Therefore, Secret Dependent features will not function when using Direct Connection.

  • An Administrator user will need to be created at install time to properly manage secrets.

Monitor

  • The Manage Identities user interface has been added, which requires Administrator credentials to access, and can only be used over Remote Connection.

Command:

  • New Administrator Commands have been added, which all start with the keyword Secrets. These are used to create new admins, allow Servers to decrypt and encrypt secrets, and perform key rotations. For more information about all of the new Administrator commands, please refer to the Deadline Secrets Management documentation.

  • GetRepositoryOption, GetRepositoryOptionsWithValues, SetRepositoryOption now all manage repository setting secrets through Deadline Secrets Management, if it is enabled. This means that the machine running DeadlineCommand will need the correct Assigned Role to retrieve and store secret values.

  • Improves the json output of several DeadlineCommand commands.

  • Fixes minor issues with the NoJson and Prompt commands

  • Fixes several small DeadlineCommand bugs

  • Deprecates saving database credentials using UpdateDatabaseSettings, UpdateMongoDBSettings and UpdateDocumentDBSettings. Please use StoreDatabaseCredentials for saving credentials.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Deadline will now automatically upgrade the Resource Tracker to the latest version.

Spot Event Plugin

  • Deadline will now automatically upgrade the Resource Tracker to the latest version.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Fixes a bug where IFL files couldn’t be found when using Python 3.

Deadline 10.1.9.2

This release adds support for Cinema 4D R22 and Octane 2018/2019 for Cinema 4D. It also includes general improvements and bug fixes.

Upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or Earlier

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or earlier, and you are using AWS Portal or the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps when you upgrade:

AWS Portal

  • When you upgrade Deadline, you must also upgrade to the latest AWS Portal Server.

  • AWS Portal requires new permissions on your AWS Portal IAM User. Learn more about how to grant the required permissions.

  • You must stop any running AWS Portal infrastructures before you upgrade Deadline or change your AWS Portal IAM User’s permissions.

Spot Event Plugin

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Fixed the Support Website link in the Help menu in the Deadline applications.

  • Added options to the Client installer to start the RCS on Launcher startup, and to restart the RCS if it stops running.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Fixed an error in the AWS Portal Link installer that occurred when a deleted Infrastructure was still present in the Infrastructure panel.

  • Fixed an issue with AWS Portal Link on Windows that prevented it from connecting to the AWS Portal Infrastructure if the user’s home directory contained a space.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Renderer properties for Octane 4, 2018, and 2019 can now be modified after the job has been submitted.

Cinema 4D

  • Added support for Cinema 4D R22.

  • Added support for Octane 2018 and 2019 for Cinema 4D.

modo

  • Fixed an error in the integrated submitter that occurred if the scene had not been saved yet.

Octane

  • Made various improvements to the Octane standalone job submitter.

Deadline 10.1.8.5

This release adds support for Clarisse 4, Clarisse BUiLDER, Nuke 12.1, Octane 2018 and Octane 2019 as well as various bug fixes and general improvements.

Upgrading from Deadline 10.1.7.1 or Earlier

If you use AWS Portal or the Spot Event Plugin, then you will need to perform some additional steps when you upgrade:

AWS Portal

  • When you upgrade Deadline, you must also upgrade to the latest AWS Portal Server.

  • AWS Portal requires new permissions on your AWS Portal IAM User. Learn more about how to grant the required permissions.

  • You must stop any running AWS Portal infrastructures before you upgrade Deadline or change your AWS Portal IAM User’s permissions.

Spot Event Plugin

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Added ability for SEP House Cleaning functionality to run on EC2 instances using IAM Roles

  • Added Health Check API and additional alarms to the Deadline RCS

  • Upgraded various Python dependencies used by Deadline via the pythonsync folder in the Deadline Repository:

    • boto3 1.9.86 -> 1.11.13

    • botocore 1.12.86 -> 1.15.2

    • jmespath 0.9.3 -> 0.9.4

    • python-dateutil 2.6.1 -> 2.8.1

    • requests 2.13.0 -> 2.23.0

    • shotgun_api3 3.2.0 -> 3.2.2

    • six 1.10.0 -> 1.14.0

  • Upgraded Python for .NET dependency from v1.0.0 to v2.4.0

AWS Portal Improvements

Identity and Access Management (IAM) Changes

  • AWS Portal now uses AWS managed IAM policies. Now you can find our AWS Portal IAM Policies directly in the AWS Console, instead of copying them from our documentation.

  • Changed the IAM permissions required on your AWS Portal IAM User. Learn more about how to grant the required permissions.

  • Changed how AWS Portal creates IAM resources in your account. Now we create IAM resources when you install the AWS Portal Server. To grant the permissions required to do this, you will need an Administrator IAM User.

Asset Server

  • Changed when we create the Asset Server S3 bucket in your AWS account. Now we create the S3 bucket when you log into the AWS Portal panel in the Deadline Monitor, in the region you choose to log in to. Previously we created the bucket in the AWS Portal Server installer instead.

  • Removed the “Choose Bucket” and “Fix Policies” buttons from the Asset Server Settings dialog. Any new S3 bucket created via the “Create Bucket” button will have a “aws-portal-cache” prefix.

3ds Max 2021 AMI

  • Added a new AMI for 3ds Max 2021 with support for both V-Ray and Arnold.

Spot Event Plugin Improvements

Resource Tracker Improvements

  • Enhanced UserAgent messaging in Resource Tracker’s Lambda script(s) to allow easy identification of API calls originating from the Resource Tracker in AWS Cloud Trail.

  • Now you must create an IAM Role in your AWS Account prior to using the Resource Tracker. Learn more about how to create the Resource Tracker IAM Role.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Fixed a bug in SubmitMaxToDeadline when using IFL (Image File List) where Python errors were not being caught and handled properly

Clarisse

  • Added support for Clarisse 4

  • Added support for Clarisse BUiLDER

Nuke

  • Added support for Nuke 12.1

Octane

  • Added support for Octane 2018 and 2019

Deadline 10.1.7.1

This release includes support for Keyshot 9.2 as well as various bug fixes and general improvements.

Complete Release Notes

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Changed the Deadline Worker Base image AMI to use Amazon Linux 2

  • Update 3ds Max AWS Portal AMIs to use V-Ray Next Update 3.2

Worker Improvements

  • Fixed a bug that caused jobs that used the run-as-user feature to fail on Linux

Application Plugin Improvements

3dsMax

  • Fixed a bug that prevent path mapping of nested xrefs when using AWS Portal

Houdini

  • Fixed a bug where various switch nodes would cause submission from the Deadline ROP to fail.

Octane

  • Added batch render save options to the Octane Monitor Submitter

Redshift

  • Switched to using environment variables to apply GPU settings instead of command line arguments

KeyShot

  • Added support for version 9.2

  • Added support for headless mode

  • Added render progress (non-windows Workers only)

  • Added prefilling of render width and height

  • Added support for KSP files in the integrated submitter

Event Plugin Improvements

  • Fixed a bug in the Spot Event Plug-in which prevented workers from being associated with multiple pools

  • Reduced the amount of Event Metadata Save calls in the Spot Event Plugin. This requires updating both the Worker and Spot Event Plugin.

Deadline 10.1.6.4

This release adds support for 3ds Max 2021 and KeyShot 9, and adds a new Maya 2019 AMI to AWS Portal. It also includes some minor bug fixes and general improvements, and updates the .NET Core Runtime to version 3.1.

This release no longer includes the five cloud plugins that were deprecated in Deadline 10.1.4 (Amazon, Azure, Google, OpenStack, and vCenter). The deprecated Balancer and Monitor Cloud Panel will continue to be included until Q1 2021.

This release removes support for the following operating systems. Please review the Deadline System Requirements before upgrading to this version.

  • Windows: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008

  • Linux: Ubuntu 14.XX and 15.XX, Debian 8, Fedora 24-29, CentOS/RHEL 6

  • MacOS: 10.12 (Sierra)

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Updated the .NET Core Runtime to version 3.1.

  • The Client installer now provides more information about the available connection and licensing options.

  • By default, the Client installer now places the RCS certificate in a new “certs” folder in the Client installation folder.

  • The Client installer now properly updates the deadline.ini configuration file when setting the “–connectiontype” command line option to “Remote”.

  • When connecting to an existing database, the Repository installer now attempts to set the path to the existing TLS certificate automatically.

  • The “none” pool can now be set as the Secondary Pool for a job.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Added a new Maya 2019 AMI.

  • Maya/Redshift and Houdini/Redshift AMIs for AWS Portal now include version 440.64 of the NVidia driver, allowing them to be used on g4 instances.

  • When an AWS Portal Infrastructure is stopped, it is now kept in the AWS Portal panel until it is manually deleted. This allows you to still access the infrastructure’s information and CloudWatch logs.

  • Fixed an issue in AWS Portal Link that prevented Worker log streaming, and also blocked the connection to the AWS Asset Server.

Worker Improvements

  • Fixed an issue where the Worker would prematurely return Limits when rendering jobs with concurrent tasks.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added support for 3ds Max 2021

  • Fixed an issue where the machine limit for V-Ray and Corona DBR Offload jobs was not being respected.

Houdini

  • The default Linux path for Houdini 18 is now configured correctly.

KeyShot

  • Added support for KeyShot 9.

Event Plugin Improvements

Ftrack

  • The Ftrack API version is now logged.

Deadline 10.1.5.1

The AWS Portal Link application has undergone major update to increase its robustness and performance. Reinstallation of AWS Portal Link is required in order to gain these benefits.

This release fixes an issue with clearing instance metadata with the database that can lead to performance problems in Deadline when running on AWS EC2. Refer to the MongoDB Clearing Metadata instructions for how to clear the metadata from leftover instances after you upgrade.

This release adds support for ETABS 2016, 17, and 18 as well as dropped support for ETABS 2013 and 2014. It also includes some minor bug fixes and general improvements.

This release adds a new AMI for Maya 2020 with support for both V-Ray and Arnold. This AMI can be used to render with Maya 2020 using Deadline’s AWS Portal feature.

This release deprecates support for the following operating systems, and support for them will be removed in a future release of Deadline. This will allow Deadline to take advantage of the features offered by the latest operating systems.

  • Windows: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008

  • Linux: Ubuntu 14.XX and 15.XX, Debian 8, Fedora 24-29, CentOS/RHEL 6

  • MacOS: 10.12 (Sierra)

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Fixed an issue that failed to identify and log CPU architecture on Linux platforms.

  • Fixed a bug in CommandLine and CommandScript plugin that would not handle quotation marks properly when running commands through a POSIX shell.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • General scaling and performance improvements.

  • Fixed a bug where instance metadata could get left behind in the database by the AWSPortal event plugin that can lead to performance problems in Deadline when running on AWS EC2. Refer to the MongoDB Clearing Metadata instructions for how to clear the metadata from leftover instances.

  • Fixed a bug where EC2 Workers running with AWS Portal Link cannot be restarted properly via remote commands.

  • Added a new AMI for Maya 2020 with support for both V-Ray and Arnold.

Resource Tracker Improvements

  • Fixed an issue with Workers not reporting to Resource Tracker correctly when workers timezone was not UTC+0.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Added setting, AbortOnArnoldLicenseFail, to the plugin to handle failed license checkouts for Arnold, the default behavior is to now fail the render.

  • Fixed an issue where the GPU fields were being ignored when exporting a dependent Redshift Standalone job from the Maya submitter.

After Effects 2020

  • Fixed bug where default paths for After Effects 2020 were incorrect.

ETABS

  • Added support for CSiETABS 2016, 17, and 18. Dropped support for ETABS 2013 and 2014.

Houdini

  • Added setting, AbortOnArnoldLicenseFail, to the plugin to handle failed license checkouts for Arnold, the default behavior is to now fail the render.

  • Added the ability to submit a standalone V-Ray job.

Maya

  • Fixed an issue in MayaBatch plugin that would perform PathMapping on the same Arnold StandIn file multiple times.

Nuke

  • Fixed an issue with Nuke Submitter “Submit write nodes as separate jobs” not being sticky.

Deadline 10.1.4.1

This is a hotfix release that fixes a Worker time zone issue in 10.1.4.0. If a Worker was running on a machine configured for a positive time zone offset (generally, countries east of GMT), it would create error reports with the following message: “The UTC time represented when the offset is applied must be between year 0 and 10,000”.

Deadline 10.1.4.0

This release adds support for Maya 2020 and V-Ray for Houdini support. It also includes some minor bug fixes and general improvements.

As we continue to evolve Deadline’s cloud integration, we have decided that we have reached the point where we can no longer provide a reasonable level of support for the Balancer and the Monitor’s Cloud panel. This release, we will begin deprecating both as well as the five supporting cloud plugins that work with these features (Amazon, Azure, Google, OpenStack, and vCenter).

The five cloud plugins will be removed in a Q2 2020 release of Deadline, and the Balancer and Monitor Cloud panel will be removed in a Q1 2021 release. We recognize that this is a disruptive change for those that use these features, and we ask that you contact Thinkbox Support so that we can assist you in migrating to a supported workflow.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Fixed an issue that caused Import Repository Settings to fail.

  • Fixed an issue where tasks might not be canceled when requested to be canceled.

Launcher Improvements

  • Launcher daemon now sets the ulimit of applications it starts to 200000 on Linux.

Remote Connection Server Improvements

  • Fixed an issue where Event Plugins were not synchronizing subdirectories correctly.

  • Fixed an issue with Task Failure Detection not working via the RCS.

  • Fixed various issues where pre/post job tasks were not being submitted or dequeued correctly via the RCS

AWS Portal Improvements

  • No longer enabling versioning on AWS Portal Cache S3 bucket. Existing buckets are unaffected. Versioning can still be enabled manually.

  • Arnold (4.0.0.73) and V Ray (4.30.01) have been updated on the 3ds Max AMIs (2018, 2019, 2020).

  • Instance type for Gateway instance is now c5.4xlarge.

  • Scaling improvements.

  • Updated instance type presets.

  • Fixed an issue with CloudWatch Logs not being uploaded from some Linux Workers.

Application Plugin Improvements

Cinema 4D

  • Fixed an issue that caused Cinema 4D R21 jobs to fail if generator objects were present and path mapping was configured.

  • Added the ability to abort render if license check for Arnold fails.

Houdini

  • Added official V-Ray support, including the ability to submit dependent V-Ray jobs.

  • Fixed an issue with fetching unnecessary information from the database during the rendering time.

Maya

  • Added Maya 2020 support.

  • Fixed a submission issue that causes the wrong preview files to be rendered.

Event Plugin Improvements

Shotgun

  • Fixed an issue with connecting to Shotgun API in the Monitor.

Deadline 10.1.3.6

This release adds support for After Effects 2020, Cinebench R20, Corona 3-5 (including Corona DR workflows), Houdini 18, Mantra 18, and V-Ray Benchmark. Mantra Usage Based Licensing has been added to the Thinkbox Marketplace, and a new 3ds Max 2020 AMI is available for AWS Portal users. Minor improvements and bug fixes are included as well.

The End User License Agreement (EULA) has been updated. Please review prior to installing or upgrading to this version.

Upgrading to Deadline 10.1.1 and Later

If you are upgrading from Deadline 9 or earlier, you will need to perform a fresh installation of the Deadline Repository and Clients.

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.0 to 10.1.1 and later (10.1.1+), there are important things to note:

  • Auto-upgrading from Deadline 10.0 to 10.1.1+ is supported, but auto-downgrading from 10.1.1+ to 10.0 is not, unless 10.0 was previously installed on the machine.

  • If you are using the Remote Connection Server (RCS), you need to upgrade the RCS to 10.1.1+ before upgrading all other Deadline Client installations to 10.1.1+. This ensures that the Clients can communicate properly with the RCS, because a 10.0 Client cannot communicate with a 10.1.1+ RCS.

  • If you are using a TLS-enabled Remote Connection Server (RCS), note that a 10.0 Client will not be able to communicate with a 10.1.1+ RCS. To upgrade from 10.0 to 10.1.1+, you will need to upgrade to 10.1.0 first, and then upgrade again to the latest 10.1.1+ version.

  • If you are using AWS Portal, you need to upgrade every AWS Portal component. This includes the Deadline Client on the machine connecting to AWS Portal, the AWS Portal Link service, any existing AWS Portal infrastructure and instances, and the IAM policy for your AWS Portal account.

Refer to the Deadline Auto-upgrading Documentation for more information.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • The CertificateInstaller (which is used if the License Forwarder has Web Forwarding enabled) is now bundled with the Deadline Client installation. It is no longer a separate download.

  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Pending Job Scan, House Cleaning, and Repository Repair operations to hang.

Thinkbox Marketplace Improvements

  • Added Mantra Usage Based Licensing to the Thinkbox Marketplace.

Worker Improvements

  • Fixed a regression that prevented the Workers from respecting Dynamic Licensing if it was enabled.

  • Cleaned up the error messages that are printed to the Worker log when the connection to the RCS is lost.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Fixed a file renaming issue that could occur when rendering with AWS Portal.

  • Fixed an error that could occur when editing existing Root Directories in the Asset Server Settings.

  • Fixed a link in an AWS Portal Link error window that was still pointing to the Deadline 10.0 documentation.

  • Improved the messaging when AWS Portal Link fails to connect.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Confirmed support for Corona 3, 4, and 5.

  • The Corona DR workflow now supports Corona 3, 4, and 5.

  • Fixed an issue with the Filter Log Messages box in SMTD.

After Effects

  • Added support for After Effects 2020.

Cinebench

  • Added support for Cinebench R20.

Cinema 4D

  • Fixed an issue with the Arnold Export and Redshift Export workflows that occurred when exporting to a UNC path.

Corona Standalone

  • Added support for Corona 3, 4, and 5.

Houdini

  • Added support for Houdini 18.

Mantra

  • Added support for Mantra 18.

V-Ray Benchmark

  • Added V-Ray Benchmark as a new standalone plugin.

Event Plugin Improvements

Ftrack

  • Fixed regressions introduced in 10.1.0 that prevented the Ftrack event plugin from working correctly.

NIM

  • Added the option to use local credentials for accessing NIM information.

Shotgun

  • The Shotgun interface used by the Deadline submission scripts now uses local Shotgun credentials.

Spot

  • Added the option to use AWS Named Profiles for credentials instead of Access Keys.

Deadline 10.1.2.2

This release of Deadline adds support for Cinema 4D to AWS Portal and the Thinkbox Marketplace. This change means that users can render with Cinema 4D on AWS Portal using usage-based licensing. AWS Portal includes a new Houdini + V-Ray AMI as well. Support for Cinema 4D R21 and Nuke 12 is also added in this release. Additionally, the Deadline Repository installer now installs Mongo 3.6.8 using the WiredTiger storage engine.

Upgrading to Deadline 10.1.1 and Later

If you are upgrading from Deadline 9 or earlier, you will need to perform a fresh installation of the Deadline Repository and Clients.

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.0 to 10.1.1 and later (10.1.1+), there are important things to note:

  • Auto-upgrading from Deadline 10.0 to 10.1.1+ is supported, but auto-downgrading from 10.1.1+ to 10.0 is not, unless 10.0 was previously installed on the machine.

  • If you are using the Remote Connection Server (RCS), you need to upgrade the RCS to 10.1.1+ before upgrading all other Deadline Client installations to 10.1.1+. This ensures that the Clients can communicate properly with the RCS, because a 10.0 Client cannot communicate with a 10.1.1+ RCS.

  • If you are using a TLS-enabled Remote Connection Server (RCS), note that a 10.0 Client will not be able to communicate with a 10.1.1+ RCS. To upgrade from 10.0 to 10.1.1+, you will need to upgrade to 10.1.0 first, and then upgrade again to the latest 10.1.1+ version.

  • If you are using AWS Portal, you need to upgrade every AWS Portal component. This includes the Deadline Client on the machine connecting to AWS Portal, the AWS Portal Link service, any existing AWS Portal infrastructure and instances, and the IAM policy for your AWS Portal account.

Refer to the Deadline Auto-upgrading Documentation for more information.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • Fixed a bug where termination signals were not being handled correctly when applications were running with a GUI.

  • Fixed a bug where the launcher would not handle termination signals if running without a GUI on Windows.

  • Fixed a bug where Limits would be validated differently depending on where they were created.

  • Fixed a bug where querying SNMP temperature sensors would report “This protocol version is not supported”.

  • Fixed a bug where Deadline would improperly determine if IPV6 could be used and would report “Cannot assign requested address issue”.

  • Fixed a bug on Windows where a large number of temporary RSA keys would be generated but weren’t being cleaned up.

  • Fixed a bug where logs would not rollover properly on a date change.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • Added Cinema 4D to our list of supported machine images in Deadline’s AWS Portal feature. The machine image is Microsoft Windows image and also comes with Arnold and V-Ray Cinema 4D preinstalled.

  • A Houdini + V-Ray AMI is now available for AWS Portal.

  • AWS Spot instances removed the need for users to set a bid price for their instances. As a result, Deadline’s AWS Portal feature has now removed the bid price from its UI.

  • The Spot Fleet Request allocation strategy has been changed to use capacity optimization.

  • Fixed a bug where the Resource Tracker would print error messages to the log when there were no errors.

Installer Improvements

  • Fixed a bug where the Client installer would fail if the TMPDIR environment variable was set to an invalid path.

Monitor Improvements

  • Fixed a bug where the Monitor would crash if the database was shutdown or not running.

Repository Improvements

  • Changed the default installation of the Deadline Repository to install Mongo 3.6.8 with the WiredTiger storage engine.

Thinkbox Marketplace

  • Added Cinema 4D Usage-Based Licenses to our Thinkbox Marketplace.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Fixed an issue where 3ds Max was producing unhandled popup window exceptions when 3ds Max language was set to use the French language.

After Effects

  • Fixed a bug where non-fatal GL errors would cause jobs to fail.

Cinema 4D

  • Added support for Cinema 4D R21.

  • Fixed a bug where export paths weren’t properly being pathmapped.

Houdini + V-Ray

  • Fixed an issue where V-Ray for Houdini would report errors, but Deadline was not reporting these tasks as failed.

Maya

  • Fixed a bug where invalid path mapping settings was causing jobs to be marked as completed even though they had not rendered.

Nuke

  • Added support for Nuke 12.

Event Plugin Improvements

Amazon

  • Added the ability to use AWS Named Profiles as credentials.

Spot

  • Fixed a bug that was causing performance issues and increased traffic to the database.

Deadline 10.1.1.3

This release adds a new Houdini + Arnold AMI and a new Keyshot AMI to AWS Portal. It also removes support for TLS 1.0/1.1 from the Remote Connection Server, and includes additional improvements and bug fixes.

Complete Release Notes

Installer Improvements

  • The Client Uninstaller on Linux now cleans up any *.pyc files in the Client folder.

Launcher Improvements

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Launcher from launching the Deadline Client applications when it’s configured to connect via a Remote Connection Server (RCS), but it is unable to communicate with it.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • A Houdini + Arnold AMI is now available for AWS Portal.

  • A Keyshot AMI is now available for AWS Portal.

  • Fixed a job auxiliary file synchronization issue that could occur when an AWS Portal Worker is requesting these files from the RCS.

Monitor Improvements

  • Fixed an “Entry DateTime” sorting issue in the Worker History Log window.

  • Fixed a “validEventNames” error that could occur when using the Job Dependency panel.

Worker Improvements

  • Fixed a NullReferenceException error that could occur when the Worker performs Housecleaning.

Remote Connection Server Improvements

  • Removed support for TLS 1.0/1.1 from the RCS.

  • Fixed a memory leak in the RCS when using TLS.

  • Fixed an issue that caused the RCS to ignore CPU Affinity and Concurrent Task Override settings when dequeuing a task for a Worker.

Command Improvements

  • Added GetPluginLimitGroups and SetPluginLimitGroups commands to get/set plugin-level Limits.

  • Fixed an issue that prevented deadlinecommand from changing the Repository connection settings when deadline.ini had no previous connection settings.

Scripting Improvements

  • Added RepositoryUtils.GetPluginLimitGroups() and RepositoryUtils.SetPluginLimitGroups() functions to get/set plugin-level Limits.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Fixed an issue that could cause Deadline to reload 3ds Max between tasks for the same job under certain conditions.

Cinema 4D

  • The Cinema4DBatch plugin now closes Cinema 4D gracefully when a render is cancelled. This allows Cinema 4D and its plugins to return any floating licenses they are using.

Houdini

  • Added pre-caching support for Houdini reference files when submitting to AWS Portal.

  • Added path mapping support for Arnold-specific paths.

Maya

  • Added path mapping support for XGen variables.

  • Fixed render layer support for the Arnold Export job type in the integrated submitter.

Event Plugin Improvements

Spot

  • The Spot Event Plugin now checks Plugin-level Limits, in addition to Job-level Limits.

Deadline 10.1.0.12

Deadline 10.1 reflects our ongoing investment in performance and scale with worker count now scaling up to 10x more instances on Linux and up to 4x more instances on Windows operating systems 1 compared to previous Deadline releases, providing the ability to scale bigger and faster than ever to complete your projects.

This release adds more support for popular content production tools. SideFX Houdini can now be used in AWS Portal, and usage-based licensing (UBL) for SideFX Houdini Engine is now available on the AWS Thinkbox Marketplace (Mantra support to follow in an upcoming release). Foundry Modo 13 is now supported in Deadline with updated submitter functionality. There are also a number of updates to plugins for your favorite tools, including Autodesk Maya, OTOY Octane, Maxon Cinema 4D, Foundry Nuke, Ftrack, and many others.

We’ve made it easier to use Deadline on AWS. While it’s always been that case that when you pay for the AWS resources that you use for rendering (EC2 instances, EFS storage, and so forth) you could use Deadline at no charge, it required a few extra steps to get credit. With Deadline 10.1, a new improved billing process provides AWS Thinkbox Deadline customers with a more streamlined experience by removing the upfront payment requirement. Additionally, Deadline can now automatically detect if it is running on AWS and will no longer require any licensing setup of any kind.

Finally, Deadline has now completely removed Mono as a dependency, leveraging .NET Core for MacOS, Windows, and Linux. This change allows us to standardize on a single framework, enabling more frequent updates for Deadline with the latest performance and security improvements.

With the launch of Deadline 10.1, the following operating systems are no longer supported: Windows Vista, Ubuntu 12.04 - 13.10, Debian 7, Fedora 16 - 23, and macOS: 10.9 - 10.11. In addition, support for the deprecated Quicktime Standalone plugin has been removed completely, and the ability to disable the Sandbox process for Application and Event plugins has also been removed.

Note

If you are using Deadline floating licenses, a new 10.1 license is required to run this version. If you have floating licenses for Deadline 10.0 or earlier, you will need an updated license. If you are using usage-based licensing (UBL), any existing Deadline render time can be used with Deadline 10.1. If you are running Deadline 10.1 on AWS, no Deadline licensing of any kind is required.

Upgrading to Deadline 10.1

If you are upgrading from Deadline 9 or earlier, you will need to perform a fresh installation of the Deadline Repository and Clients.

If you are upgrading from Deadline 10.0, there are important things to note:

  • Auto-upgrading from Deadline 10.0 to 10.1 is supported, but auto-downgrading from 10.1 to 10.0 is not, unless 10.0 was previously installed on the machine.

  • If you are using the Remote Connection Server (RCS), you need to upgrade the RCS to 10.1 before upgrading all other Deadline Client installations to 10.1. This ensures that the Clients can communicate properly with the RCS, because a 10.0 Client cannot communicate with a 10.1 RCS.

  • If you are using a TLS-enabled Remote Connection Server (RCS), note that a 10.0 Client will not be able to communicate with a future 10.1.1 RCS. To upgrade from 10.0 to 10.1.1 and later, you will need to upgrade to 10.1 first, and then upgrade again to the latest 10.1.X version.

  • If you are using AWS Portal, you need to upgrade every AWS Portal component. This includes the Deadline Client on the machine connecting to AWS Portal, the AWS Portal Link service, any existing AWS Portal infrastructure and instances, and the IAM policy for your AWS Portal account.

Refer to the Deadline Auto-upgrading Documentation for more information.

Highlighted Features

Free Deadline Licensing on AWS

Licensing for Deadline 10.1 is now free when being run on AWS. The Deadline Worker no longer requires a license (floating or usage based) when running on AWS instances. If you already have floating or usage-based licensing for Deadline, the Worker will not consume them when running on AWS instances. Note that Deadline 10.0 and earlier still require a license to run on AWS instances.

Improved Remote Connection Server (RCS) Performance and security

The RCS can now support thousands of Worker instances communicating with it concurrently, making the RCS the recommended configuration when setting up your render farm. This allows you to scale your on-premise, Cloud, or hybrid render farm to even larger concurrent Worker counts.

In addition, the RCS now supports TLS 1.2. Note that if you are upgrading from Deadline 10.0, and you’re using a TLS-enabled RCS, there are specific instructions for upgrading that you need to follow. See the “Upgrading to Deadline 10.1” section above for more information.

New Product and workflow Support

Houdini can now be used in AWS Portal, and usage-based licensing (UBL) for Houdini Engine is now available on the AWS Thinkbox Marketplace (note that Mantra support is not yet available, we are working on including Mantra at a later date).

This release also adds support for Modo 13, and adds support for the Octane ORBX export workflow to Cinema 4D.

Scripting API Code Completion

Support for Python code completion for Deadline’s Python API has been added. The “deadline-stubs” Python package can be installed for VS Code or PyCharm to add code completion support and allow you to browse the available classes and functions. Refer to the Scripting Overview section of the Deadline documentation for more information.

Introducing the Deadline Worker

The Deadline Worker is the new name for the previous Deadline Slave application. The name is the only thing that has changed, and there is no difference in functionality between the two applications.

Upgrade to .NET Core

The Deadline Client applications now run with .NET Core on all operating systems. This change allows us to standardize on a single Framework, and stay up to date on the latest performance and security improvements going forward.

Complete Release Notes

General Improvements

  • The Deadline Client applications now run with .NET Core on all operating systems.

  • The Deadline Client and Repository installers can now run on macOS Catalina.

  • Fixed some issues with how Path Mapping was being applied to a Job’s Custom Plugin Directory path.

  • Fixed an issue with Job failure detection, where it wouldn’t respect Job-specific overrides in some cases.

  • Updated Splash Screens and icons.

AWS Portal Improvements

  • When selecting instance types, the Monitor only displays the types available in the selected Availability Zones. This ensures that the instance type is actually available in the Zones that are selected.

  • AWS Portal now supports TLS connections to an on-premise Remote Connection Server (RCS).

  • Fixed an error that would occur when creating the S3 bucket in us-east-1 during AWS Portal setup.

  • More descriptive information is now provided when the Monitor cannot connect to the AWS Portal infrastructure.

  • Fixed a typo in an error message for the Resource Tracker.

  • AMIs are now based on Amazon Linux 2 instead of Amazon Linux 1.

Monitor Improvements

  • The Worker panel in the Monitor now includes columns for AWS Image ID, Instance Type, and Availability Zone.

Worker Improvements

  • The Worker application no longer requires a Deadline license (floating or usage based) when running on an AWS instance. Note that this only applies to version 10.1 of the Worker application and later.

  • When applying the environment variables for a Job on Windows, the Worker no longer throws an error if there are 2 environment variables with the same name, but have a different mix of uppercase and lowercase letters. Now, only the last of the duplicated environment variables in the list is applied.

  • When the Worker fails to connect to a Repository, the Exit Worker option now actually shuts down the Worker.

Remote Connection Server (RCS) Improvements

  • The RCS now supports TLS 1.2. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are still supported in Deadline 10.1 to accommodate auto-upgrading from 10.0, but TLS 1.0 & 1.1 will be removed in the next Deadline 10.1 release.

  • Significantly improved the performance of the RCS as the number of Worker nodes increases.

Scripting Improvements

  • Added support for Python code completion for VS Code and PyCharm.

Application Plugin Improvements

3ds Max

  • Fixed an issue when submitting Tile/Jigsaw jobs that could prevent Deadline from collecting external files.

Anime Studio / Moho

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Monitor submission script from working.

Cinema 4D

  • Added support for the Octane ORBX scene export workflow to the integrated submitter.

  • Fixed a submission error that occurred when submitting Multipass objects from non-English versions of Cinema 4D.

Draft

  • Tile Assembly jobs can now handle config files that contain empty spaces around the ‘=’ character.

Fusion

  • Fixed a “KeyError” issue that could occur when using the integrated submitter.

Houdini

  • Added support for Houdini licensing in the Thinkbox Marketplace.

  • Fixed an issue that could occur when rendering with Octane that would result in MPlay options not being set correctly.

  • When rendering with Octane, render progress is now reported properly.

  • When rendering with Redshift, Deadline now properly handles licensing error messages.

Keyshot

  • Keyshot Package (KSP) files can now be submitted to Deadline from the Monitor.

Maya

  • Deadline now catches the “Failed to save file” error message and reports it as an error.

Modo

  • Added support for Modo 13.

Nuke

  • The integrated submitter no longer crashes when submitting Nuke scene files with Write nodes that have an empty path.

Rhino

  • Added a popup handler for Flamingo nXt.

Event Plugin Improvements

FTrack

  • Updated the version of the FTrack API that Deadline uses to 1.8.0.

  • Added support for encoding videos and images, allowing them to be reviewed in FTrack after rendering.

Spot Event Plugin

  • Non-existing Limits that are assigned to Jobs are now ignored.

  • The plugin now handles the case where the Resource Tracker is disabled after the Spot Event plugin is enabled.

  • The plugin now only starts up a single instance if a Job has a pre-task script. Once the pre-task script is completed, the plugin will then start up more instances as necessary.

  • Improved how the plugin handles instance interruption.

Footnotes

1

Performance changes focused on improved API’s for dequeue operations and the collection of status information from workers. Resulting tests in simulated environments on Amazon Linux 2 and Windows Server 2016 where we scaled workers in batches of 800 at a time with a single server resulted in a 10x scale of infrastructure on Linux and over 4x on Windows platforms vs. Deadline 10.0.0.28.