Version 1.2
MacOS Version. Render Boss is officially cross-platform! We’re still working on the Mac version for stability and features, but it renders well in most Macs that we’ve tested. You can send renders from either PC or Mac to any combination of PCs or Macs, and render with multiple threads on your Mac right now. We expect to have feature parity with the PC version later this year.
Boss A.I. We completely rewrote our thread manager. We realized that after a certain point, more threads doesn’t speed up renders anymore, and can actually slow them down. So instead of trying to pin the CPU and RAM to 100%, Boss A.I. now monitors how fast the machines is rendering and tries to find the right amount of threads that will render the fastest.
Remote and Cloud Renders. Now Render Boss allows you to send renders over the internet, either to your own farm or to a cloud-service. This allows you to create a massive render farm either on the cloud or in your office. If you or your artists are working from home, it’s possible to send the renders from home to your own farm and render faster while your computer stays free to keep working.
Mobile Notifications. Step away from your computer, and let your phone tell you when your renders are done.
Split Jobs to one job per comp. If you’re sending multiple comps to render, you can split them into individual jobs (instead of a single job for all the comps). Giving you more control over the render. If you have multiple render machines, this also allows you to split the jobs among the machines, even when not using multi-threaded renders.
Performance Charts. Render Boss checks rendered files for misrendered frames, and corrupt video files, and tries to fix automatically if possible.
Improved Render Job Queue context menu. Now it’s possible to send a render to a specific machine, or to a specific machine plus its local network.
Full list of changes*:
- Support for Mac
- Implements support for Remote Renders via a file-syncing service
- Implements Boss A.I.
- Added performance charts
- Added option for Pushbullet to notify only when ALL the jobs have finished, or to receive a notification after EVERY job finishes
- Added option to set machine as Render-Only node
- Added the ability to split a Job with multiple comps into multiple Jobs with one comp each
- Added automatic Log archiving
- Added experimental support for Adobe Teams
- Added option to Force Overwrite of Frames within Time Span of render
- Added progress bar divider to make it clearer when Render Boss is working on temp frames vs final video
- Added option to Force connection of other machines to Local
- Implements automatic ignore in Dropbox of temp image files (so Dropbox won’t upload the temporary image-files)
- Improved options ‘Find Project Folder’ and ‘Find rendered files’. Now they select the actual file instead of just opening the directory.
- Improved ‘Send to Render’. Now it’s much faster and it doesn’t conflict with file-syncing apps like Dropbox or Google Drive.
- Improved AE Script reliability
- Improved Automatic detection of AE installation path when AE is not installed in the default folder
- Improved Error reporting at the end of each render
- Improved communication between machines.
- Improved Multi-Machine Assistant to be better with file-syncing services
- Improved Render Job Queue context menu. Now it’s possible to send a render to a specific machine, or to a specific machine plus its local network.
- Improved Render Stats displays
- Improved robustness of conversion to video and checkup for missing frames
- Ignores certain redundant warnings from AE
- If Work Folder doesn’t exists, now Render Boss detects it faster on startup
- Implements warning about files that exist, but are not currently synced (Dropbox)
- Possible fix for crash when rendering
- Possible fix for issue on multi-machine renders, where threads are killed prematurely. Leaving behind corrupt frames.
- Clarifies and adds information to Reports
- Fixed bug that doubled entries in AME
- Fixed Bug that prevented AE Extension from running when no settings were saved.
- Fixed error that resetted the settings when updating
- Fixed Force-Stopping when called remotely
- Fixed issue where AE 2020 would not detect effects.
- Fixed issue where clearing the files would still leave some temporary files behind.
- Fixed issue where comps would render without sound.
- Fixed issue where renders so4metimes froze at 90%
- Fixed issue where some renders would trigger false-positive error warnings.
- Fixed issue with AE where renders on Desktop didn’t find the correct files
- Fixed issues with AE threads killing render in the same machine.
- Fixed Errors with the updater
- Fixes bug that sometimes caused crashes while rendering
- Fixes bug where it would not send the frames to AME correctly
- Fixes crash while not being able to delete old frames.
- Fixes error that showed randomly during renderFixes issue of stopping render due to a false-positive of missing effects
- Fixes issue of stopping render due to a false-positive of missing effects
- Fixes issue when entering License Number
- Fixes issue where AE 2020 would not detect effects.
- Fixes issue where files containing a plus sign (+) in the name were being detected as missing.
- Fixes issue where it accidentally deleted finished image sequences when clearing renders
- Fixes issue where Render Job queue wouldn’t refresh properly
- Fixes issue where threads would go down to 1 after each render queue item
- Fixes issue where, if it crashed while it was rendering, the next time it boots, the status still says Rendering
- Fixes issue with File Paths too long
- Fixes issue with unlimited licenses, where it would limit the number of machines
- Fixes issues of ETA and charts not populating for single-thread renders
- Fixes various smaller bugs
*In order to share the improvements as fast as possible, we publish each feature throughtout the year as soon as we deem it ready, rather than in a big update. This list reflects all the changes since version 1.1.0.0. So if you’ve had any version in between 1.1.0.0 and 1.2.0.0, you might already have some or most of these features
Previous Updates
Version 1.1
Added Support for After Effects 2020. (November, 2019)
New UI. The main focus of this release was ease of use and simplicity. We put the renders front and center, and moved options that don’t to be accessed as often in secondary menus.
Multi-Machine Assistant. Render Boss now will produce better time estimations, and they will improve over time, as it remembers how long previous renders took. This module is in Beta right now, but it’s already an improvement over traditional time-estimations.
Added Clear Renders buttons. For quick and easy cleanup of completed (or all) renders.
Improved the render info window. Double-clicking on an item in the File Queue now shows more information about it, including effects needed, status in other machines, activity, output details, etc.
Improved Post-Render file checkup. Render Boss checks rendered files for misrendered frames, and corrupt video files, and tries to fix automatically if possible.
Post-Render Actions. Now it’s possible to run a custom executable after each render.
Send Logs to Support Button. Now it’s easier than ever to send logs and other files to our team, for quicker support.
Tons of speed and stability improvements. Mostly in communication between machines and render startup.
Numerous Under-the-hood improvements, and bugs fixed. There was a big push to improve the engine for this release.
Custom Names. Now it’s possible to name each render before sending it to Render Boss.
Open Rendered Outputs. Open finish renders directly from the File Queue.
Telemetry Module. Render Boss now will produce better time estimations, and they will improve over time, as it remembers how long previous renders took. This module is in Beta right now, but it’s already an improvement over traditional time-estimations.
Render Info Window. Double-clicking on an item in the File Queue now shows more information about it, including effects needed, status in other machines, activity, output details, etc.
Stop on other machines. Now it’s easy to stop a render rendering in other machines via the right-click menu in the File Queue.
Improved Communication between machines. An under-the-hood improvement that brings several advantages. For example:
- File Queue can now display the status of a particular render in other machines.
- Combined with the Telemetry Module, Render Boss now can assign the final video conversion to different machines, based on their speed. Ensuring the slower renders are finished by the fastest machines.
- The aforementioned Render Info Window.
Improved detection of Missing Effects. Now Render Boss immediately detects if a render will have missing effects, before it even starts the render.
Resolved frame synchronization issues. Fixed and issue that arose sometimes when using several machines of wildly different speeds, with multiple threads on each. Those issues sometimes resulted in a faster machine trying to render the final video before a slower machine had finished its frames. Now, the machine designated to render the final video will check for unfinished frames, and render them if necessary.
Added control over temporary frames. Now it’s possible to manually delete or reveal the temporary frames rendered before the videos.
Added remote command to exit app. Now it’s possible to close the app remotely in all the machines.
Version 1.0.4
- Features Officially Out of beta:
Targeted Rendering. Now it’s possible to send a render to a specific machine. Other machines can still be added manually.
‘Stop On all Machines’ option. Now it’s possible to stop a specific render on all machines without affecting the machines rendering a different file.
Quick Swap Work Folder. on the AE Extension. Now the extension remembers the previous work folders used, and can be swapped quickly. Useful on environments with different machines rendering different different projects (Quick swap on the app itself has been available for a while).
Faster Sending to Renders. The process to optimize the comps to render with multiple threads has been improved and dramatically sped up in most cases. Especially on Render Queues with a lot of comps.
Better Check for Missing Items. Now you have more granular control on what can and cannot be missing from a project before a machine stops rendering. This reduces the rates of bad frames due to a machine missing footage, fonts or effects, while giving you the flexibility to override each one separately.
Machines and File Queue Sorting: It is now possible to sort items in the File Queue or Machine List.
- Improved reliability and speed of machines joining a render in process.
- Now it’s possible to use multiple threads on manually-set multi-machine sequences without turning on the ‘Multiple Machines / Threads’ option.
- Added compatibility with the latest After Effects (16.0.1)
- Fixed Issues:
- Reports where sometimes being created in the wrong folder.
- Reports where not opening when clicked from the notification bar.
- Improved issue of over-aggressive cleaning of temporary files (when set to Automatic)
- File Queue sometimes didn’t refresh automatically
- Optimizing for multiple machines was breaking the sound on certain precomps.
- Other small improvements.
Version 1.0.3
- Targeted Rendering. Meaning, you can now send a render to a specific machine. If you later want to add other machines, you still can.
- ‘Stop on all Machines’ features (beta testing).
- Fixed issue, where the app wouldn’t stop a render unless you selected ‘Force Stop’.
- The AE Extension now remembers the last Work Folders used, allowing fast-switching between them (beta testing).
- Main app now updates the AE Extension automatically.
- Improved communication between AE Extension and the main app.
- Improved reliability of sending Support Requests.
- Fixed an issue where the ‘Run On Startup’ setting wasn’t always saved.
- Fixed an issue where rendering Image Sequences wouldn’t allow to add more threads.
- Various improvements under the hood.
- Added the option to finish files in AME instead of After Effects (in beta). This opens up the output options dramatically, most noticeably H264 files.
- Added support for After Effects CC 2019
- Removed bug where the machine would go into an infinite loop starting and stopping renders.
- Added Contact Us button, for easier support requests.
- Fixed bug that didn’t save correct settings when non-english characters where used in the folder name.
- Added an offline installer
- Various minor fixes.
Version 1.0.1
- Fixed issue of After Effects stopping prematurely when GPU runs out of ram. Now if that happens, Render Boss automatically disables the GPU effects and tries again.
- Changed the ID of each item from Date/Time to Sequential. It makes it easier to identify the different items in the File Queue. For example if the original file is called AeProj, it used to be shown as AeProj_20180202_111122. Now it will just be 0010_AeProj.
- Added STOP SHUTDOWN button. This allows cancelling a Shutdown Command that was sent from a different machine.
- Now Render Boss automatically starts on the Tray at startup, even if ‘Start On Tray’ is not selected’
- Improved Reports
- Replaced the main render method. Using a more involved method than the default aerender core. This VASTLY improves the communication between After Effects and Render Boss, and it allows for several enhancements, including:
- A dramatically reduction in render errors when reducing threads or stopping renders. It also removes redundant re-renders due to corrupt frames.
- Machines now negotiate with each other, and distribute the final video renders between them before finishing the temp files. Previously, they relied on After Effects checking which files where locked, which in certain cases produced unnecessary errors.
- It works around an After Effects limitation with non-english characters in file and folder names.
- Added Missing Effects checkup. Now renders will stop on machines without the necessary effects, but continue on the rest.
- Added Right-Click Options to items in the File Queue
- Improved the ‘Send Commands to Other Machines’ section. Including:
- Reorganized the UI
- Added System commands to Restart or Shutdown machines remotely (can be disabled per machine on the Options Panel)
- ‘Send Options’ panel, which allows to send only certain options to other machines.
- Now it’s possible to send the license info. to other machines
- Improved Reports, particularly the Output File report.
- Added Folder Dictionary (for Remote Renders, and eventually for Mac renders)
- Added + – buttons to manually Increment or Decrease version number of Output Files
- Improved Temp Files Cleanup management
Versions 1.0.0.1 – 1.0.0.126
- Added support for latest After Effects Update (April 2018)
- Added Automatic Increment of Version number in Output Files
- Improved Several
- Added Output Details to Reports
- Added multiple under-the-hood performance improvements
- Improved Automatic Thread Manager (Bossing Style)
- Fixed Issues
- Licenses not validating outside the US
- License erroneously said ‘you’re using too many networks’
- No Audio on Videos Optimized for Multiple-Threads / Machines
- AE Extension Version Error
- Several errors when cancelling/stopping renders
- Many smaller bugs
Version 1.0.0
- Original Release
Need Help?
If you need to reach out, use the Contact Us button in the app.
If that’s not working, or you can’t launch the app, send us an email to: support@kineticportal.com