What the future looks like for TouchDesigner

[t0mekk]

So… what the future holds for TD?

Is there any roadmap for future developement of software?

Years go by, the interface is still the same. Can we expect any improvements in this regard any time soon?
It would be nice to speed up the workflow and be able to focus on aesthetics of project instead of debugging red exclamation mark again

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been playing with touch for some years, and I love it.
Just thinking it’s about time for a little UX love

[alphamoonbase]

The big thing right now is the switch over to Vulkan. You can read a little in this Thread to get some insight:

What does the adoption of Vulcan mean for the future of TouchDesigner?

On the subject of deferred rendering, what does this mean for the future of lighting / shading? Specifically, I’m wondering about the 32 light comp limit per render TOP - will this still be a hard limit still for deferred? Or will it be possible to surpass this limit which will in turn make it easier to build more advanced lighting optimization systems and effects on top of the current system?

The answer you will get quite often is “When Vulkan is done”. There is a UI revamp in the making afaik, but this will heavily rely on the Vulkan Implementation to drasticly increase the speed of all the GFX elements. The UI is built in Touch itself, so the UI has the same limitations as when you would build your own UI. So yeh, lets wait for Vulkan (this will be Hype.)

[blakerutledge]

As someone who uses Touch day in and day out professionally, please GOD, Derivative, do not change the UX or UI just to feel “fresh” or “slick”… stability and familiarity and compatibility are essential.

@t0mekk, If you have particular pain points, or ideas as to how Derivative can improve things, then by all means! List them here, submit as RFE, etc. Not saying things are perfect, but often UX “improvements” are relative from person to person. Touch is built to be wide open, and you can build your own tooling / shortcuts / templates for your own use cases.

[t0mekk]

“Fresh” & “slick” look is not what I meant. I’d rather say: usability.

Some basic out of the box customization settings would be enough (untill we see Vulkan as @alphamoonbase mentioned ) .
I.e. font settings, ui colors, disabling timeline bar etc… These simple things shuldnt be too hard to implement given touch is “build of itself”.

And yes, creating your toolbox from scratch is an option(I did) but I don’t want to waste precious time for maintaining and fixing its compatibility errors every few updates.

Cheers

[t0mekk]

@What does the adoption of Vulcan mean for the future of TouchDesigner?

d limit still for deferred? Or will it be possible to surpass this limit which will in turn make it easier to build more advanced lighting optimization systems and effects on top of the current system?

Thanks for tip!
I haven’t seen this thread before.

[jacqueshoepffner]

Hello,
I think there is two questions in your post:
– what the future of TD concerning opnGL/Metal/Vulkan ?
I am not a specialist but there is some answer about it in some post from derivative team and I am sure they work hard to be at the edge on the different platforms.
– would it be possible to change the UI to “speed the workflow” and “focus on aesthetics of project”
I am very happy to have red marks signaling where is the error and some text explaining what it is
The particularity of TD (as Max/Msp, Unity or Unreal) is you are building your UI as you build your project.
My desire is to have the most stable platform, with the most compute possibilities (inputs, outputs, python, glsl, C++ etc.) with the most reliable interface. I really doesn’t want any streamlined interface with rounded rectangles, coloured buttons and fancy typo! Even the running timeline is not so annoying.
The final audience is not looking at your nice UI but at the art you produce.