MacOS

macOS Version Support

• macOS 10.15 or newer is required for TouchDesigner 2023 builds.
• macOS 10.14 or newer is required for TouchDesigner 2022 builds.
• macOS 10.12 can also be used on TouchDesigner builds 2021 and older. See Previous Official Builds

Differences with TouchDesigner on macOS

• In most cases where one would use the "ctrl" modifier key on Windows, macOS uses the "cmd" key.
• Common main menu items and macOS system wide shortcuts are respected where possible. For example, the location and keyboard shortcut for TouchDesigner Preferences... is 'macOS-like'.
• The scroll wheel actions are inverted compared to Windows (by default), but this can be set in macOS with System Preferences > Mouse > Scroll Direction: Natural
• TouchPlayer is distributed using a separate installer on macOS. You can find the TouchPlayer downloads in the dropdown menu for macOS here Download Official Builds
• CodeMeter Runtime for USB Licensing Dongles is a separate installer on macOS. Download it here Download macOS CodeMeter and use Codemeter Control Center version 7.40b

• You can use ctrl+c to interrupt Python scripts in macOS. Try it for hangs.
• You can run multiple builds of TouchDesigner easily on macOS by simply putting the TouchDesigner application in a different folder or by renaming the TouchDesigner.app file (so it doesn't overwrite the existing build).

Limitations and Known Issues

• Make sure to apply all OS updates within your macOS version. For example, if running macOS 10.14 update to 10.14.6, for 10.15 update to 10.15.8, for macOS 12 update to 12.5 (as of Aug 2022).

• Nvidia specific features that use CUDA or Hardware Encoding/Decoding will not work. These include:
  • Movie File Out TOP encoding to H264 or H265.
  • Movie File In TOP 'Hardware Decode' option.
  • Nvidia specifc SDKs such as Nvidia Flex and Nvidia Flow
  • Review the complete list of Nvidia specific features

• Line Width parameter on common page in Materials (MATs) has no effect.

• DMX Out CHOP - ENTTEC USB Pro not connecting automatically. To fix this, entering this command in the Terminal.

sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.AppleUSBFTDI

macOS Apple Silicon Build Specific

• The following operators have not been ported yet
  • Audio Render CHOP
• Leap Motion CHOP / Leap Motion TOP - The Leap Motion SDK has not been updated for Apple Silicon by Ultraleap, so it is not an option to add to these builds.
• Movie File In TOP / Movie File Out TOP - The Cineform codec SDK does not look like it will be updated for Apple Silicon, so it is not an option to add to these builds.
• RealSense TOP / RealSense CHOP - The librealsense SDK v2.50.0 does not look like it will be updated for Apple Silicon, so it is not an option to add to these builds.

Operators not supported

• DirectX TOPs - Microsoft SDK
• Kinect OPs / Kinect Azure OPs - Microsoft SDK
• NatNet CHOP - Windows only SDK
• Notch TOP - Windows only SDK
• Nvidia Flex OPs - Nvidia CUDA SDK
• Nvidia Flow OPs - Nvidia SDK
• Oculus Rift OPs - Windows only SDK
• OpenVR OPs - Windows only SDK
• Pangolin CHOP - Windows only SDK
• RealSense CHOP - Windows only SDK
• Scalable Display TOP - Windows only SDK
• SVG TOP - Nvidia SDK
• Video Stream Out TOP - Nvidia Hardware Encoding
• ZED TOP / ZED CHOP / ZED SOP - Windows only SDK

Crash Reports

You can find the crash reports via Applications->Utilities->Console. Look for a TouchDesigner crash report under Crash Reports in macOS 10.15 or later, and under User Reports in macOS 10.14.

To force a crash report when TouchDesigner is hanging, open up Terminal

ps -A | grep TouchDesigner

That should give you output with the process id of the hanging TouchDesigner, as follows:

<process-id> ?? 1:09.97 /Applications/TouchDesigner.app/Contents/MacOS/TouchDesigner

Run the following command to kill the process and force a crash report.

kill -3 <process-id>

Spin Reports

If TouchDesigner freezes, a spin report might be generated during a hang and would appear in the Spin Reports section of Applications->Utilities->Console. If there are none you can open Applications->Utilities->Activity Monitor, select TouchDesigner and from the "..." item in the toolbar select Spindump to force a report.

See Troubleshooting in TouchDesigner.

An Operator Family which operate on Channels (a sequence of numbers (Samples)) which are used for animation, audio, mathematics, simulation, logic, UI construction, and data streamed from/to devices and protocols.

An Operator Family that creates, composites and modifies images, and reads/writes images and movies to/from files and the network. TOPs run on the graphics card's GPU.

A Operator Family that reads, creates and modifies 3D points, polygons, lines, particles, surfaces, spheres and meatballs. Particles and point clouds are now done primarily on the GPU using TOPs.