Making Games in TouchDesigner?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- TouchDesigner is the best tool out there for new media installations, experiments, visual art explorations, large-scale interactive systems, etc. etc., but can it be used to make games? What are the pros and cons? Let's get into it!
In addition to a deep dive on the ins and outs of using TouchDesigner to make games, we also talk to Simon Alexander-Adams, aka / polyhop , about his experiences building games in TouchDesigner. Who else should we talk to about games in TD? Let us know in the comments!
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This is our first video as Third Wave Arcade 👉 thirdwavearcad.... We're a brand-new startup building an immersive roomscale gaming platform.
Follow our journey as we discover what's possible in a whole new medium, including motion capture, projection mapping, fabrication, game design, user experience design, graphics, animation, and more -- smash subscribe!
Third Wave Arcade: 👉 thirdwavearcad... / / thirdwavearcade
Host: Noah Norman aka Hard Work Party:
👉 hardwork.party / / hardworkparty
Edited by schnoodle VIDEO 👉 / @schnoodlevideo
Music by: 👉 breakmastercyl...
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LINKS:
TouchDesigner: 👉 derivative.ca
pytransitions Python finite state machine package: 👉 github.com/pyt...
TouchEngine: 👉derivative.ca/...
TouchPy by IntentDev: 👉 github.com/Int...
sudoSignals: 👉 www.sudosignal...
Pixera: 👉 pixera.one/en/ (now with TouchEngine support since this was recorded!)
David Braun's TD jump flood implementation: 👉 github.com/DBr...
Noah's interview with Derivative about Elsewhere:
👉 • TouchDesigner InSessio...
Noah's interview with the Interactive and Immersive HQ:
👉 • Python In TouchDesigne...
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Next episode:
Realtime Multicamera Multiplayer Markerless Infrared Motion Capture
Tons of research going into this one - subscribe so you don't miss it!
Amazing information, thank you so much!
Thanks for watching!
Wow, amazing video. Hope to see more!
Hey thank you so much for watching!
TouchDesigner so freakin underrated and it's been around for so long. We still here before it blows up fr.
Once the 13yr olds figure out how to make memes w it it's game over.
Lulz I love the spicy take, as requested. Good to be in on the ground floor _after_ my hair goes salt n pep
I think they already found out. Check out "Natspone"
Amazing video! On a personal note, as a person who learnt TouchDesigner before anything else (Unreal, Unity, etc) I've always had this feeling that TD is my DOS developing environment, and I am all the time translating Touch into other engines because of work and other things, but most of the times when I do that, it definitely feels more stiff. I feel that now I understand why. Exciting stuff!
Thanks for watching! I can relate - before I would have said a lot of that was just the underlying GL commonality, but now it’s vulkan, and maybe you’re not talking about 3D anyway 😂
I just re-read this and now I get what you mean ... IDK if that's fluency or what but Touch is definitely fluid! I learned a few other frameworks before Touch and I agree - it's probably the least stiff of all of them. Thanks for watching!
SICK! Juicy! Great episode! Looking forward to the next one! Can’t wait to try out the first TWA prototype 👾
You are extremely invited to come check it out when it's up!
Very excited for this channel!! 🎉
I am excited to channel that excitement!! Next vid is markerless mocap, which might be even more up your alley!
Hi Noah, very inspiring video! It's made me want to get familiar with using the pytransitions package for a few projects going forward. I've also re-watched your interview with Elburz where you talk about some of your extensions based workflows but I wouldn't mind a more in depth look into how you'd go about setting up your game logic/state machine in TD.
The 👏🏼 people 👏🏼 have 👏🏼 spoken!! I really gotta do it, I know it, the real question is whether I should do what I *kind of* think I should do, which is go through making it in real-time, or I should kind of walk through an already-made project and just add a few things in realtime so folks see how that process goes. Creators sound off in the comments LMK what I should doooo!!
Thanks for watching Owen!
@@thirdwavearcade Personally, I would like seeing it done from scratch including setting up the visual studio code project (I've never used it ) along with some file management stuff. I'd enjoy seeing a simple game example at first like tic-tac-toe or pong or whatever and then some examples that outline the scalability of this approach by adding new rules levels, powerups, effects etc. That would be wicked.
Awesome insights in a entertaining package ! Thanks a lot, I would be happy to chat about TD as a game engine too :)
Love it thanks for watching!
really cool stuff dude
👏👏👏Been hoping for this type of gaming to develop
Me toooooooo
This is dope, and loooove all you covered in this video. It really resonates with my process and a number of the hurdles I’ve been trying to clear. Thank you for this my guy!
Yesss love to hear that! We’ll dive deep on some specific implementation stuff for mocap and previz over the next few episodes so smash teh subscribes!
Good video, was very interesting. Would be great to see next one :)
Thanks for watching!! I know we are super overdue for the next one .. fortunately it's looking like it's finally coming together! Stay tuned and please smash that subscribe button for an update when it's ready!
I've just learned about TD today thx for sharing your ideas and journey. I will try to follow along. Oh and good luck
Thanks for watching and welcome to the TouchDesigner community!
Amazing work man! I would love to learn much more about creating games in TD. Im intrested in exploring the gray area between creating an Imersive istalation and a game.
Thank you!
I guess what I’m up to could be called ‘installation as game’ … I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive I just think very few people are really exploring the intersection of the two. Thanks for watching!
When I grow up I wanna be like Noah Norman. More seriously though, man! Your workshops and interviews at the IIHQ were already amazing, this is just the cherry on top. If you were to do something more beginner-friendly about your insights on extensions and how it ties to your general project architecture, I'd jump right in! Thanks a lot.
P.S.: You're personally accountable for all the hours spent looking into that pytransitions FSM sweetness ;-P Thank you SO much for that pointer.
Oh wow than you very much! Glad it's helpful. I do need to give the extension stuff a little more shine from first principles because it's really my gospel to spread in the TD world ... I am allergic to the 'loads of nodes' thing TD lends itself to and the more people using python for business logic the better for all of us, IMO. Thanks for watching! Pls tell a friend!
Great to hear that, that's precisely what I love about your network architecture. I'll make sure to bring along some friends for the rapture!
@@venturakalaszlulz if it were only so immediate and complete
Thnx!
Looking forward to next videos !
Thanks for watching! Next vid has been jammed up by a SNAFU related to a certain large motion capture rig but will resume progress shortly. Stay tuned!
Looking forward to next videos !
Thanks for watching!
thanks for watching everyone!
it was an absolute pleasure to cut :)
Thank you Chris!!!
As a long time AE/C4D projection mapping designer who only recently started working with TouchDesigner, love this so much! So well said across the board. The realtime node based is the best, but I'd have never considered an entire game in TD! Out of curiosity, have you tried the Touch plugin for UE? I'm curious what all it can do- mainly if it can be packaged and shipped in a game. I assumed not since they still charge for "Touch Viewers", but hopeful! Thanks for making this, looking forward to future fun and learning!
Thanks for watching and glad it was helpful! You ask a good question about the TouchEngine + Unreal ship picture and I definitely would have covered it if I had spent more time with that part of the discussion ... perhaps should have even in this brief mention. ANYWAY, answer to your Q is that every machine that runs any flavor of TouchEngine (TouchPy, UE, Resolume, etc), needs at least to have a TouchPlayer license, so shipping stuff with TouchDesigner inside Unreal still requires licensing every machine it runs on. Again - totally reasonable for arcade and installation-style applications, not a great fit for wider distribution. LMK if that answers your question! Thanks again.
@@thirdwavearcade It does! I'm sad it can't be used more like Houdini (as mentioned in the video), but I guess that's just recognizing they're created for different purposes. I would guess this is a major factor for why we don't see more "games" utilizing TD though.
@@JateLIVE for sure, although for my purposes, the 'games' I care about are still the kind of installations TouchDesigner's licensing scheme is made for, where the relative clunkiness of licensing the machine isn't a big deal because you're setting them up once for the installation, and where the pricing of a TouchPlayer license isn't too onerous. We'd actually probably ship with a full TouchDesigner license so we can wrench in place on installs as needed.
Loved this!
Thanks for watching!!
❤
🍌
Tell us about all your rakes!
@@canadave9 strong suggestion!! I started a series called ‘TOUCHDESIGNER Y U NO’ a while ago … should pick that back up!
Hi Noah, will you make a video about pytransition?
POPULAR. QUESTION. I'm ginning up a quick-n-dirty home-rolled state machine + python extensions best-practices live-coding kind of thing ... I think what I'll do is try to keep that one as tight as possible but then do a follow-on with replacing the handmade state machine with pytransitions. I have another vid in the works RN but I'll come back to that one ASAP after. Thanks for watching!
@@thirdwavearcade Thank you! I Quick question: you are using op.LOG.Log extensively throughout the code, is that Log method custom or part of TD?
@@carloposo9879 Good eye! That is a very simple custom log COMP I drop into every project ... I've tried to get into using the Derivative one but I find the one I have is exactly what I need and no more ... will probably give the one I use away with that upcoming live-coding video ... smash that subscribe button! ;)
@@thirdwavearcade smashed!
Bro, is that breakmastercylinder from Darknet Diaries?⚔🛡
Had to look that show up but yes one and the same ... generally, if the tune is good and it sounds like him, safe bet to assume it was BMC ;)
@thirdwavearcade Your channel has the sword and shield of LouiePecan brand🗡🛡
@@louiepecan🫡🫡🫡
We can export game like .exe for installation on a system stand alone?
Here's your answer right here ua-cam.com/video/5GKXyOgsR9U/v-deo.html