common/source/starBenchserver/benchmarks/simBenchmarks/SimplerEnv/environment/RENDERING.md

Rendering preflight and troubleshooting

Validate graphics before freezing an evaluation configuration. CUDA visibility, a nonflat final RGB image or a decodable video does not establish usable native rendering: SimplerEnv composites a photographic background. The robot and task objects can be black while the background looks detailed.

Diagnostics are evaluator-side infrastructure checks, never model observations or scored attempts. Do not pass their private buffers, segmentation, asset identities, native scores or findings to an active policy.

Check both rendering paths

First verify the actual GPU, without starting a task

SAPIEN 2.2.2 can alias CUDA devices when several GPUs share a PCI bus number (their full PCI addresses may still differ). Its renderer log may map several Vulkan devices to the same CUDA ordinal. Then cuda:3 can be unavailable even though CUDA itself enumerates device 3. CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES alone does not isolate Vulkan or prove that the intended physical GPU was selected. See the upstream report.

Choose an available device explicitly; there is no automatic fallback. Obtain its full UUID with nvidia-smi --query-gpu=index,uuid,pci.bus_id --format=csv. Use the same native Python and environment as the service:

python -B -m benchmarks.simBenchmarks.SimplerEnv.environment.render_device \
  --device cuda:0 --expected-gpu-uuid GPU-REPLACE-WITH-FULL-DEVICE-UUID \
  --output /absolute/new-render-device-preflight.json

This creates only a renderer in a bounded child process, never a scene, task reset, action or model request. It checks the renderer process's actual NVIDIA graphics/compute inventory against the exact UUID and retains logs. Missing PID visibility, multiple observed GPUs or a mismatch fail closed. A passing probe does not reserve the GPU, validate cameras/assets, or repair arbitrary nonzero GPU routing in the old renderer. If a requested device fails, explicitly choose and verify another available device before declaring the task run; never hide a fallback inside an active attempt. Do not replace the pinned simulator to work around a deployment issue.

In a Linux container, the driver reports host process IDs. The verifier reads the current process's kernel ID from /proc/self/sched and records it alongside the container PID. It never substitutes another process on the selected GPU; unreadable or malformed kernel identity still fails verification.

Set the same device and optional expected_gpu_uuid in the server parameter JSON. When supplied, the adapter rechecks actual process identity after native construction and before returning the first public observation; it records the identity in private native provenance. Native construction itself can initialize the scene, so this check does not replace the pre-claim renderer-only probe. Neither this deployment assertion nor its private diagnostics expands policy observations. Historical runs without the assertion remain unchanged.

Pinned Google drawer tasks use RT shaders with denoising enabled, 32 samples per pixel and path depth 8. Can-picking and move-near configurations use IBL; passing an IBL check does not validate drawer rendering. Use the same interpreter, NVIDIA Vulkan ICD, graphics device and environment for preflight and evaluation.

python benchmarks/simBenchmarks/SimplerEnv/environment/verify_environment.py \
  --task google_robot_open_top_drawer --seed 0 --steps 0

The verifier checks scheduled RGB and the already-acquired camera Color buffer, using get_images(take_picture=False) rather than requesting an extra render or scorer evaluation. Nonfinite or entirely zero native RGB fails even when a photographic overlay looks detailed.

The guard is deliberately narrow: it does not certify texture completeness, foreground correctness or camera parity. Keep stderr and visually inspect the robot and objects. Image appearance does not determine task success.

Check NVIDIA graphics components, not only CUDA

A functioning CUDA installation and Vulkan ICD can coexist with incomplete container graphics data. In particular, /usr/share/nvidia/nvoptix.bin supplies OptiX denoiser data. Missing matching data can accompany OPTIX_ERROR_INTERNAL_ERROR, OPTIX_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE or denoise failures.

Confirm the exact installed driver version and its vendor component list before diagnosing a missing file. Consult the matching NVIDIA driver documentation and the container runtime's graphics exposure. Relevant primary references include the 580.105.08 installed-component list and NVIDIA's container graphics discovery implementation. These symptoms are diagnostic clues, not proof that every rendering failure has the same cause.

Do not switch RT to IBL, disable native denoising, replace assets or change controller/environment settings merely to obtain a score. Such changes require a separately declared configuration. A diagnostic setting must not silently become the evaluated setting.

Use matching vendor data

Obtain any missing data for the installed driver version and verify the vendor archive before extraction. The following previously verified vendor package is a concrete example, not a recommended driver version or universal file hash:

Artifact for NVIDIA 580.105.08	Bytes	SHA-256
Linux x86-64 no-compat32 archive	325,237,600	80b6a015c6eefdf24f81f76cddb0eb6ce4bcf09b43331130892588c9713300ec
Extracted nvoptix.bin	60,858,204	d5eacd24c18bda32f0b40d82c6fb2597c6b8fc72294b16a71c22ce164b9c26a2

The archive's vendor checksum is the reference for that exact download. Use extraction-only mode in a fresh private directory; do not execute the driver installer as part of a data-only repair. Keep partial downloads separate. Do not redistribute driver binaries inside this repository.

Container exposure and reproducibility

Prefer administrator-managed exposure of the complete matching driver data. Where explicitly supported by the host's permissions, an administrator can use a private mount namespace and a read-only mirror of the NVIDIA data directory for a diagnostic or evaluation process. Preserve all existing directory entries, add only verified matching data and check the effective file identity inside the namespace. Never perform the bind mount in the global mount namespace.

This repository does not provide a universal driver-data installer or a portable privileged wrapper. If private mounts are unavailable, coordinate proper container graphics exposure with the administrator rather than replacing system components. Hash receipts identify inspected data, not loaded-memory attestation or protection against a hostile operator.

After repair, rerun a separate rendering diagnostic with the original shader, denoising, controller and observation settings. Record interpreter, driver, effective graphics-data hashes, container/mount configuration and the diagnostic outcome before any newly declared evaluation. Keep existing attempts unchanged; a rendering defect discovered after closure is retained with its caveat, not removed, relabeled as successful or automatically retried. Results from changed environment conditions must remain distinguishable.