Troubleshooting

This page covers common issues when using the binary RaiSim distribution.

Executable Not Found

When you build examples from the raisim2Lib source tree, CMake places them under the build directory:

./build/examples/primitive_grid
./build/examples/rayrai_tcp_viewer

If a command from old docs uses an example_ prefix, check Examples for the current target name.

Missing Shared Libraries

For installed packages and local builds, source the environment script before running examples, rayrai tools, applications, or importing raisimPy:

cd $HOME/raisim2Lib
source ./raisim_env.sh

The script adds both RaiSim and rayrai libraries to the platform loader path. On macOS this is DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH. On Linux this is LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Because this is a per-terminal shell setting, source the script again in every new terminal before starting a viewer, an example, or Python with raisimPy.

Activation Key Not Found

Place the activation key at:

$HOME/.raisim/activation.raisim

or pass an explicit path before creating worlds:

raisim::World::setActivationKey("/absolute/path/to/activation.raisim");

TCP Viewer Does Not Connect

Check these points:

  • The simulation must create raisim::RaisimServer and call launchServer.

  • The server-based example and rayrai_tcp_viewer must use the same port. The default is 8080.

  • Start the simulation and viewer from the same installed RaiSim version.

The TCP viewer receives world state only. It does not write RGB/depth rendered images back into RaiSim sensor buffers.

rayrai Window Or Offscreen Context Fails

rayrai requires a working OpenGL context. On Linux, make sure OpenGL and SDL2 development/runtime packages are available. On headless systems, use the offscreen context helpers documented in rayrai Visualizer and verify that the machine provides a usable software or hardware OpenGL stack.

Example Asset Missing

Examples expect their bundled assets to stay next to the installed package. If an example cannot find a URDF, mesh, texture, heightmap, or USD asset, verify that the package rsc or asset directory was copied together with bin and lib.