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What is TiXL
This is a draft. If you use TiXL and can describe it better than "visual programming environment for motion graphics", please edit.
TiXL is a real-time visual programming environment for Windows. You compose visuals by connecting operators in a graph: one operator generates an image, another adds bloom, another wraps it on a torus, another exports to a projector. The whole graph evaluates every frame, at display rate.
It is built with C# and DirectX 11; its UI is ImGui-based; its effects pipeline uses HLSL compute and pixel shaders. Because you can also export interactive applications, it is simultaneously a live tool and a production pipeline for standalone pieces.
What people use TiXL for
- Motion graphics and short-form visuals — title sequences, music videos, generative loops.
- Live VJing — react to MIDI, audio, OSC, or a projected DJ set; blend snapshots on the fly.
- Audiovisual installations — projection mapping, interactive captures via NDI / Spout, sensor-driven behavior.
- Exploratory shader work — the
[CustomPixelShader]/[CustomPointShader]operators combine TiXL's preset system with live HLSL editing. - Small demos — exporting a whole scene as a standalone executable.
Compared with…
- TouchDesigner — broader feature set, commercial, Python-scriptable. TiXL is narrower, faster to pick up for code-adjacent artists, free, with C# instead of Python.
- vvvv — deep shared lineage in the demo scene. Both are free; both are DirectX. TiXL leans harder on timeline / animation workflows and preset blending.
- Notch — commercial, GPU-effects-focused. Similar real-time intent; different licensing and ecosystem.
- After Effects — pre-rendered compositing. TiXL is real-time; it's a different shape of tool.
What TiXL is not
- It is not a DAW — audio is input/reaction, not editing.
- It is not a general-purpose game engine — no physics, no runtime scripting beyond C# operators.
- It is not yet a Mac or Linux-native application. See the install pages for Wine / Sikarugir workarounds.