The release of Deadline 10.3 is one of the most significant updates since AWS made this software free along with other AWS Thinkbox products last year.

One of the key changes is the support for Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of the game engine and real-time renderer, which was released in April of the previous year. Unlike the previous integration with Unreal Engine 4, the new plugin supports the Unreal Movie Render Queue rendering queue, used for rendering sequences of images and videos for standalone operation, including VFX, animation, and visualization.

The update also introduces support for the current versions of other major DCC applications, including 3ds Max 2024, After Effects 2023 (After Effects 23), Cinema 4D 2023, and Maya 2024.

It's worth noting that Deadline has been transitioned to Python 3.10 - the version of the programming language specified in the current CY2023 FVX Reference Platform specifications. Support for Python 2 and 3.7 has been removed. Python 2 has been part of the reference platform specifications since 2019, however, the removal of Python 3.7 might pose a challenge for studios still using the CY2021 specification.

In addition to this, the new Deadline Command plugin allows executing Python scripts without prior configuration of Deadline or Python installation.
Deadline 10.3 is available for Windows 8.1 and above, Windows Server 2012 and above, CentOS/RHEL 7.0, Debian, and Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 Linux, as well as macOS 11.0 and above.

Out of the box, it supports over 80 DCC applications, and you can find the full list via the provided link. The software is available for free to anyone with an AWS account. While registering an account, you'll need to input your credit card information, but no charges will be applied unless you use other AWS services.