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General FAQ

See Deadline:Frequently Asked Questions for an index of all Deadline FAQs.

1 General FAQ

What 3rd party software does Deadline support?

Deadline efficiently manages network rendering from a variety of sources - see the complete listing of Supported Products for more information.

Can we create our own plug-ins for Deadline?

Yes, and Frantic Films Software encourages you to do so. You can create your own plug-ins using the Plug-in Scripting Guide.

What are the requirements for Deadline?

The requirements are explained in detail here.

How much does Deadline cost?

If you are running two slaves or less, Deadline is FREE! If you are running more than two slaves, the license fee per node and the annuity for maintenance and support are listed on the Pricing section of the website.

Is annual renewal of Deadline Maintenance & Support required?

Frantic Films Software encourages the purchase of a Maintenance & Support contract but it is not required for the continued use of Deadline.

What is FREE MODE?

Free Mode allows you to run up to two Deadline Slaves without requiring a license, and is intended for anyone that has one or two extra machines that they would like to utilize for rendering. Note that if you're using Free Mode, and you decide to purchase licenses for more machines, you must purchase a license for all the machines, including the machines you were originally using in Free Mode.

Does the FLEXlm license server need to run on the same machine that the Deadline Repository is installed on?

No. The FLEXlm license server can run on any machine in your network.

On Windows, which version of the .NET Framework Run-Time does Deadline require?

Deadline requires the .NET Framework Run-Time v2.0.

On Linux, which version of Mono does Deadline require?

The latest version of Mono to be tested with Deadline is v1.9.1.

Can Deadline split up a sequence of images across multiple machines?

Yes.

Can Deadline split up a single image across multiple machines? In other words, can Deadline do distributed rendering?

While Deadline doesn't directly support distributed rendering of a single image, it supports a feature called Tile Rendering, which splits up the image into regions and sends them off to multiple machines. Tile Rendering is only supported by the 3dsmax, Maya, and XSI plugins, and automated image re-assembly is only supported for certain formats. Other formats will have to be re-assembled manually using an application like Photoshop.

What is the Deadline Repository?

The Deadline Repository is a collection of files and folders that stores all the Deadline information, including jobs and slave settings. It is NOT a program.

How many machines do I install the Deadline Repository on?

Just one, preferably a server.

Is it possible to install the repository share on a NAS drive?

Yes. See the Deadline Repository Installation section of the manual for more details on how to do this.

Do I have to uninstall the Deadline Client or Repository to upgrade the software?

No. For more information on upgrading the Deadline software, see the Upgrading Section of the website.

When installing or upgrading the Deadline Repository, do I have to run the installer on the Repository machine itself?

While it's recommended that you run the installer from the Repository machine, it is possible to run the installer from a remote machine providing that the destination path is network accessible.

Where is the Deadline Repository upgrade installer? All I see is the normal installer.

The normal installer is also used to upgrade the software. Just run the installer as normal.

After changing screen resolution, or moving from a dual monitor to single monitor display, the Deadline applications appear offscreen.

In the folder c:\Documents and Settings\[current user]\Local Settings\Application Data\Frantic Films\Deadline\settings, open the corresponding options xml file (monitorOptions.xml, slaveOptions.xml, etc) in a text editor and change the MainWindowLocation setting to (0,0), like so:

   <MainWindowLocation>
       <X>0</X>
       <Y>0</Y>
   </MainWindowLocation>

All of the Deadline applications crash, giving me a generic error message and the option to debug. What can I do to fix this?

This problem is often caused by a corrupt .NET Framework Run-Time installation. Reinstalling .NET will fix the problem in most cases.

In rare cases, this problem could be due to a missing Tahoma font (regular, not bold). Simply installing this font should fix the problem. Note that this problem doesn't seem to occur if both Tahoma regular and bold are missing, just when Tahoma regular is missing.