Genesis Installation on Two Machines (HP Laptop + ASUS Desktop)

I am working with Genesis World (the physics simulation platform) simultaneously on two different Debian machines using the exact same installation steps (CPU mode).

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My Two Machines

Machine	Type	GPU	Status	Performance	Recommended Backend
HP Laptop	HP Laptop 15s-fd0xxx	Intel UHD Graphics (Alder Lake-N) – Integrated	✅ Working Well	~100 FPS	gs.cpu
ASUS Desktop	Desktop PC	NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (2 GB VRAM) – Old Dedicated	⚠️ Not working yet	Not running	gs.cpu

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Why the Same Installation Behaves Differently

I am following identical installation commands on both machines:

• Create virtual environment
• Install CPU PyTorch
• Install genesis-world
• Run the same test_genesis.py script

Results are very different because of hardware:

• HP Laptop (Intel UHD): Clean modern integrated graphics with no driver conflicts → Simulation runs smoothly with the red box falling at good speed.
• ASUS Desktop (GT 1030): Old low-end NVIDIA card + outdated/partial NVIDIA drivers → Causes conflicts even in CPU mode. The limited 2GB VRAM and old architecture make it problematic for modern tools like Genesis.

Key Lesson: The same Genesis install can succeed on one machine and fail on another purely due to GPU age, drivers, and hardware compatibility.

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Full Working test_genesis.py Code (Use on Both Machines)

Copy this into test_genesis.py on either machine:

Python

import genesis as gs

# Initialize Genesis (CPU only for both machines)
gs.init(backend=gs.cpu)

# Create the scene with viewer
scene = gs.Scene(
    show_viewer=True,
    viewer_options=gs.options.ViewerOptions(
        camera_pos=(3, 1, 2),
        camera_lookat=(0, 0, 0.5),
        camera_fov=40,
    ),
    sim_options=gs.options.SimOptions(dt=0.01)
)

# Ground plane
plane = scene.add_entity(gs.morphs.Plane())

# Falling box
box = scene.add_entity(
    gs.morphs.Box(
        size=(0.2, 0.2, 0.2),
        pos=(0.0, 0.0, 0.8),
    ),
    surface=gs.surfaces.Default(color=(0.8, 0.2, 0.2))
)

scene.build()

print("✅ Simulation ready! Watch the red box fall in the viewer window.")

for i in range(800):
    scene.step()

How to run it:

Bash

cd ~
source genesis-env-hp/bin/activate     # On HP Laptop
# OR
source genesis-env/bin/activate        # On ASUS Desktop (adjust venv name if different)

python test_genesis.py

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Troubleshooting Script for ASUS Desktop

Run these commands one by one on the ASUS desktop to clean up conflicts:

Bash

cd ~

# 1. Activate the environment
source genesis-env/bin/activate     # Change name if you used a different venv

# 2. Clean previous PyTorch installation
pip uninstall torch torchvision torchaudio genesis-world -y

# 3. Fresh CPU-only install
pip install torch torchvision torchaudio --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu

# 4. Reinstall Genesis
pip install genesis-world

# 5. Create/Update the test file (copy the code above)
cat > test_genesis.py << 'EOF'
import genesis as gs
gs.init(backend=gs.cpu)
scene = gs.Scene(
    show_viewer=True,
    viewer_options=gs.options.ViewerOptions(camera_pos=(3, 1, 2), camera_lookat=(0, 0, 0.5), camera_fov=40),
    sim_options=gs.options.SimOptions(dt=0.01)
)
plane = scene.add_entity(gs.morphs.Plane())
box = scene.add_entity(gs.morphs.Box(size=(0.2, 0.2, 0.2), pos=(0.0, 0.0, 0.8)), surface=gs.surfaces.Default(color=(0.8, 0.2, 0.2)))
scene.build()
print("✅ Simulation ready! Watch the red box fall.")
for i in range(800):
    scene.step()
EOF

# 6. Run it
python test_genesis.py