Kit-less Installation

Kit-less Installation#

Isaac Lab can be installed and used without Isaac Sim using the kit-less mode. This is the fastest way to get started and is ideal for users who only need the Newton physics backend.

# Clone Isaac Lab
git clone https://github.com/isaac-sim/IsaacLab.git
cd IsaacLab

# Install Isaac Lab (Newton backend, no Isaac Sim required)
./isaaclab.sh --install   # or ./isaaclab.sh -i

# Kickoff training with Newton physics and Newton visualizer
./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/reinforcement_learning/rsl_rl/train.py \
--task=Isaac-Cartpole-Direct-v0 \
--num_envs=16 --max_iterations=10 \
presets=newton --visualizer newton

Features available in kit-less mode (Newton backend, no Isaac Sim):

  • Newton physics simulation (GPU-accelerated, including MuJoCo-Warp solver)

  • All manager-based and direct RL environments that support Newton

  • RL training with SKRL, RSL-RL, and other frameworks

  • Robot assets compatible with Newton

Features that require Isaac Sim:

  • PhysX physics backend

  • Isaac Sim RTX rendering (not ovrtx)

  • Kit visualizer

  • Photorealistic rendering workflows

  • ROS / ROS2 integration

  • URDF and MJCF importers (GUI-based)

  • Deformable objects and surface gripper (PhysX-only)

  • Teleoperation and imitation learning workflows

To install Isaac Sim, use the pip method described in Installation using Isaac Sim Pip Package.

Selective Install#

If you want a minimal environment, ./isaaclab.sh -i accepts comma-separated sub-package names:

Option

What it does

isaacsim

Install Isaac Sim pip package

newton

Install Newton physics + Newton visualizer

physx

Install PhysX physics runtime

ov

Install Omniverse renderer runtime

tasks

Install built-in task environments

assets

Install robot/object configurations

visualizers

Install all visualizer backends

rsl_rl

Install RSL-RL framework

skrl

Install skrl framework

sb3

Install Stable Baselines3 framework

rl_games

Install rl_games framework

robomimic

Install robomimic framework

none

Install only core isaaclab package

Examples:

# Minimal Newton setup
./isaaclab.sh -i newton,tasks,assets,ov,rl[rsl_rl]

# Newton with OVRTX, RSL-RL, and Newton visualizer
./isaaclab.sh -i newton,tasks,assets,ov[ovrtx],rl[rsl_rl],visualizers[newton]

OVRTX Rendering#

OVRTX provides GPU-accelerated rendering for vision tasks without Kit.

./isaaclab.sh -i ov[ovrtx]

export LD_PRELOAD=$(python -c "import ovrtx, pathlib; print(pathlib.Path(ovrtx.__file__).parent / 'bin/plugins/libcarb.so')")

./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/benchmarks/benchmark_rsl_rl.py \
  --task Isaac-Repose-Cube-Shadow-Vision-Benchmark-Direct-v0 \
  --headless --enable_cameras --num_envs 16 --max_iterations 10 \
  presets=newton,ovrtx_renderer,simple_shading_diffuse_mdl

Running Installation Tests#

./isaaclab.sh -p -m pytest source/isaaclab/test/cli/test_cli_utils.py -v