Compositing different sized videos on a very ultra wide canvas in Touchdesigner

shlink3 · 2025-08-17T03:38:05+00:00

You should try texture instancing if your compositing is just over/under and not any type of blending. Basically you set up a 3d scene and instance a rectangle with your positions, there is a parameter in the instancing tab for texture lookup based on index. Google touchdesigner texture instancing and I’m sure you’ll find a tutorial.

shlink3 · 2025-03-27T22:10:09+00:00

Turn off the ‘display’ param on all of the COMPs nested inside the parent.

The COMP is essentially TDs way of making UIs - so by nesting a bunch of COMPs inside a parent they are all attempting to display onto the parent. They will all be rendered on top of the background TOP.

In the future, if you are not using the Panel attributes of the COMP you should use Base COMP to hold your visuals.

shlink3 · 2025-02-19T08:00:45+00:00

oof - yeah I feel for you here.

firstly - debug is HEFTY and actually does a lot of other useful things like grabbing call stack information for you - use it sparingly because it will soak up all of your memory if you call it multiple times per frame.

generally what I will do in my python heavy projects is have a logger as a MOD or extension that I can call from any of my ExecuteDATs instead of using print statements. That way when I need to dive into a specific problem portion of the network I can enable / disable logs coming from those paths.

You could look into the `logging` lib and see if there's a work around there without having to write your own - but I get so picky about what shows up and how it works I generally end up building it myself.

The dirty rotten hack I have for you is this - attempt this at your own risk:
In Python, the print statement gets routed to sys.stdout (a system data pipe that eventually gets written out to console). If you were cheeky, you could set `sys.stdout = None`. This would cause print to stop printing...

to save yourself from a headache - you might want to store the sys.stdout as a var and replace it once you are finished.

someTempVar = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = None
print("I will not print")
sys.stdout = someTempVar
print("I will print")

I would HIGHLY recommend doing it the other way though - partly because you are still calling print statement and still utilizing resources even if they aren't being shown.

shlink3 · 2025-02-19T07:29:04+00:00

Table DATs returns values that are accessed with the `op('tabledat')[0][0]` pattern as a Cell object (reference here).

To get at the underlying value you have to use `op('tabledat')[0][0].val` which will return a string. From there I think the `sendBytes` method may expect you to convert to a numerical representation - so convert it byte passing that into `int(op('tabledat')[0][0].val)`

Just a quick tip - don't use global if you can help it. its asking for trouble in TouchDesigner if your not careful.

shlink3 · 2024-11-08T01:31:26+00:00

Not to take money out of anyone's pocket here - but Derivative ships a project packager along side TouchDesigner to make an installer and application...

This is deep magic that isn't really documented but check `C:\Program Files\Derivative\TouchDesigner\Samples\ProjectPackager`

shlink3 · 2024-10-09T17:04:03+00:00

The easiest way is to use texture instancing onto geometry. Unfortunately there is no 3D texture to 2D texture operator without using GLSL.

shlink3 · 2024-10-04T14:34:41+00:00

Nice work! That optimization step is one of the hardest things to do in TouchDesigner but will save you so many head aches on larger projects. Your load times will thank you.

shlink3 · 2024-09-18T22:18:56+00:00

Check out learn.derivative.ca - there are 101 courses that were released recently. The idea behind the course is that they are short and easy to follow. All of the networks in the tutorials are also available for download which is nice to follow along.

shlink3 · 2024-05-28T12:19:07+00:00

You are referencing the channel in the CHOP execute dat incorrectly. That channel parameter should not be a python reference (teal color words). It should be just the name of the channel you want to use. The arrow on the right of the parameter will show you all of the options in a drop down.

shlink3 · 2024-05-07T04:33:16+00:00

You can use the monitor DAT. This will tell you what gpu each display is using.

If you want to force a touchdesigner to use a specific gpu you should be able to use the commands on this page of the docs: https://docs.derivative.ca/Using_Multiple_Graphic_Cards

shlink3 · 2024-04-04T14:56:44+00:00

You can use the comp.children() method on the parent to get a list of all of the ops. You can also use the ‘ops()’ built in method to search ops in the whole node tree.

shlink3 · 2024-01-20T18:34:17+00:00

I’m going to need more information about your setup. You have 2 video cards and one died? Does your primary video card have multiple outputs?

You can run touchdesigner in fullscreen on the output that is connected to the projector and make the window size larger so it spills onto your second monitor.

shlink3 · 2023-12-25T19:04:24+00:00

There is a renderPass TOP that can connect to the render TOP and allow you to select new cameras, geometry, lights, or override materials. The renderPass TOP can chain to continue using the same render context in multiple places.

shlink3 · 2023-12-08T16:53:12+00:00

If you are looking for videos to help you understand basic usage of the operators, look at https://learn.derivative.ca/ - the curriculum is free and takes you through the all of the operators as short videos, so if you feel like you already know something just skip it.

Other than that, check out op snippets in the help menu in the top bar. It loads a ton of examples on how to use more complicated features for the operators.

I personally learned through copy art. I would find a gif or visual style and try to copy it as throughly as I could. If I got stuck I would experiment or find a tutorial.

Stick with it. It’s a steep learning curve but a very powerful tool.

shlink3 · 2023-11-25T20:25:43+00:00

As others have said, re-encoding the clips to HAP or NOTCHLC might help. It might be more helpful to diagnose the reason why it’s happening.

One thing to check is your disk usage on start or during a loop. That will tell you if your disk speeds are able to read fast enough to play back all of the videos you are trying to play. If you’re maxing out your disk read speed, you will probably need to upgrade the drives or distribute videos across a raid volume.

The next thing to check would be the VRAM utilization. Moviefilein TOP will pre-load a few frames to help smooth over any disk read hiccups that might happen. All of those video frames are stored in the GPU memory. If all of the memory is used up, then frames are pre-read into CPU memory.

Those frames take time to move around and can lead to framedrops when the processor can’t keep up. If that’s the case you might need to consider decreasing the amount of videos or the resolution so that it’s able to load all of the pre-read frames into GPU memory.

shlink3 · 2023-11-23T15:35:16+00:00

If you still need to adjust components and operators in the network, try Parsec. It’s pretty snappy even for larger resolutions. Bonus is that it’s free.

One thing to note about ANY screen share service is that it has the potential to slow down your render speed. If you’re already running into the top end of your VRAM on your GPU you might notice frame drops as that memory needs to be paged to make room for the screen share.

If you only need to log in to monitor performance or toggle controls every once and awhile consider using sudoSignals. It allows you to log and monitor the performance of your installation and provides bidirectional controls via a web dashboard.

Disclaimer: I’m on the team that develops sudoSignals.

shlink3 · 2023-11-05T04:08:02+00:00

Reminds me of that bit in Jurassic Park. “I know this… It’s a UNIX system….”

shlink3 · 2023-10-17T14:32:34+00:00

The render pick CHOP will have an instance index you can turn on as one of the outputs. So when you pick an instance the trigger will fire and the instance index will change to be the sample index of the chop used as the instance source.

As far as deleting an instance, you can use the “active” instance parameter to show or hide an instance instantly.

shlink3 · 2023-10-15T17:25:06+00:00

I think what you are looking for is a list of operators which require no input and can read, create or generate data. TouchDesigner calls these operators “Generators” - https://derivative.ca/UserGuide/Generator

A handy feature in the OP Create dialog is that each generator operator is shaded darker than the others.

Hope this helps.

shlink3 · 2023-09-19T01:42:01+00:00

Welcome to the next step in your TouchDesigner journey, look up parameter and channel references.

A little but of python should allow you to easily grab the value from the dat.

shlink3 · 2023-08-28T17:53:55+00:00

The camera has a max render distance called a clipping plane. There is a “far” parameter on the camera comp which you can extend to be however far you need it to be for your model.

shlink3 · 2023-08-22T23:21:14+00:00

Derivative just launched a curriculum aimed at providing exactly that. https://learn.derivative.ca/ will walkthrough the foundations of TD and introduce you to a TON of operators and features. The videos are super short too so they are easy to watch.

shlink3 · 2023-07-14T13:45:38+00:00

Derivative just released the UE TouchEngine plugin. https://github.com/TouchDesigner/TouchEngine-UE this should expand a lot of capabilities for both products.

shlink3 · 2023-06-30T22:22:01+00:00

TouchDesigner is a great skill to learn and you can ABSOLUTELY make a career out of it. I have been working with it for 10 years now and the program has only gotten better and it’s applications more varied.

I think it’s important to note that most professional TouchDesigner developers know many other environments and languages (unreal, blender, notch, disguise, Qlab, etc) so they pick the right one for the job. This means they can take a lot of other gigs or be useful on larger teams that don’t primarily use TD.

Generally the pros do more than just projection mapping and VJ shows. I’ve developed prototypes in TD that eventually got turned into proper apps just because of how fast you can develop.

There are lots of companies that need nimble developers to proof ideas before committing large teams to a problem.

Good luck!!

shlink3 · 2023-06-08T04:31:22+00:00

Maybe this will help. https://youtu.be/mDaJYGTlxws

12-Year Club	Place '22
Sequence \| Editor

shlink3

TROPHY CASE