AeroSim Windows installation

This guide demonstrates how to setup and build AeroSim in Windows 11.

Set up accounts

Before you start, you should set up the necessary accounts needed to gain access to assets needed by AeroSim:

  • GitHub: AeroSim is hosted on GitHub
  • Epic Games: To use Unreal as a renderer for AeroSim, an Epic account is required download an Unreal Engine 5.3 installed-build or build from source
  • NVIDIA: To use Omniverse Kit as a renderer for AeroSim, an AeroSim Omniverse Kit 105.1 App example is provided through the AeroSim installation process but in order to access the full Omniverse ecosystem or do Kit app development, an NVIDIA developer account is required
  • Cesium: AeroSim uses 3D map tile assets from Cesium

In order to authorise the download of the Unreal Engine 5.3 repository, you must link your GitHub account with Epic Games. Follow this guide to link your accounts. You will need to provide your GitHub credentials (username and token) to authorise the download. You may also wish to connect to GitHub through SSH.

Install Visual Studio toolchain

AeroSim requires Windows 10 or Windows 11 with the MSVC C++ compiler toolchain installed through Visual Studio 2022.

Follow the instructions to install Visual Studio 2022 here: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/

Select the Desktop Development with C++ bundle. For using Unreal Engine 5.3, also select the .NET Framework 4.6.2 SDK individual component.

Install and set up WSL2

AeroSim on Windows requires WSL2 to run the Apache Kafka server for the AeroSim middleware. Set up a WSL2 Ubuntu 22.04 distro:

# administrator-elevated command prompt
wsl --install -d Ubuntu-22.04

After the WSL2 Ubuntu environment is set up, enter into it and install Kafka's rerequisites by running:

# WSL2 terminal
sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-21-jdk -y

The WSL2 networking mode should be set to NAT for best latency performance with AeroSim. To check it, open the WSL Settings application from the Start menu and look for the Networking Mode configuration in the Networking section.

Using Unreal as a renderer

To use Unreal as a renderer, download Unreal Engine 5.3 or clone and build it from source, and then set a AEROSIM_UNREAL_ENGINE_ROOT environment variable to its location.

Option 1: Downloading Unreal Engine 5.3 from Epic Games Store

Download and install the Epic Games Launcher. You can get it from https://www.unrealengine.com/download.

Once the launcher is installed, open it and sign in with your Epic Games account. Create one if you don’t already have it.

Navigate to the Unreal Engine tab. In the left sidebar of the Epic Games Launcher, click on Unreal Engine.

Click on the Library tab inside the Unreal Engine section.

Click the "+" button to add a new engine version.

From the dropdown, choose 5.3.x.

Click Install and select the installation location.

Once installation is complete, click Launch next to the installed version to start Unreal Engine 5.3.

Option 2: Clone and build Unreal Engine 5.3 from source

In order to authorise the download of the Unreal Engine 5.3 repository, you must link your GitHub account with Epic Games. Follow this guide to link your accounts. You will need to provide your GitHub credentials (username and token) to authorise the download. You may also wish to authorize to GitHub through SSH.

git clone -b 5.3 --depth=1 git@github.com:EpicGames/UnrealEngine.git

Move into the root folder of the Unreal Engine repository and run the setup scripts:

Setup.bat
GenerateProjectFiles.bat

Inside this source folder open the UE5.sln file in Visual Studio (double click). In the build bar ensure that you have selected Development Editor, Win64 and UnrealBuildTool option.

Now build Unreal Engine 5.3, this process could take up to 3 hours.

Set environment variable

Go to the Environment Variables section of the Windows Control Panel Advanced System Settings to create a AEROSIM_UNREAL_ENGINE_ROOT User environment variable with the value set to the root folder of the Unreal Engine 5.3 installation, or you can do it from a command prompt by running:

setx AEROSIM_UNREAL_ENGINE_ROOT "C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.3"

Set up Cesium token

To access Cesium assets, you will need to set up an access token. Log in to your Cesium account and go to the Access Tokens tab. If you don't already have a token, click on Create Token and create a new token with the default settings. Copy the token to the clipboard.

Go to the Environment Variables section of the Windows Control Panel Advanced System Settings to create a AEROSIM_CESIUM_TOKEN User environment variable with the value set to the token copied in the step above, or you can do it from a command prompt by running:

setx AEROSIM_CESIUM_TOKEN {token}

Install and build AeroSim

First, clone the main AeroSim repository:

git clone https://github.com/aerosim-open/aerosim.git

Once the repository is cloned, enter the root directory of the repository and run the pre_install.bat script to check and install the pre-requisites:

cd aerosim
pre_install.bat

After this is complete, run the install_aerosim.bat script to install AeroSim:

install_aerosim.bat

The install script will notify you of several environment variables that are set up for AeroSim to run. Restart the terminal to refresh the environment variables.

To build AeroSim, run:

build_aerosim.bat

Alternatively, you can run the following commands for more control over the steps and build options:

rye sync
.venv\Scripts\activate
rye run build

Verify installation

Once AeroSim has been built successfully and the related environment variables are set, launch AeroSim with the launch script. Open a terminal in the repository root directory:

# For using Unreal rendering in native Editor mode
launch_aerosim.bat --unreal-editor

# For using Omniverse rendering in native Kit app mode
launch_aerosim.bat --omniverse

This should launch the AeroSim project in the Unreal Editor or Omniverse Kit app. Add a Google Photorealistic 3D Tile asset from the Cesium ion Assets menu (sign into Cesium ion if necessary) then press the green play control at the top of the Unreal Engine or Omniverse interface. This will start the renderer ready for a simulation.

Next, open a new terminal in the repository root directory and activate the AeroSim virtual environment, which has all the Python dependencies installed:

.venv\Scripts\activate

Then run the first_flight.py Python script from within the examples folder:

cd examples
python first_flight.py

In the Unreal Editor or Omniverse Kit app viewport you should see an interior view of an aircraft taking off from a runway:

first_flight

If this example runs successfully, your installation has been successful!