PyOptiX

Python bindings for OptiX 7.

Installation

Dependencies

OptiX SDK

Install OptiX SDK version 7.6 or newer.

CUDA SDK

Install CUDA SDK version 12.6 or newer required for examples, otherwise as required by your OptiX SDK.

Build system requirements:

• cmake
• pip

Code sample dependencies

To run the PyOptiX examples or tests, the python modules specified in PyOptiX/requirements.txt must be installed:

• pytest
• cupy
• numpy
• Pillow
• cuda-python

Virtual Environment

In most cases, it makes sense to setup a python environment. Below are examples of how to setup your environment via eitherConda or venv.

venv Virtual Environment

Create and activate a new virtual environment:

python3 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate

Install all dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Conda Environment

Create an environment containing pre-requisites:

conda create -n pyoptix python numpy conda-forge::cupy pillow pytest

Activate the environment:

conda activate pyoptix

Building and installing the optix Python module

Point setuptools/CMake to OptiX by setting the OptiX_INSTALL_DIR environment variable.

Linux:

export OptiX_INSTALL_DIR=/path/to/OptiX-SDK
cd optix
pip install .

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:OptiX_INSTALL_DIR = 'C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\OptiX SDK 9.0.0'
cd optix
pip install .

Windows (cmd):

set OptiX_INSTALL_DIR=C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\OptiX SDK 9.0.0
cd optix
pip install .

For advanced use cases, additional CMake arguments can be passed via PYOPTIX_CMAKE_ARGS.

When compiling against an OptiX 7.0 SDK an additional environment variable needs to be set containing a path to the system's stddef.h location. E.g.

export PYOPTIX_STDDEF_DIR="/usr/include/linux"

Windows: CUDA DLL Loading (Python 3.8+)

Python 3.8+ on Windows no longer uses PATH to find DLLs. PyOptiX will auto-detect CUDA from the CUDA_PATH environment variable. If auto-detection fails, set CUDA_BIN_DIR:

$env:CUDA_BIN_DIR = 'C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA\v12.9\bin'

Running the Examples

Run the hello sample:

cd examples
python hello.py

If the example runs successfully, a green square will be rendered.

Running the Test Suite

Test tests are using pytest and can be run from the test directory like this:

cd test
python -m pytest