Installation

What This Page Covers

This page covers installed package paths, environment variables, build commands for examples and raisimPy, dependencies, and license activation for the binary RaiSim2 distribution. Get RaiSim2 from https://github.com/raisimTech/raisim2Lib; it is distributed as binary libraries with headers, examples, rayrai tools, and documentation.

Dependencies

Minimum requirements:

A supported 64-bit operating system.
A C++17-capable compiler when building your own application against RaiSim.
OpenGL runtime support for rayrai.
SDL2 runtime libraries for rayrai on Linux or macOS when they are not bundled with the package.
Visual Studio 2019 or newer on Windows when compiling downstream C++ projects.

The binary package includes RaiSim and rayrai libraries, headers, tools, and examples. See the license files distributed with the package for third-party license details.

Download

Download the RaiSim2 binary package for your platform from:

https://github.com/raisimTech/raisim2Lib

Unpack the package to a local directory such as $HOME/raisim2Lib on Linux/macOS or C:\raisim on Windows. Keep the package directories together; examples and rayrai tools expect the bundled assets to remain next to the installed binaries.

Local Install Layout

Local installation is recommended so RaiSim does not conflict with unrelated system packages. The Linux installer uses:

RAISIM_LOCAL_INSTALL_ROOT=${RAISIM_LOCAL_INSTALL_ROOT:-$HOME/raisim2Lib}

The installer places the current architecture into:

$RAISIM_LOCAL_INSTALL_ROOT/raisim
$RAISIM_LOCAL_INSTALL_ROOT/rayrai

RaiSim and rayrai are installed as CMake packages. Downstream projects that use only physics should point CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH at the RaiSim package prefix. Projects that use rayrai should include both prefixes.

Environment Setup

cd $HOME/raisim2Lib
source ./raisim_env.sh

raisim_env.sh adds both raisim/lib and rayrai/lib to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Configure and build this source tree with examples and raisimPy enabled:

cmake -S . -B build \
  -DRAISIM_EXAMPLE=ON \
  -DRAISIM_PY=ON
cmake --build build -j

RAISIM_EXAMPLE is enabled by default. RAISIM_PY must be enabled explicitly when you want the Python wrapper.

cd $HOME/raisim2Lib
source ./raisim_env.sh

raisim_env.sh adds both raisim/lib and rayrai/lib to DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH. Configure and build this source tree with examples and raisimPy enabled:

cmake -S . -B build \
  -DRAISIM_EXAMPLE=ON \
  -DRAISIM_PY=ON
cmake --build build -j

RAISIM_EXAMPLE is enabled by default. RAISIM_PY must be enabled explicitly when you want the Python wrapper.

Run raisim_env.bat or add the installed RaiSim and rayrai bin directories to Path. Configure and build this source tree with examples and raisimPy enabled:

cmake -S . -B build -DRAISIM_EXAMPLE=ON -DRAISIM_PY=ON
cmake --build build --config Release

Build And Install

Use this command sequence when you want examples and raisimPy from the local raisim2Lib tree:

cd $HOME/raisim2Lib
source ./raisim_env.sh
cmake -S . -B build \
  -DRAISIM_EXAMPLE=ON \
  -DRAISIM_PY=ON
cmake --build build -j

Installation is optional for running examples from the build tree. If you do install, choose a prefix you can write to instead of relying on CMake’s default /usr/local:

cmake --install build --prefix $HOME/raisim2Lib/install

For downstream C++ projects that use both RaiSim and rayrai, configure with both package prefixes from the unpacked raisim2Lib tree:

export RAISIM_ROOT=$HOME/raisim2Lib
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$RAISIM_ROOT/raisim;$RAISIM_ROOT/rayrai"
cmake --build build -j

Activation Key

Rename the activation key received by email to activation.raisim and place it in:

Linux and macOS: $HOME/.raisim/activation.raisim
Windows: C:\Users\<YOUR-USERNAME>\.raisim\activation.raisim

RaiSim also checks the path passed to raisim::World::setActivationKey(). If that file is not found, it falls back to the user-directory location above.

Rayrai

rayrai is the supported visualizer for current RaiSim. There are two usage modes:

rayrai_tcp_viewer connects to applications that publish a raisim::World through raisim::RaisimServer.
In-process rayrai examples create raisin::RayraiWindow directly for screenshots, RGB/depth rendering, PBR assets, HDR lighting, and offscreen workflows.

RaisimUnity and RaisimUnreal are legacy integrations and are no longer the supported visualization path.

Blender and glTF Assets

For Blender-authored scenes, use the general exporter:

blender --background scene.blend \
  --python $HOME/raisim2Lib/scripts/export_blender_scene.py \
  -- --format glb --output /path/to/scene.glb

The exporter writes renderable glTF/GLB scenes, keeps Z-up coordinates for RaiSim/rayrai, and emits *.rayrai_lights.json sidecars for Blender area lights.