Isaac Sim Slow to Launch and Simulate

Omniverse Isaac Sim
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1

Hi all,

I’ve been experimenting with Isaac Sim with three separate environments:

  1. Asus 2022 M16 laptop (3070ti + Intel 12700k CPU, and 40GB DDR5 4500, installed on NVME) running Windows 11
  2. Desktop PC (4090 + 7800x3D, and 64gb DDR5 5000 RAM, installed on NVME) running Windows 11
  3. Desktop PC (same as above) with Ubuntu 22.04

When I run Isaac sim on the laptop and on the Linux install, it’s incredibly fast. The laptop running Windows 11 will begin the simulation and launch the app within 30 seconds of starting it, and the linux will do so in less than 20 seconds.

However, when I attempt to run the simulation on Windows natively, it can take upwards of 3 minutes to begin the simulation (longer if I attempt to run the sim via python and not just the Omniverse UI)

I’ve tried replicating the laptop’s settings, checked that hardware acceleration is on, and attempted multiple versions of Isaac Sim on the desktop but there is no improvement. I’ve also confirmed that both the desktop and laptop are on the latest versions of their respective drivers, but I still haven’t seen any performance / loading improvements on the desktop. I even attempted a fresh install of Windows 11 on the desktop, but it still did not help the loading times.

Is there a resolution to this, or a way to speed up the loading? It seems like the desktop running Windows 11 would be FASTER than the laptop, especially considering the difference in hardware specifications.

These were all run using the Orbit framework’s create_scene.py from their tutorial

Logs from the laptop:
kit_20240312_174503.log (2.2 MB)

Total load time for the scene: 25 seconds (start to finish). Subsequent runs took around ~15 seconds.

Desktop Linux logs:
kit_20240312_180238.log (2.2 MB)

Total load time (including scene), 15 seconds, subsequent runs were ~8 seconds

Desktop Windows logs
kit_20240312_174944.log (2.2 MB)

Total load time for the scene: 244 seconds (almost 10x slower). Subsequent runs were ~125 seconds.

I’ve noticed that this is where it hangs specifically, although I’m not sure how to expand the logging

[5.329s] [ext: omni.importer.urdf-1.6.1] startup
[5.371s] [ext: omni.importer.mjcf-1.1.0] startup
[5.378s] [ext: omni.kit.window.stats-0.1.4] startup
[5.380s] [ext: omni.isaac.sim.python-2023.1.1] startup
[5.381s] Simulation App Starting
2024-03-13 00:55:35 [5,359ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/ecoMode/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-13 00:55:35 [5,360ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/directLighting/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-13 00:55:35 [5,360ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/reflections/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-13 00:55:35 [5,360ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/translucency/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-13 00:55:35 [5,361ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/raytracing/subsurface/enabled has been requested but is not available  
2024-03-13 00:55:35 [5,361ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/caustics/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-13 00:55:37 [7,163ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] duplicated action as SPACE (On Press) with omni.kit.widget.toolbar.omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play!
2024-03-13 00:55:37 [7,163ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] Cannot register Global [omni.kit.widget.toolbar] omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play.SPACE, error code: Duplicated action definition
[124.803s] app ready
2024-03-13 00:57:35 [125,149ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] duplicated action as SPACE (On Press) with omni.kit.widget.toolbar.omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play!
2024-03-13 00:57:35 [125,149ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] Cannot register Global [omni.kit.widget.toolbar] omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play.SPACE, error code: Duplicated action definition
[125.378s] RTX ready
[125.836s] Simulation App Startup Complete
[126.837s] [ext: omni.physx.fabric-105.1.12-5.1] startup

From the logs, it seems almost like it's hanging on python, but only the Windows python version. And after it states that the RTX is ready and the app has loaded, it takes another two minutes to actually load the scene
2

@wyantethan i am just a passerby, and i am curious if the windows desktop has both nucleus service and server installed?

there was another thread wherein a workaround was mentioned, but i cant say if it’ll change anything in your particular setup:

3

I’ve tried the workaround, sadly this seems to be a different issue. I did install the nucleus service and server, but it didn’t speed the load times at all. The laptop, also, does not seem to have these installed yet is still faster

5

Hi. The long time spent between Simulation App Starting and app ready is usually on warming up the shader cache. You should see Waiting for compilation of ray tracing shaders for RTX renderer main raytracing pipeline by GPU driver in the logs and should take a few minutes on first run. You can see this in your logs and if you run with -vv.

It’s possible that the shader cache is corrupted if this happens on every run. Try resetting your shader caches by deleting the folders listed in your logs with these variables:

omni_cache
omni_global_cache
cache
appcache
6

I attempted this, but it still takes quite a long time. I removed the cached files and ran the simulation twice, so that the second time would use the cached variables but it still took significantly longer than expected

[19.566s] [ext: omni.sensors.nv.radar-1000.0.0-isaacsim.2023.1.1] startup
[19.582s] [ext: omni.kit.window.title-1.1.3] startup
et.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/ecoMode/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-21 16:32:42 [23,356ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/directLighting/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-21 16:32:42 [23,356ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/reflections/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-21 16:32:42 [23,357ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/translucency/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-21 16:32:42 [23,357ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/raytracing/subsurface/enabled has been requested but is not available      
2024-03-21 16:32:42 [23,357ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.widget.settings.settings_model] a value for setting /rtx/caustics/enabled has been requested but is not available
2024-03-21 16:32:47 [28,492ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] duplicated action as SPACE (On Press) with omni.kit.widget.toolbar.omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play!
2024-03-21 16:32:47 [28,493ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] Cannot register Global [omni.kit.widget.toolbar] omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play.SPACE, error code: Duplicated action definition
[215.762s] app ready
2024-03-21 16:35:55 [216,047ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] duplicated action as SPACE (On Press) with omni.kit.widget.toolbar.omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play!
2024-03-21 16:35:55 [216,047ms] [Warning] [omni.kit.hotkeys.core.registry] [Hotkey] Cannot register Global [omni.kit.widget.toolbar] omni.kit.widget.toolbar::toolbar::play.SPACE, error code: Duplicated action definition
[216.187s] RTX ready
[218.294s] Simulation App Startup Complete
[218.971s] [ext: omni.physx.fabric-105.1.12-5.1] startup```
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