How to efficiently use/swap between multiple point cloud ply scene files?

I have multiple scenes as ply point clouds I want to alternate between for a project. Is there a way to efficiently load just one or two at a time and swap between them?

Using this 1 point file in TOP causes a lag when I change file and hit “reload”, and sometimes also messes up order of what values get loaded into RGBA.
The other option I had was to load all the ply as textures, but it gets massive really quickly and Im assuming it’s probably not good for GPU RAM?

You could potentially try pre-loading the PLY files inside an Engine COMP to avoid any lag and then caching it in the main network once it is ready.

When you say that it also messes up which fields go into the RGBA channels, are the fields named differently in the PLY files? Or in a different order? In newer versions of TouchDesigner, the fields are matched by name, but in older ones there were loaded based on order so this may depend on what version you are using.

I will try out the Engine Comp approach, thank you!

As for the PLY files, they’re named the same, but potentially could be different order. And I think that’s what’s getting in the way… Any idea which Touchdesigner updated to load by name?

The change to loading the fields by name started in 2023.11290 The fields are case sensitive, so ‘x’ in one file won’t match with ‘X’ in another.

If you still think there is a problem matching up names, I can take a look at the files if you post them here or want to send them to support@derivative.ca