Hi everyone,
I wanted to float an idea about project distribution that I’m really missing in my day-to-day work with TouchDesigner.
Right now, if we want to deliver a project to a client, the usual option is to send them the .toe and ask them to install TouchPlayer (and sometimes help them with versions, setup, etc.), or we keep the project running on our own machines. In many cases that’s fine, but for professional work it has two big drawbacks:
(1) We’re exposing the full .toe file and all our internal patch structure, and
(2) non-technical clients don’t always manage the TouchPlayer installation smoothly.
What I would love to see is an official website run by Derivative where we can log in, upload a .toe, pick a platform (Windows/macOS) and a TouchPlayer version, and the system gives us back a TouchPlayer-based build that immediately runs that project in Perform mode. In other words: I upload my project, the service opens it in a clean, licensed environment, creates the appropriate TouchPlayer build, and I download that and send it to my client. The client just runs that build and the project starts; they don’t have to deal with .toe files or opening anything manually.
A really important part of this, at least for me, would be trust around the project file. I’d only feel comfortable using such a service if Derivative clearly promised that uploaded .toe files are only used for the build job and are not kept, inspected or reused in any way, and are deleted once the build is done. The whole point for many of us would be to avoid exposing our patch internals, while still delivering something that runs on the official TouchPlayer runtime.
I can imagine this as a paid cloud service (per build or subscription), and I’d absolutely be interested in using it if it existed. I’m curious if other people would find this useful too, and whether Derivative has ever considered something along these lines.
Thanks for reading.
Is there a reason why a cloud service would be better than say an export process from Touchdesigner for a compressed or packaged executable of the current project?
I personally think this is a 100% valid concern but the approach might be inefficient for upload/download/processing.
I think you’re right that for many people a local export would be the most practical solution, and I’d be perfectly happy with that if it protected the .toe and just ran in Perform mode.
The only reason I mentioned a cloud option is that it could help with things like cross-platform builds, a clean known environment, or CI-style workflows for studios.
So cloud isn’t really the core of what I’m asking for – the real need for me is an official way to hand clients a TouchPlayer-based build that runs the project without exposing the .toe itself. But the Cloud service would be a delightful plus, which makes the distribution of the project very convenient.
This is exactly what the Privacy Setting in the Pro-Lizence is for.
You do not need a Pro License to run a protected/private toe, you only need it to enable privacy.
Also, there is this project Project Packager - Derivative which allows you to create an installer complete with your projectfile. So only the license and activation is something that has to be taken care of by the client, which could also be taken care of by selling them a dongle (which would also allow you to btw link your project to the specified dongle for additional security.)
Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation and the Project Packager link.
I’m aware of the Privacy setting and of Project Packager, and I agree they already cover a lot of the ground in terms of hiding the toe and bundling a project. What I was trying to describe is a slightly different level of “turnkey”.
In my ideal scenario I wouldn’t have to set up Inno Setup, ini files, extra scripts and so on. I’d just have a simple, official “package this project into a TouchPlayer-based app” flow that works out of the box, ideally on macOS as well, not only on Windows. And on the client side, my dream version is that they don’t have to think about licenses, activation or installers at all – they just get a ready-to-run app that uses the correct Touch runtime under the hood and starts straight in Perform mode.
So I completely see how Privacy + Project Packager can be used today, and I appreciate you pointing me to it. I was more thinking out loud about a more managed / built-in solution from Derivative that makes this whole path from toe to “double-click and the show starts” much smoother, especially for non-technical clients.