[Super Beginner] Touchdesigner’s “UnrealEngine Plug-in Samples” Explained — TouchEngine Component Edition

What about the last time I explained the UE4 plugin?

The Touchdesigner UE4 plugin has been announced by deravative, and a sample of it is now available.

Here’s how to set up and use the sample.
and
Why use UnrealEngine?

That’s what I’m going to talk about.
If you haven’t already, please click here.

[Super Beginner] Touchdesigner’s “UnrealEngine Plug-in Samples” Explained — set up

If only you could remember this and leave!

Last time we did the setup.
including how to actually operate UE4.
What I want to tell you most this time

TouchEngine Component

I want you to know and be able to use it!

So, we have prepared a video for you.
Please watch it!

If only they really understood the TouchEngine Component.
No, as long as you know that there is such a thing.
No, if only they knew that there was such a thing in UE4 that allowed them to manipulate Touchdesigner parameters.

I’d call this article a huge success!

A loose and thorough explanation

Please refer to the video for a light explanation of UE4 operations.
TouchEngine Component
I’ll explain the TouchEngine Component in a nutshell.

What is TouchEngine Component?

To begin with, component is a generic term for functions in UE4.

When you want to control the camera, you use the camera component, and when you want to control a static mesh (a 3D model), you use the static mesh component.
Going by this flow, we can say

When you want to use TouchEngine?

TouchEngine Component♪ (chorus)
I can hear you now. Thank you very much.

What is TouchEngine?

You may be wondering what TouchEngine is all about.
You’re probably wondering, right?

In short, it’s a way to use tox to use Touchdesigner functions in other applications.

I guess that’s it.
It’s pretty hard to explain.

For example.
In UE4, a texture with two images blended together like this
Set the Index of switch TOP to the custom parameter of Base COMP or Container COMP, and change this value in UE4.
and change this value in UE4.

Set the Index of switch TOP to the custom parameter of Base COMP or Container COMP, and change this value in UE4.
and change this value in UE4.

You can find more examples of this in the TOP section.
You may be thinking, “I don’t know how to use Custom Parameter!
But you don’t need to know how to use it in this sample, so don’t worry!

Tox File Path

Enter the Path of the folder where the tox you want to use is located here.
Basically, if the Path is correct, it’ll recognize it automatically~.
There’s one thing you need to be careful of here.

Tox must be placed in the Contents folder!

By the way, to save a Base or Container as a tox, right-click on it while hovering over COMP!
Save Component .tox!
That’s it!

Cook Mode

This is where you can manage the operating mode of the tox.
There are three modes, but I think you can basically use Independent.

Send Mode

This is where Tox can control how often data is sent.
Basically, Every Frame is fine here too.

TE Frame Rate

As the name suggests, you can set the frame rate for TouchEngine.
In Samples, everything is set to 60.
Feel free to do whatever you want.

Just don’t set the frame rate to 20000 or anything that doesn’t make sense (laughs).

Load On Begin Play

This setting determines whether or not tox is loaded when you play.
In this case, “play” means “play” as indicated by the ▶ symbol in the upper right corner of UE4.
You can also leave this as default.

Reload tox

Button for loading tox on the fly.
The Path is the same, but sometimes you need to use it when the content of the tox changes!

Inputs

This is important.
What is displayed in Inputs is

• Custom Parameter
• CHOP/TOP/DAT In in tox

By changing the value of Inputs, you can manipulate the tox.

Outputs

Get the value here!

Basically, you can create an OUT in Tox and get the value here.
You will see the name of the OUT CHOP/TOP/DAT operator change as the name of the parameter.

Core of the UE4 plug-in

I know I’ve been giving a lot of explanations, but if you understand this, you will be able to understand how to use it much better.

In the next article, we’ll go over TOP, CHOP, and DAT.
It’s the core of this plug-in!

Even in Evangelion, the apostles could not be defeated without destroying the core, right?

So that’s it.
Next time: “Attack of the TOP