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Deploying Simulation

Overview

Robotic simulations are often deployed as part of a CI/CD pipeline. In such scenarios, running simulations with the Editor is not recommended.

Deploying Release Build Game Launcher

For detailed instructions, please refer to the Packaging and Release section. Deploying a robotic simulation is akin to deploying a game, but the result is an executable that has ROS 2 communication channels.

Step-by-Step Project Template Release Example

This is an example of how to build a standalone package that can be run without the need for installing O3DE. We will use one of project templates to create a new project that will be build as monohlitic GameLauncher. This is a step-by-step example of a minimal use case. You can use different project names and modify the process (e.g., by bundling assets). Note that several prerequisites are required:

Ensure that other Gems are enabled if you intend to build other project templates.

Creating a Project

Export variables pointing to the necessary paths:

export O3DE_HOME=/home/User/github/o3de/
export O3DE_EXTRAS_HOME=/home/User/github/o3de-extras/
export PROJECT_NAME=Ros2Project
export PROJECT_PATH=`pwd`/${PROJECT_NAME}

Adjust the locations for the variables O3DE_HOME and O3DE_EXTRAS_HOME to match your environment. If you are deploying an existing project, adjust PROJECT_NAME to the project’s name and PROJECT_PATH to the project’s location.

Create a project from a template:

${O3DE_HOME}/scripts/o3de.sh create-project --project-path $PROJECT_PATH --template-path ${O3DE_EXTRAS_HOME}/Templates/Ros2ProjectTemplate -f

Toolset build

Build the toolset to process all necessary assets:

cd ${PROJECT_PATH}
cmake -B build/linux -G "Ninja Multi-Config" -DLY_DISABLE_TEST_MODULES=ON -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON -DLY_STRIP_DEBUG_SYMBOLS=ON
cmake --build build/linux --config profile --target ${PROJECT_NAME} ${PROJECT_NAME}.Assets

In the command above, you are instructed to build the ${PROJECT_NAME}.Assets target, triggering the processing of all assets during the build. In larger projects, it is recommended to run the AssetProcessor directly. Refer to the Process assets section to learn more. Note that you can re-use your development build. Note that you can re-use your development build. In that case, you need to run Asset Processor and verify if all assets were built (without any errors).

Monolithic build

With assets processed, you can build a monolithic build, which includes all Gems and most libraries linked statically. It also excludes large editor-only frameworks like Qt. Refer to Create a project game release layout to learn more.

To perform a monolithic build, use the install target:

cmake -B build/linux_mono -S . -G "Ninja Multi-Config"  -DLY_MONOLITHIC_GAME=1
cmake --build build/linux_mono --target install --config release

In the install directory ${PROJECT_PATH}/install/bin/Linux/release/Monolithic/, you can find a package containing all necessary binaries and archives to run your simulation in the cloud or on another computer.

# tree ${PROJECT_PATH}/install/bin/Linux/release/Monolithic/
.
├── Cache
│   └── linux
│       └── engine.pak
├── libVkLayer_khronos_validation.so
├── Ros2Project.GameLauncher
├── Ros2Project.ServerLauncher
├── Ros2Project.UnifiedLauncher
└── VkLayer_khronos_validation.json

Headless simulation

Often simulation needs to be run headless (e.g., as a part of CI/CD pipeline). This can be achieved by disabling RHI in the GameLauncher. To run headless, start with -NullRenderer -rhi=null.

./Ros2Project.GameLauncher -NullRenderer -rhi=null

The above command should work for environments that have no GPU. If your simulation relies on the ROS 2 Camera component, you will need RHI. In such cases, it can be simulated with console-mode switch:

./Ros2Project.GameLauncher -console-mode