TouchDesigner macOS: 1-week Review & Recommendations - Tutorial

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TouchDesigner has been available for macOS for a number of years but it never really gets talked about or reviewed. Elburz recently got to try out TouchDesigner for a full week on an M2 MacBook Air and offers his insight into what works, what doesn't, who it's good for, and who should consider moving over to Windows in the long term.

[@tdvr]

Great video Elburz! Nice balanced approach with both pros and cons. Given the hardware connectivity limitations, developer lag, no nVidia secret sauce and thermal throttling cons, for a compact show machine that is mostly going to serve videos, I am thinking of an Mac Mini M2 Pro. But do you know of any Win64 based hardware small enough to hang from ceiling with Projectors that would be roughly comparable in performance? And with the connectivity and nVidia goodies for sensors etc like we are used to with PC's running Touch Designer? Any recommendations on what to consider on the small/mini PC side?

[@TheInteractiveImmersiveHQ]

Haven't used that spec Mac Mini yet, but from what I'm seeing on the forums it does look like a potentially good option for the same reasons you mentioned: forum.derivative.ca/t/mac-studio-users/384730
forum.derivative.ca/t/3-x-4k-videos-on-a-mac-mini-m2-pro/324893
Either way, a dedicated GPU will definitely be helpful to have. There used to be some Intel NUCs with Nvidia GPUs, but have since been discontinued. Not sure what the future holds now that the lineup has shifted over to ASUS, but I guess that's better than it going away completely!
Another option: if the size limitations are somewhat flexible, have you thought about going the mini ITX route instead? Might be a good option since you'll be able to spec to your specific needs.

[@aevin_io]

I’ve seen that video like 5 times 😅

[@ri9z.]

What are you running on the menu bar next to LittleSnitch with the temp and other specs?

[@TheInteractiveImmersiveHQ]

Great question! It's an app called iStat Menus, available here: bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/

[@joelwisdom-peters5024]

Well my 2017 MacBook broke so I’m looking to get a pc now ahaha

[@TheInteractiveImmersiveHQ]

Not a bad move! Lots of options that are more affordable and include a GPU, plus if you go the Nvidia GPU route you'll have access to additional functionality in TouchDesigner as well 🙂

[@curls6778]

As a Mac user who already works in the industry this is infurating. On the VFX side (TouchDesigner, Unreal), Mac users are second class citizens, but switching away from Apple is also impossible, since Windows is extremely annoying for pro audio and a lot of software on the showrunning side of things is Mac excluse (for example QLab).

[@TheInteractiveImmersiveHQ]

It's a tough spot to be in, for sure. With the switch to Vulkan, we'll hopefully see more robust development on the Mac side of things. That said, the lack of Nvidia support (among other things) really limits the possibilities in certain areas.