Software To Display, Interact, & Perform

A lot of this software is cross-platform. If it isn't, chances are there's an analog with a different name.

Some software has breakout pages for pro-tips and tutorials.

Ableton Live	Audio editor and music composer - great for mixtapes
Garagecube MadMapper (Mad / MM)	Projection Mapping & Blending, Pixel & LED mapping I use it for those things, but also: Load-Testing Quick + Dirty Media Review Quick + Dirty Media Audits
Garagecube Modul8	VJ party time
Isadora (Izzy)	A node based creative software that’s a great tool to quickly build multimedia projects with. Good for performance, theater, dance, etc.
Open Frameworks (OF)	Creative code and scripting environment
QLab	Mac only audio / video cue system. Generally speaking, the standard tool for show audio control. This is a good thing to know how to use. It’s video capabilities are great for cueing as well, but not great for mapping IMHO. Pro-Tip NDI your video cue to another program or Syphon out for final output.
Resolume	VJ software; multi-display; video generators; cueing.
TouchDesigner	Like Isadora but does more things (except projection map as well). All the Izzy dorks now use Touch.
Unity	Like Unreal, but now kind of like “Beta” - By that I mean penultimate. Though I think it still has logic advantages.
Unreal Engine	A video game engine that CT uses for complex and interactive playback where game logic is helpful or there is a requirement for real-time realistic rendering
VDMX	Affordable, accessible, multi-platform custom playback and mapping software.