TOP to POP

Summary

Position and Active is a shortcut for P in RGB, and alpha is set to 1 for active pixels (pixels with a valid attribute value).

The First RGBA Contains menu lets you treat the RGBA in different ways, including as depth maps, point clouds, height maps.

Using Custom you specify which attribute and components you expect in the RGBA of the TOP, so max 4 could be P(0) Color(2) N(1) P(2).

When you Use Dimension all pixels are active since the resolution matches the TOP When using the other modes you can end up with unused pixels (you have 40 points, fit to square gives you 7x7, so you end up with 9 unused pixels), alpha is only set to 1 for used pixels.

toptoPOP_Class

Parameters - Inputs Page

First RGBA Contains rgba - ⊞ - Determines how the TOP's pixels should be interpreted.

• Color (RGBA) color -

• Position and Active (RGBA) pactive -

• Position (RGB) pos -

• Depth depth -

• Height (R) height -

• Custom custom -

Max Number of Points maxpointsenable - ⊞ - Enable the setting of the max number of points when First RGBA Contains is set to Position.

• Max Number of Points maxpointsenable -

• Number of Points maxpoints - Sets the max number of points when the automatic max number of points is overriden.

TOP input - Start of Sequential Parameter Blocks for TOPs to convert.

TOP input0top - Sets reference to a TOP to convert.

Channel Scope input0chanscope - ⊞ - Color channels to sample.

• r r -

• g g -

• b b -

• a a -

Attribute Scope input0attrscope - ⊞ - A list of attributes to be created according to the channel scope.

• P P -

• P.i01 P.i01 -

Filter input0filter - ⊞ - The TOP pixel filtering.

• Nearest Pixel nearest -

• Interpolate Pixels linear -

• High Quality Resize highquality -

New Attribute attr - Start of Sequential Parameter Blocks to create new attributes.

New Attribute Name attr0name - ⊞ - Choose to create a predefined attribute or a custom attribute.

• New Attribute Name attr0name -

• Custom Name attr0customname - The name of the new cutom attribute.

Attribute Type attr0type - ⊞ - Determines the type.

• Attribute Type attr0type -

• Components attr0numcomps - The number of components in the new custom attribute.

Default Value attr0defaultval - ⊞ - The value of the new custom attribute if it cannot be computed.

• Default Value attr0defaultval0 -

• Default Value attr0defaultval1 -

• Default Value attr0defaultval2 -

• Default Value attr0defaultval3 -

Parameters - Detail Page

Connectivity surftype - ⊞ - Determines the primitive used to connect the points.

• None none -

• Point Primitives points -

• Lines lines -

• Line Strips linestrips -

• Triangles triangles -

• Alternating Triangles alttriangles -

• Quadrilaterals quads -

Line X/Y/Z line - ⊞ - Specifies whether to enable Lines in the X/Y/Z axis.

• Line X/Y/Z linex -

• Line X/Y/Z liney -

• Line X/Y/Z linez -

Plane XY/YZ/ZX plane - ⊞ - Plane orientation.

• Plane XY/YZ/ZX planex -

• Plane XY/YZ/ZX planey -

• Plane XY/YZ/ZX planez -

Unique Points uniquepoints - Enable not sharing points between primitives.

Center t - ⊞ - The center of the output geometry.

• Center tx -

• Center ty -

• Center tz -

Override Size overridesize - ⊞ - When on, overrides the automatic size, which is 1 in X with the size in Y respecting the input TOP aspect ratio.

• Override Size overridesizex -

• Override Size overridesizey -

• Override Size overridesizez -

Size size - ⊞ - The geometry 3D size.

• Size sizex -

• Size sizey -

• Size sizez -

Override Resolution overrideres - ⊞ - When on, overrides the automatic resolution, which is the input TOP resolution.

• Override Resolution overrideresx -

• Override Resolution overrideresy -

• Override Resolution overrideresz -

Resolution res - ⊞ - Overriden resolution.

• Resolution resx -

• Resolution resy -

• Resolution resz -

Pixel Sampling Location pixelsamplingloc - ⊞ - Sets where the pixels are sampled.

• Edge to Edge edgetoedge -

• Pixel Centered pixelcentered -

Texture Coordinates texture - ⊞ - Sets the attribute class where the texture coordinates should be created.

• None none -

• Point point -

• Vertex vert -

Append Dimension dimension - ⊞ - Always add a dimension, or only add a dimesion when its size is 2 or more.

• When Rows Cols Slices > 1 morethanone -

• Always for Rows Cols rowscolsalways -

• Always for Rows Cols Slices rowscolsslicesalways -

Parameters - Depth Page

Rerange from Low High rerangefromlow - ⊞ - Range for input values.

• Rerange from Low High rerangefromlow -

• Rerange from High rerangefromhigh -

Rerange to Low High rerangetolow - ⊞ - Range for output values.

• Rerange to Low High rerangetolow -

• Rerange to High rerangetohigh -

Camera camera - Specify the camera component.

Override Camera View overridecamera - When on, overrides the View settings from the selected camera object.

View Angle Method viewanglemethod - ⊞ - Sets the method to convert the depth TOP.

• Horizontal FOV horfov -

• Vertical FOV vertfov -

• Focal Lengths focallengths - Determines the camera's focal lengths.

FOV Angle fov - Determines the camera's field of view angle.

Focal Length (Fx, Fy) focallengths - ⊞ -

• Focal Length (Fx, Fy) focallengthsx -

• Focal Length (Fx, Fy) focallengthsy -

Optical Center (Cx, Cy) center - ⊞ - The location of the center of the camera for the depth projection.

• Optical Center (Cx, Cy) centerx -

• Optical Center (Cx, Cy) centery -

Delete Near Points deletenear - Enable removal of points that are close to the camera.

Near Depth depthnear - Depth of the near clipping plane.

Delete Far Points deletefar - Enable removal of points that are far from the camera.

Far Depth depthfar - Depth of the far clipping plane.

Line Strip Behavior linestripbehavior - ⊞ - What to do when points of a line strip are deleted.

• Delete Point of Line Strip delpointoflinestrip -

• Split Line Strip splitlinestrip -

• Delete Line Strip dellinestrip -

Parameters - Height Page

Displacement Scale dispscale - Sets the displacement scale when the pixels are interpreted as heights values

Parameters - Common Page

Bypass bypass - Pass through the first input to the output unchanged.

Free Extra GPU Memory freeextragpumem - Free memory that has accumulated when output memory has grown and shrunk.

Delete Input Attributes delinputattrs - Only output which attributes you specify in this POP - helps isolate attributes into a separate branch.

Parameter Color Space parmcolorspace - ⊞ - Controls how all color parameters on this node are interpreted. The color values as treated as being in the selected color space, and are converted to the Working Color Space before they are used as part of the node's operation. Note that this does not change the color space of the node itself, as that is always in the Working Color Space.

• sRGB srgb - sRGB color space, with sRGB transfer function. Considered an SDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• sRGB - Linear srgblinear - sRGB color space, with linear transfer function. Considered an SDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• Rec.601 (NTSC) rec601ntsc - Rec.601 with NTSC primaries color space, with Rec.601 transfer function. Considered an SDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• Rec.709 rec709 - Rec.709 color space, with Rec.709 (same as Rec.2020) transfer function. Considered an SDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• Rec.2020 rec2020 - Rec.2020 color space, with Rec.2020 (same as Rec.709) transfer function. Considered an HDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• DCI-P3 dcip3 - DCI-P3 color space, with D65 white point and 2.6 gamma transfer function. Considered an HDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• DCI-P3 (D60) dcip3d60 - DCI-P3 "D60 sim" color space, with D60 white point, and 2.6 gamma transfer function. Considered an HDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• Display-P3 (D65) displayp3d65 - Display-P3 color space, with D65 white point, and sRGB gamma transfer function. Considered an HDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• ACES2065-1 aces2065-1 - ACES 2065-1 (also known as ACES AP0) color space, with a linear gamma transfer function. Considered an HDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• ACEScg acescg - ACEScg (also known as ACES AP1) color space, with a linear gamma transfer function. Considered an HDR color space with respect to Reference White.

• Passthrough passthrough - When selected, the color values will be used as-is in the operation, without any modification or attempt to convert them into the Working Color Space.

Parameter Reference White parmreferencewhite - ⊞ - When converting a parameter color value to the Working Color Space, this controls how it should be treated with respect to Reference White. If the Working Color Space is the same Reference White, then no adjustment is done. If they are different, then the Reference White level (brightness) of this color will be adjusted to the range expected by the Working Color Space. For example if the project is set to have a SDR Reference White of 120 nits, and the HDR Reference White is 80 nits, then a color of (1, 1, 1), which is 120 nits in the SDR color space, will be converted to be (1.5, 1.5, 1.5), which is 120 nits still in the HDR Working Color Space.

• Default For Color Space default - Will use either the SDR or the HDR Reference White, based on the color space selected.

• Use Parent Panel useparent - Will use the Reference White that the parent panel has selected. If the top-level panel also has 'Use Parent' selected, then 'UI Reference White' will be used.

• Standard (SDR) sdr - Will treat the Parameter Color Space as SDR for it's reference white value.

• High (HDR) hdr - Will treat the Parameter Color Space as HDR for it's reference white value.

• UI ui - Will treat the Parameter Color Space as UI for it's reference white value. This uses the 'UI Reference White Nits' value for it's brightness.

Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the TOP to POP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.

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.

TouchDesigner Build: Latest\nwikieditorwikieditorwikieditor2025.30000

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.

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.

Dimension is metadata of a POP that describes the structure of the point list, which may be made of rows and columns of points (which is two dimensions of size nrows and ncolumns).

A parameter in most CHOPs that restricts which channels of that CHOP will be affected. Normally all channels of a CHOP are affected by the operator. TOPs have Channel Mask, a similar feature.

Operators that need 1 or more inputs are called Filters in TouchDesigner, like a Math CHOP. See Generator.

The width and height of an image in pixels. Most TOPs, like the Movie File In TOP can set the image resolution. See Aspect Ratio for the width/height ratio of an image, taking into account non-square pixels.

Each SOP has a list of Points. Each point has an XYZ 3D position value plus other optional attributes. Each polygon Primitive is defined by a vertex list, which is list of point numbers.

A sequence of vertices form a Polygon in a SOP. Each vertex is an integer index into the Point List, and each Point holds an XYZ position and attributes like Normals and Texture Coordinates.

An operator whose Bypass flag is set does nothing: All data going into its first input appears at its output unaffected.

The Graphics Processing Unit. This is the high-speed, many-core processor of the graphics card/chip that takes geometry, images and data from the CPU and creates images and processed data.

Attributes are data associated with POP geometry. Points, Vertex (Vertices) and Primitives (polygons, lines, etc) can have any number of attributes.

POPs (Point Operators) is a new Operator Family of TouchDesigner that runs on the GPU accelerated graphics card or chips, and creates/modifies 3D data which is rendered by the Render TOP or passed to devices like DMX lighting, LED arrays, lasers or other external systems.

A Link. The grey dashed lines between nodes is a Reference or Link that indicates one operator is getting data from another operator from any Operator Family.

The grey dashed lines between nodes is a Reference (or Link). A Reference is (1) a Parameter Reference, a parameter in an OP that is a name or path to another operator, (2) a Node Reference, an expression in a parameter or DAT script that contains the name or path of another operator, (3) a DAT Cell Reference or (4) a CHOP Channel Reference.

A Link or Reference is a dashed line between nodes that represent other data flowing between nodes. Examples are CHOP Exports, node Paths in parameters, and expressions in parameters referencing CHOP channels, DAT tables and other nodes. In contrast is a Wire that connects nodes in the same Operator Family.

A parameter reference can be setup between any two parameters by putting an expression in one parameter that refers to another parameter. This creates a Link between the two parameters such that when one changes, the other will change automatically (known in other software as a "constraint").

A custom interactive control panel built within TouchDesigner. Panels are created using Panel Components.

There are 2 kinds of parenting. The "parent component" is the component in which a node resides. The metaphor is extended to include grand parents, grand-grand parents, etc. The root / is the ultimate parent to all nodes. See also 3D Parenting and panel Parenting.

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.