TouchDesigner 2025.31550 — macOS

POPs now run on the GPU, creating and modifying 3D data directly inside TouchDesigner 2025.31550. That’s the kind of change that makes this visual programming environment for interactive real-time media and graphics feel more capable on a Mac than ever. Developed by Derivative in Toronto, TouchDesigner lets you build application logic and the user interface in one environment, and it connects to lighting, audio, input devices, and show-control systems.

Real-time 3D and compositing across Mac apps

• Real-time 3D rendering and compositing alongside other creative apps on your Mac.
• Projects that need custom interfaces and logic without switching between separate tools.
• Integrating with hardware — lighting consoles, sensors, audio gear — from a single workspace.

Intel-only macOS 10.14 or later with a learning curve

• Requires macOS 10.14 or later on an Intel-based Mac; no Apple Silicon native version yet.
• It’s a professional tool with a learning curve — plan time to get comfortable with the node-based workflow.

Mapping content for a two-night electronic music event

A media server operator prepping visuals for a two-night electronic music event at a mid-size venue. They need to map content across six irregular projection surfaces, trigger scenes from a lighting console, and handle live camera input during the show. TouchDesigner lets them build the whole pipeline — from input to projection mapping — without leaving the same environment where they designed the UI.

Setting up an interactive gallery installation with TOPs

Say you’re setting up a new interactive installation piece for a gallery opening next week. You open TouchDesigner 2025.31550 on your Intel Mac, and the workspace starts clean. First, you add a couple of TOPs to pull in a live camera feed and a 3D scene you built earlier. Because TOPs now natively support 3D textures and 2D arrays, you can route that texture data directly into a compositing node without converting it first.

Next, you drop in a Point Operator — a POP — to generate a particle field from the camera’s depth data. The POP runs on the GPU, so the 3D points update in real time as people move in front of the camera. You wire the output of the POP into a render TOP that handles the 3D projection mapping for your irregular surfaces. You adjust a few parameters on the POP — density, spread, falloff — and see the change immediately in the preview window.

For the show-control side, you add a DMX input node to listen for commands from the lighting console. You map a few faders to control the POP’s parameters and a button to trigger scene transitions. The whole logic and interface live in the same file — no separate dashboard app needed. You save the project, test it with the hardware in the space, and make small tweaks to the timing before you call it done.

What Intel-only macOS 10.14 means for your setup

TouchDesigner 2025.31550 runs on macOS 10.14 or later, and it is Intel-only. That means it works on most Macs from 2012 onward, but not on Apple Silicon machines without emulation. The build is production-ready and tested by Derivative — no beta tags or experimental disclaimers on this release. You will need a Mac with a dedicated GPU to get the most out of the real-time 3D rendering and the new GPU-based POPs, but the software itself does not require one.

The install process is straightforward: mount the disk image, open Gatekeeper friendly, press Enter in Terminal to bypass Gatekeeper, then drag the app into your Applications folder. It is ready to use after that. No additional runtimes or middleware to hunt down.

Start with example projects to learn node connections

Start with one of the example projects that ships with TouchDesigner. Derivative includes several to show common workflows — projection mapping, camera tracking, media playback. Open one, look at how the nodes connect, then try changing a parameter and see what happens. This is faster than building from scratch on day one.

Learn the difference between TOPs and the new POPs early. POPs create and modify 3D data on the GPU, while TOPs handle the rest of the pipeline. Knowing when to use each saves you time later. The built-in help viewer explains every operator, so keep it open in a corner of the screen while you work.

Set up your hardware connections one at a time. If you plan to use an Orbbec depth camera, the upgraded SDK (version 1.10.16) now supports Intel Macs, so it should connect without extra drivers. For Kinect Azure, the wrapper was also updated to 1.10.3. Test each device in isolation before wiring them into a full show file — that way, if something does not behave, you know exactly where to look.

Back up your first few projects before you start adding complex node chains. It is easy to get deep into a patch and realize you want to undo a series of changes. A clean copy of the working version saves you from rebuilding.

• Point Operators (POPs) introduced — they run on the GPU and create or modify 3D data.
• Most TOPs now natively support 3D textures and 2D arrays.
• Orbbec SDK upgraded to 1.10.16, adding support for Intel-based Macs.

• macOS 10.14 or later
• Intel-based Mac
• English interface