CPU (Software) Rendering

Open3D supports CPU or software rendering on Linux when a GPU is unavailable or GPU rendering is not suitable. Software rendering is slower and less responsive than GPU rendering.

On Linux and Windows, the Filament-based renderer uses Vulkan by default, including CPU devices such as Mesa’s Lavapipe. Older Filament versions crashed on Lavapipe’s Vulkan path, so Open3D previously fell back to OpenGL. That workaround is no longer used.

Select Software Rendering

Set VK_DRIVER_FILES before starting Open3D to select Mesa’s Lavapipe Vulkan driver. The path to lvp_icd.json may differ across distributions.

For an interactive application:

VK_DRIVER_FILES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/lvp_icd.json Open3D

For Python, set the variable before importing open3d:

import os
os.environ['VK_DRIVER_FILES'] = '/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/lvp_icd.json'
import open3d as o3d

Headless or Offscreen Rendering

For headless or offscreen rendering, also set EGL_PLATFORM=surfaceless. This variable is optional when a display server is available.

VK_DRIVER_FILES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/lvp_icd.json \
    EGL_PLATFORM=surfaceless \
    python examples/python/visualization/render_to_image.py

The VK_DRIVER_FILES path is handled by the Vulkan loader during initialization. If the Mesa ICD is installed elsewhere, use the path to that system’s lvp_icd.json file.