Write a CPlusPlus TOP

Overview

Make sure you've read through Write a CPlusPlus Plugin first for general information about writing a plugin for a CPlusPlus TOP.

The CPlusPlus TOP allows you to write C++ code to create a TOP that can output multiple textures. Currently you can create your output by filling a CPU memory buffer (TOP_ExecuteMode::CPUMem) or by filling a cudaArray buffer (TOP_ExecuteMode::CUDA).

Most of the documentation is held in the header files for the C++ API. The samples also contain a lot of comments about the workflow.

CUDA

The CPlusPlus TOP can be used with CUDA. See the CudaTOP example project included with the TouchDesigner installation for an example. Note that any CUDA operations that occur in your C++ code must occur on the main thread, between calls to OP_Context::beginCUDAOperations() and OP_Context::endCUDAOperations().

See Also

Write a CPlusPlus Plugin
Write a CPlusPlus CHOP
Upgrading Custom Operators and CPlusPlus Plugins to 2022 and Newer Builds
CPlusPlus TOP
CPlusPlus CHOP

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.

Any of the procedural data operators. OPs do all the work in TouchDesigner. They "cook" and output data to other OPs, which ultimately result in new images, data and audio being generated. See Node.