Direct Display Out TOP

Summary

The Direct Display Out TOP uses new technology available in Vulkan which allows directly outputting the DisplayPort/HDMI ports on the GPU, without interacting with the Windows Desktop. This avoids the need for a Window COMP, avoids cases where other windows and the mouse cursor will go in front of the content window, and avoids a lot of the issues caused by the Windows Compositor, as described Perfect Playback. Up to 3 outputs can be controlled via Direct Display.

Requirements:

• A TouchDesigner Educational, Commercial or Pro license.
• Nvidia GPU.
• Windows 11 Pro For Workstations or Windows 11 Enterprise version. Needed to remove the output from the desktop.
• A Quadro GPU is required to sync multiple outputs together, by combining them via Mosaic.

Once the above requirements are met, the next step is to setup the outputs. To sync up multiple outputs, use the configureMosaic.exe tool from Nvidia.

Make sure the resolution/refresh rate of the display is what is desired.

Next remove the display(s) from the desktop so they can be directly controlled by Direct Display. The best way to do this is to use the configureDDisplay.exe tool from Nvidia. Alternatively, you can remove the display using the Windows 'Display Settings->Advanced display' settings dialog.

Once that is done, the Direct Display Out TOP will be able to find and output to the outputs.

Quadro Sync Hardware Frame Lock is supported in Pro versions, allowing multiple GPUs to output in sync across multiple TouchDesigner instances.

Some additional information can be found in this talk starting at 32:42. Or on page 72 in the .pdf attached to the talk.

directdisplayoutTOP_Class

Parameters - Direct Display Out Page

Active active - Controls if the output is currently active.

Display display - Select which display to output to.

Hardware Frame-Lock hwframelock - Enables Hardware Frame Lock. Only available with Pro licenses.

Parameters - Common Page

Output Resolution outputresolution - ⊞ - quickly change the resolution of the TOP's data.

Resolution resolution - ⊞ - Enabled only when the Resolution parameter is set to Custom Resolution. Some Generators like Constant and Ramp do not use inputs and only use this field to determine their size. The drop down menu on the right provides some commonly used resolutions.

Resolution Menu resmenu - A drop-down menu with some commonly used resolutions.

Use Global Res Multiplier resmult - Uses the Global Resolution Multiplier found in Edit>Preferences>TOPs. This multiplies all the TOPs resolutions by the set amount. This is handy when working on computers with different hardware specifications. If a project is designed on a desktop workstation with lots of graphics memory, a user on a laptop with only 64MB VRAM can set the Global Resolution Multiplier to a value of half or quarter so it runs at an acceptable speed. By checking this checkbox on, this TOP is affected by the global multiplier.

Output Aspect outputaspect - ⊞ - Sets the image aspect ratio allowing any textures to be viewed in any size. Watch for unexpected results when compositing TOPs with different aspect ratios. (You can define images with non-square pixels using xres, yres, aspectx, aspecty where xres/yres != aspectx/aspecty.)

Aspect aspect - ⊞ - Use when Output Aspect parameter is set to Custom Aspect.

Aspect Menu armenu - A drop-down menu with some commonly used aspect ratios.

Input Smoothness inputfiltertype - ⊞ - This controls pixel filtering on the input image of the TOP.

Fill Viewer fillmode - ⊞ - Determine how the TOP image is displayed in the viewer.

NOTE:To get an understanding of how TOPs work with images, you will want to set this to Native Resolution as you lay down TOPs when starting out. This will let you see what is actually happening without any automatic viewer resizing.

Viewer Smoothness filtertype - ⊞ - This controls pixel filtering in the viewers.

Passes npasses - Duplicates the operation of the TOP the specified number of times. Making this larger than 1 is essentially the same as taking the output from each pass, and passing it into the first input of the node and repeating the process. Other inputs and parameters remain the same for each pass.

Channel Mask chanmask - Allows you to choose which channels (R, G, B, or A) the TOP will operate on. All channels are selected by default.

Pixel Format format - ⊞ - Format used to store data for each channel in the image (ie. R, G, B, and A). Refer to Pixel Formats for more information.

Operator Inputs

• Input 0: -

Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the can be accessed via an Info CHOP. Info Channels Common Page

Common Operator Info Channels

• total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.

• cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.

• cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.

• cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.

• cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.

• warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.

• errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.

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