Release Notes

• This version requires a new license and an active maintenance plan
• Fixed dependancies on folders that were not working as intended
• An elapsed rendering time on the nodes view has been included
• The Dispatcher -lic flag on Linux no longer reports a blank host id
• The Dispatcher on Linux no longer searches for named interfaces for the host id detection, instead it nows enumerate any available interface on the system
• Changing pools on target node jobs is now possible
• Fixed a potential crash on the Linux platform and the heartbeat handling
• The default After effects template no longer uses the -mp flag for multiprocessing rendering. This caused rendering crashes with Creative Cloud
• Fixed the GetTotalTime() function on the API not reporting the correct value
• Completing a job using manual chunk status assignment no longer triggers the post job action twice
• OnJobCompleted() new entry point into the template that correctly reports the job status using job.getStatus()
• It's not possible to source a .bat file before spawning a process from within a template (look for the changes in the XSI template that nows only asks for the setenv.bat file location)
• It's now possible, under the users impersonation, to spawn a process using a shell invocation (/bin/sh -l -c) and sourcing the shell environment (POSIX only)
• It's now possible to override the maximum chunks requeue count on a template basis

• Starting with this version, even minor upgrades requires a new license with an active maintenance plan
• Fixed some issue on users folders not respecting the permissions
• The Cpu and RAM view have been redesigned to display the usage related to the current batch render process tree
• The frame check and movie assembler parameters are correctly hidden if not supported by a template
• Opening a log of an invalidated chunk window no longer crashes Console
• Fixed an issue with folders dependancies
• Fixed an issue with some actions sent by mrtool not reporting the correct error code
• The Maya integrated connector has gone into a complete review. Please check the source file for improvements list
• The movie assembler job submission can override the default pause status
• A process execution failure no longer produces an invalid log on the next process spawn
• Fixed an issue with the mail sending procedure, it's now possible to specify a different SMTP port

• Fixed an issue on the Dispatcher that may produce a wrong starting time for a duplicated job
• Fixed an issue in the restricted home folder view mode
• Changed the default rights of a new user into Console

• Stability fixes on the Dispatcher
• A new “paused” filter has been included in the Console's jobs view
• The paused jobs counter in the jobs view has been fixed to show the correct value. Also paused jobs are no more included in the started jobs counter if they started at least once
• More consistent errors are returned across the API

• Fixed a critical issue with the web API not able to stream the hosts list in a valid JSON format, this caused a crash into the web application
• Fixed an API issue where the GetChunks() function was ignoring the filtering

• Fixed an issue with soft restart that may crash either the Dispatcher and/or the clients
• Fixed an installation bug on the Linux platform that sets wrong files permissions and prevents non-root users to start the applications
• Fixed an issue with the templates limits/groups not working as intended

• Fixed an issue with the archive flag of the jobs filtering view not working as intended
• Fixed sorting by archive status not working
• Fixed a crash that happens when saving a preset
• Included a version column in the hosts view
• Fixed a sorting bug in the chunks view
• Custom environment now must be tokenized using , to support the usage of the ; separator in the windows paths variables
• Fixed a bug with the limit by template in the user rights not supporting more than one value
• Distributions now include a full release of QT 4.8.5 as well as Pyside to support the upcoming console embedded Python scripting

• Two new templates supporting FFMpeg have been included
• Jobs are now able to automatically schedule a movie assembler phase if available into the template
• Selection logic got an huge speed boost when dealing with big queues
• Is now possible to ignore and flatten the folders priority, picking up jobs as if they were under the same parent priority
• Jobs that output a frame name no longer use a frames prefix , but instead a more complete frame mask. This changed how the files are processed in the frames check routine as well as in the new movie assembler phase. Some helper functions have been included in the MClientLib namespace to handle frames masks
• Broadcast and single host jobs on the web server have been fixed
• Jobs priority now is available up to 65535
• Fixed a minor issue in the chunks detail windows with the hourglass cursor not going away
• Is now possible to dock windows from the view menu on the left and the right in Console
• Console now stores the views pin status into custom workspaces
• Accounts and groups view are now sorted alphabetically
• Repositories paths with user scope are now selectively shown in the file picker of the web server
• The archived filter in Muster Console now works as intended showing archived jobs even the final status is unselected
• The MTemplate base class now is able to override process spawn routines to handle your custom execution environment

• Groups management functions have been included in the RESTful HTTP API
• It's now possible to force Mrtool and Console to skip Directory authentication
• Custom environment strings now support environment expansion ( both ${var} and %var% are supported on any platform)

• Fixed an issue with the web server not working on case sensitive filesystems
• Fast change of frame checking options is now available in the job context menu
• Due to the sizes of the jobs context menu, the job editing functions have been moved into a submenu
• Fixed an error in the Maya vray template not configuring well the paths to Vray
• Fixed an error during the template configuration in Console where other Consoles connected will lose the templates content and required a restart
• Sorting the nodes view by realtime log status has been fixed
• Sorting the jobs view by working nodes has been fixed
• After scanning for available engines in the Services control applet, a soft-restart request is issued to allow the client to re-read the configuration
• Maya connector has been updated with some new features
• Nuke connector has been fixed to correctly submit additional flags

• Fixed a critical issue with the code base not releasing some memory allocations that may increment the memory footprint used by the Dispatcher and the Renderclient
• Fixed an error in Mrtool and the client API not being able to resolve hostnames to IP addresses

• Fixed a critical issue with the Python interpreter that may crash services during soft restart and shutdowns
• Fixed a GUI draw error on memory progress bars

• Changed an output mode on mrtool to address an issue with the new Connectors (Maya and Nuke)
• New integrated connectors for Maya (2009+) ,Nuke (6+), After Effects and Cinema 4D (more to come)
• Fixed an issue on some Maya templates not using the by frame value and preventing mrtool from sending a job
• Fixed an issue with the single frame output image mode (where available) not loading the correct value

• Fixed some behaviours on templates not reporting the correct by frame value
• Fixed an installation issue on Linux platforms. Now openLDAP and openSSL are bundled into the package.
• Minor bug fixes

Welcome to the first release of Muster 8. Muster 8 has several new features and a ground breaking new template system entirely based on Python 3.X. Muster 8 also has a brand new client API that let you access the Dispatcher service and the clients using your prefereed scripting language. Bindings are actually available for Python 2.X, Python 3.X, Java, .NET, Perl and PHP (PHP supported only on Unix platforms).

Be aware that there are some core changes between Muster 7.X and Muster 8. The queue database format is no longer compatible and it's not upgradable from a previous version. That means you'll need to rebuild your queue from scratch.Also Muster 8 supports builtin user groups as well as LDAP / Active Directory bindings for a superior authentication control.

The integrated web server is no longer built in inside Muster , but uses a brand new Javascript / JSON API that you can also use to interact with the Dispatcher in a similar way than the client API. The web server also, no longer uses a Java applet for file browsing, but relay on the new Repositories panel. That means you'll need to define a repository location even you're not using the substitution paths for cross platform renderings.

The major changes are on the template side. Instead of using a native scripting language, Muster 8 now uses Python 3.X for its templates. This opens a new way to customize Muster and a better control over the jobs processing.

This is a list of the new features:

• LDAP / Active directory support
• Console job caching for faster login
• Parallel rendering
• Muster API client library available to C++ / Python 3.x / Python 2.X / Java / Perl / PHP
• Python based template system
• Redesigned templates with improved engines support
• Users groups support
• Redesigned interface
• Global optimizations and enhancements in the code speed