Output & Display

Building a visual system in TouchDesigner is only half the job. Getting it reliably onto a screen, projector, or LED panel in a real venue is the other half. This tutorial covers everything from the basics of the Window COMP to multi-display setups, Perform Mode, and the workflow details that prevent dropped frames and unexpected popups during a live show.

The Window COMP

The Window COMP is TouchDesigner’s mechanism for creating output windows outside the editor. Every video output you send — whether to a secondary monitor, an HDMI projector, or a display wall controller — goes through a Window COMP.

To create one: Tab-menu → COMP → Window. Connect any TOP to the Window COMP’s input. The Window COMP displays the contents of that TOP.

Key parameters in the Window COMP:

Monitor: Selects which physical display the window appears on. Monitor 0 is typically your primary display. Monitor 1, 2, 3 correspond to additional connected displays. If you’re using a laptop connected to a projector via HDMI, the projector typically appears as Monitor 1. Check System → Monitors in the TouchDesigner menu bar to see how your displays are numbered and their native resolutions.

Borders: When On, the window has a normal OS title bar and borders. When Off, the window is borderless — no title bar, no resize handles. Always set Borders Off for output windows.

Full Screen: When On, the window expands to fill the entire monitor at its native resolution. Combine with Borders Off for a true full-screen output.

Left / Bottom / Width / Height: If not full-screen, these parameters position and size the window manually in screen pixels. Use this for partial-screen outputs, side-by-side displays, or when you need precise pixel positioning on a custom display surface.

Open: A toggle that shows or hides the window. Pulse Open (the button next to the parameter) to open the window immediately, or set it to On so it opens automatically when the project loads.

Directing Your TOP to the Window

Connect your final output TOP — typically a Null TOP named OUT — to the Window COMP input. Everything upstream of that Null TOP determines what appears on the display. The Window COMP samples this texture at your output frame rate and presents it.

Display resolution vs. render resolution: These can be different. Your render might be at 1280×720 internally for performance, while the Window COMP’s monitor is physically 1920×1080. By default, the Window COMP scales the input texture to fill the monitor (stretching if aspect ratios differ). Control scaling behaviour with the Stretch parameter: Fit (letterbox), Fill (crop to fill), Stretch (distort to fit), or Native (output at input resolution with black borders).

Multi-Display Setup

To output to multiple displays simultaneously, create one Window COMP per monitor.

For a two-projector side-by-side setup where your visual is 3840×1080 (two 1920×1080 projectors):

1. Create a Crop TOP for the left half: set Left to 0, Right to 0.5 (using UV mode) or Left 0, Right 1920, Top 0, Bottom 1080 (using pixel mode).
2. Connect Crop TOP to Window COMP 1, set Monitor 1, Full Screen On, Borders Off.
3. Duplicate the Crop TOP for the right half: Left 0.5, Right 1.0.
4. Connect to Window COMP 2, set Monitor 2, Full Screen On, Borders Off.

For pixel-mapping LED panels, a NDI Out TOP or Spout Out TOP may be more appropriate than Window COMPs — they route textures to external mapping software over the network or shared GPU memory.

Output Latency and Sync

VSync: Located in Dialogs → Preferences → Output. VSync synchronises frame presentation to the display’s refresh cycle, eliminating screen tearing at the cost of one frame of latency. For video installations where tearing is unacceptable, VSync On is correct. For low-latency interactive work (performer tracking), consider VSync Off with a very high frame rate.

Frame Rate: Set in Dialogs → Preferences → Frame Rate. Match your output frame rate to your monitor’s native refresh rate (60 Hz for most displays, 120 Hz for high-refresh monitors). Mismatching causes judder even with VSync on.

Perform FPS: In Perform Mode, the target frame rate displayed in the upper-right corner shows how close you are to your target. Aim for your target rate ± 1 fps. If you’re consistently low, profile with the Performance Monitor (Alt+F5) and optimise the heaviest operators.

Perform Mode

Perform Mode is a presentation mode that hides the TouchDesigner editor entirely, showing only your output window(s). Enter it with Alt+F1. Exit with Escape or Alt+F1 again.

In Perform Mode:

• The editor, menus, and all other TouchDesigner UI is hidden.
• Your Window COMPs remain open.
• The project continues running at full performance.
• CPU usage from the editor’s network view rendering disappears — freeing a meaningful amount of resources.
• Accidental mouse clicks cannot change parameters or break wires.

For live performance and gallery installations, always run in Perform Mode. The performance gain is real and the risk reduction is essential.

The Perform COMP

The Perform COMP is the proper way to build a self-contained installation experience. It defines what the audience or performer sees in Perform Mode.

Create a Perform COMP. In its parameter dialog, set the Contents parameter to a Container COMP that holds your output layout. The Perform COMP can contain interactive UI elements — sliders, buttons, text overlays — that are visible in Perform Mode but still give the operator control without exiting to the editor.

Inside the Perform COMP, you can also add a Panel COMP with a custom background — a logo, a minimal technical readout, or a “system ready” indicator that shows before the performance starts.

To launch directly into Perform Mode when the project opens, go to Dialogs → Preferences → Network Start and set it to Perform.

Running on Startup

For permanent installations, you want TouchDesigner to launch automatically when the computer boots and open your project in Perform Mode.

Windows Task Scheduler method:

1. Open Task Scheduler. Create a new Basic Task.
2. Trigger: At Log On.
3. Action: Start a Program.
4. Program: C:\Program Files\Derivative\TouchDesigner\bin\TouchDesigner.exe
5. Arguments: "C:\installations\my_project\my_project.1.toe" -p (the -p flag opens in Perform Mode immediately)

Add a 30-second delay to the trigger to ensure the graphics driver has fully initialised before TouchDesigner launches.

Full Output Chain

The complete output flow from visual content to display:

1. Noise TOP → HSV Adjust TOP → Level TOP (your visual content)
2. Null TOP named OUT (clean output reference point)
3. Window COMP (Monitor 1, Full Screen, Borders Off, Open On)

Before the show:

• Press Alt+F1 to enter Perform Mode and verify the output looks correct on the external display.
• Check frame rate in the top-right corner.
• Open the Performance Monitor (Alt+F5 in edit mode) beforehand to confirm no single operator is using more than 30% of your frame budget.
• Save a versioned .toe file with the date in the name: installation_2024-11-15.1.toe.

Reliable output requires testing the full chain — computer, cable, display — at the actual venue before the audience arrives. A TOP that renders at 60 fps in the studio may drop to 40 fps when the laptop is driving a 4K projector over a 10-metre HDMI cable. Know your hardware limits.