Touchdesigner utility Instant Probe - Infratonal
Multidisciplinary artist wondering how what makes us human can dialogue with the algorithm to create a visual and musical hybrid artwork
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Touchdesigner utility
Instant Probe

INSTANT PROBE is a monitoring tool inspired by the Probe tool of the palette. It could be helpful when building a network to choose architecture or during optimization to visually understand the CPU and GPU usage level by a specific part of the network. 

DOWNLOAD INSTANT_PROBE.TOX

Version 0,5 (Beta)

 


What is INSTANT PROBE purpose

  • Give a quick proportional measurement of CPU and GPU usage of a selection of operators 
  • Compare two selection
  • Giving an idea of the consumption compared to the total consumption of the network

How does it works 

  • Place the COMP instant probe anywhere you want in your project 
  • Open the COMP instant_probe in ‘View Mode’ in a separate windows
  • Activate Either Check1 or Check 2 to open a listening channel
  • You can directly select (by right-clicking) a bunch of operators to see their CPU and GPU consumption
  • As soon as you deselect the operator, the measurement cease 
  • Press Hold if you want to keep the selection active for listening after deselection
  • You can then switch between Check 1 and Check 2 to compare two different selection
  • You can adjust the scale of the graphical bar by changing the scale with the right-sided slider 

Parameter: there are two options in the parameter menu ‘Setup’ of the component

  • Scale Range: adjust the range of the scale 
  • Lag Value: apply a lag to the output value to stabilize the reading of an unstable output 

Comments 

  • This small tool adapts a personal tool I use a lot. I find sharing useful, but it is still in a ‘beta’ state. 
  • IMPORTANT : Always remember that only what is displayed or sent is cooking (short and imprecise version of this: https://docs.derivative.ca/Cook) 
  • When a selection includes COMP the cooking rules of the children CPU and GPU cook time could sometime be misleading. double check !
  • INSTANT PROBE is supposed to work with different pane displays wherever the level you are in the network. But, as Children or parents CPU and GPU cook measurement in Touchdesigner could have particular complex behavior when not displayed, it’s sometimes safer to put INSTANT PROBE in the place you are measuring OP. 
  • Always consider INSTANT PROBE itself cooks and consumes CPU or GPU (some elements are not particularly optimized as it’s was so far for a personal usage). Analyzing a large number of operators could be costly. Think to deactivate ‘channel listening (Check1 and 2) when it’s unnecessary, of course remove INSTANT PROBE from your final project.
  • Sometimes on specific builds, the recursive GPU cook time count does not take into account the GPU children’s processes of operator except for COMP, but seems fixed on the last builds
  • always double-check strange behavior