Or something else ? My goal is to make interactive audio visual installations using projection mapping etc. I already do a lot of interactive 3D audio installations with MaxMSP and am looking to use osc to control 3D site specific visuals (preferably not on screens)
Merry Chistmas.
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Absolutely worth it IMO. Unreal Engine has best-in-class graphics, and Blueprint makes it fairly easy to integrate with TouchDesigner via OSC and other common protocols.
There’s also a great Spout/NDI plugin called Off World Live.
That said… UE has a considerably steep learning curve. It is a game engine that happens to work with TouchDesigner… definitely not a show pro app that was built for events (such as Notch/disguise/etc.).
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Hmm, okay. So, with regard to integrating interactivity/sensors (Arduino, Pose, Kinect, Leap, etc.), would unreal be a good choice or disguise perhaps? I dont mind a steep learning curve, but disguise also looks really cool. I don’t just want to do projection mapping but all sorts of visual stuff (making objects glow with LEDs, etc.)."
The stuff you’re describing is what TouchDesigner is perfect for. It’s much harder or near impossible to integrate such a variety of 3rd party hardware into UE or disguise, especially for LEDs, sensors, etc.
TouchDesigner truly is the Swiss army knife of AV apps. We use it to talk to other apps (such as UE) all the time.
Hey thanks for your input, anyway sure yeah I’ve been using touch for years, nowhere near the same level I am at max but I’m aware of what it can do and have used it with leap and Arduino before and regularity connect it to max via osc. Which is why I was wondering if there is any need to learn unreal but I guess it’s just the graphics are better? Or?
So I guess I’m wondering f disguise plays as nicely with touch or unreal is the best choice. What advantages do you see unreal having over touch, like what does unreal do that touch can’t ? and would you recomend unreal or disguise as a companion for touch. Ps I love touch it’s so similar to max in some ways
Hello,
I doesn’t use UE but I used a lot Unity in parallel with Isadora before turning to TD for the 3D possibilities. The use of TD have fullfilled this necessity but I continue to use sometime Unity for some reasons:
– the quality of the 3D render for materials, lighting etc.
– the perfect management of ressources
– the “game” spirit of asset management, concerning animations behavior etc.
– the possibility to play Unity on tablets and phones
But with Unity (like in UE), you have to write pages of code in C# (C++ in UE) and Blueprint or Bolt (equivalent for Unity) doesn’t replace it.
For example the management of VR is much more easy and developped in Unity.
The big difference, for me is the management of ideas and task. In Unity and UE, you need to have a very precise schedule of what you need in term of assets, ressource, script etc., in TD you can improvise a lot, mixing linking operators and python script, using GLSL in very creative way (compute shader, instancing…), interfacing TD with quite every device available.
And, most important, you feel that the TD team is sharing the same preocupations. With Unity and UE, they are focused on game (for UE) on on luxuous simulations (for Unity).
So I continue to exercize with Unity to solve some problems but I really use it few times.
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Hey thanks for your input. I am not wanting to use vr or ar headsets or even screens rather immersive installations people walk around, some of them cover a several acres , with lots of little scenarios, some in forests, some in custom built
Sets etc
So projection mapping onto objects , glowing things etc so kind of like large scale walk around physical installations often real-time and interactive with real-time tracking etc. I already do this with audio holophony but want to get the visuals to match .
I also want integrate AI much more into the installations so that’s another
consideration.
I realise this is something you’d normally have a team on and I’ve collaborated with a lot of people doing interactive visuals but it’s mostly 2d and screen based , I just haven’t met anyone who does that kind of work yet.
Depends what kind of visuals you’re interested in. Are there any references for the types of visuals you are interested in creating?
Oh you know interactive particle stuff etc I know plenty of people who could do it but there’s quite a lot of development involved and it comes down to budget’
If it’s particle system stuff, unreal probably isn’t your best tool IMO. touch can be great for that.
I guess it would be nice to put soome materials on the particles, like make them look like water etc = not sure if yopu can do that with touch?
notch looks appealing , more appealing than unreal atm
Are there any good Unreal/TD tutorials that can work well? I’ve done a couple Udemy tutorials which gives me a basic idea of unreal, but it’s all very “game oriented”. I’m guessing I’d want TD to control a lot of the back end stuff while Unreal handles the graphics, but I’m still kinda stuck figuring out a good workflow.