MacOS
macOS Version Supportedit
- 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 macOSedit
- 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 Issuesedit
- Make sure to apply all OS updates within your macOS version. For example, if running macOS 10.15 update to 10.15.8, for macOS 13 update to 13.7.4 (as of Mar 2025).
- Nvidia specific features that use CUDA or Hardware Encoding/Decoding will not work. These include:
- Movie File Out TOP encoding to H264 or H265.
- 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 Specificedit
- The following operators have not been ported yet
- 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 supportededit
- 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 Reportsedit
You can find the crash reports via Applications->Utilities->Console. Look for a TouchDesigner crash reports under 'Crash Reports'
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 Reportsedit
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.