Warp Experimental Environments

The experimental extensions introduce warp-first environment infrastructure with CUDA graph capture support. All environment-side computation (observations, rewards, resets, actions) runs as pure Warp kernels, eliminating Python overhead and enabling CUDA graph capture for maximum throughput.

Throughout this page, stable refers to the standard Torch-based implementations in the isaaclab and isaaclab_tasks packages (the default runtime, used when --frontend warp is not passed). Their Warp counterparts live in the isaaclab_experimental and isaaclab_tasks_experimental packages.

Workflows

Two environment workflows are supported:

Direct workflow — DirectRLEnvWarp base class. You implement the step loop, observations, rewards, and resets directly in your env class using Warp kernels.

Manager-based workflow — ManagerBasedRLEnvWarp base class. You define MDP terms as standalone Warp-kernel functions and compose them via configuration.

Available Environments

Direct Warp Environments

Direct tasks share the stable task configuration. --frontend warp resolves the stable <task>_direct_env:<Name>Env entry point to the mirrored <task>_warp_env:<Name>WarpEnv implementation and swaps only the environment class. Registrations can use warp_entry_point as an optional override when the implementation cannot follow this convention. Stable tasks with a Warp implementation:

• Isaac-Cartpole-Direct — Cartpole balance
• Isaac-Ant-Direct — Ant locomotion
• Isaac-Humanoid-Direct — Humanoid locomotion
• Isaac-Reorient-Cube-Allegro-Direct — Allegro hand cube reorient

Manager-Based Warp Execution (--frontend warp)

Manager-Based Warp Execution (--frontend warp)

Manager-based tasks do not need a parallel warp registration: the shared RL CLI exposes --frontend {torch,warp}, and --frontend warp adapts the stable task configuration onto the warp runtime at build time (swapping each MDP term for its warp twin). Select the Newton solver explicitly with presets=newton_mjwarp. Stable tasks with full twin coverage:

• Isaac-Cartpole
• Isaac-Ant
• Isaac-Humanoid
• Isaac-Reach-Franka
• Isaac-Reach-UR10
• Isaac-Velocity-Flat-AnymalD
• Isaac-Velocity-Flat-Cassie
• Isaac-Velocity-Flat-G1
• Isaac-Velocity-Flat-H1
• Isaac-Velocity-Flat-UnitreeGo2

The following contributed tasks also have full twin coverage:

• IsaacContrib-Velocity-Flat-AnymalB
• IsaacContrib-Velocity-Flat-AnymalC
• IsaacContrib-Velocity-Flat-UnitreeA1
• IsaacContrib-Velocity-Flat-UnitreeGo1

A missing twin is a hard error listing the affected terms, so a partially covered task fails at build time rather than silently changing behavior. Rough-terrain velocity configurations that use height_scan cannot currently be adapted: that observation term has no Warp twin. Check the terms used by a task rather than assuming that every terrain configuration has the same limitation.

Quick Start

# Direct workflow: stable task, warp env implementation
uv run isaaclab train --rl_library rsl_rl \
    --task Isaac-Cartpole-Direct --frontend warp presets=newton_mjwarp --num_envs 4096
uv run isaaclab play --rl_library rsl_rl \
    --task Isaac-Cartpole-Direct --frontend warp presets=newton_mjwarp \
    --num_envs 32 --checkpoint latest --visualizer newton_gl
# Manager-based workflow: stable task on the warp runtime
uv run isaaclab train --rl_library rsl_rl \
    --task Isaac-Velocity-Flat-AnymalD --frontend warp presets=newton_mjwarp --num_envs 4096
uv run isaaclab play --rl_library rsl_rl \
    --task Isaac-Velocity-Flat-AnymalD --frontend warp presets=newton_mjwarp \
    --num_envs 32 --checkpoint latest --visualizer newton_gl

All RL libraries with warp-compatible wrappers are supported: RSL-RL, RL Games, SKRL, and Stable-Baselines3.

Performance Comparison

Historical step time comparison between the stable (torch/manager) and warp (CUDA graph captured) variants, both running on the Newton physics backend. Measured over 300 iterations with 4096 environments. The table covers the measured tasks, not every currently supported task. These figures are retained as the original benchmark record, not a measurement of the latest develop revision. For updated results, record the hardware and Isaac Lab, Newton, and Warp revisions, and compare both frontends on those same revisions. Improvements in shared base libraries can benefit both frontends and must not be attributed solely to the Warp frontend.

Which Workflows Benefit Most

The savings come from eliminating Python / torch overhead in the env’s step loop, so envs gain in proportion to how much of their step time was previously dominated by per-kernel CPU overhead. Reading the table above:

• Manager-based classic RL (Cartpole, Ant) — biggest gains (-52% to -54%). Many small reward / observation terms with low compute per term, so per-launch CPU overhead dominated the stable baseline.
• Manager-based locomotion (AnymalD, G1, H1, Cassie, UnitreeGo2) — consistent -21% to -38% range. The MDP has more terms but the underlying physics step is heavier, so the relative Python savings shrink.
• Direct workflow — gains scale with how much the env’s step body was Python (Ant -51%, Cartpole -18%, Allegro hand -10%). Direct envs that already wrote most of their work as GPU kernels see modest gains; ones with substantial Python state machinery see large ones.
• Compute-heavy / scene-write-heavy envs (Allegro hand, large humanoids) — see smaller relative gains because the warp-side savings are amortised over a heavier step. Components that still go through torch (scene write, actuator models) currently bound the floor; this is expected to improve as remaining components migrate to warp.

If your env’s step time is dominated by physics or scene I/O, expect modest gains. If it has many small MDP terms or a lot of Python in the step loop, expect large ones. Use the benchmarking workflow below to measure on your task before committing to a migration.

Limitations

The warp env path is experimental and has the following known constraints. These are specific to warp envs; for Newton physics maturity and specialist guides see Newton.

Physics backend

• Newton only. PhysX is not supported under the warp env path. Asset and sensor class_type fields resolve to isaaclab_physx.* classes that depend on omni.physics.tensors (a Kit module the warp runtime does not initialise), and several warp APIs (env-mask reset, CUDA graph capture) require the Newton articulation. Configure the cfg with a Newton physics block (or the typed selector physics=newton_mjwarp, which fails loudly if the task has no Newton physics preset).

MDP coverage

• Only the terms listed under Available Warp MDP Terms are implemented. Stable envs that depend on un-migrated terms cannot be run on the warp path until those terms are ported.
• Some scene-side operations (asset write, actuator models, certain sensor types) still go through torch. They participate in the step but are not yet captured into the graph; they set the lower bound on observed step time.
• Sensors that depend on the Kit RTX renderer (camera-based observations) cannot be combined with the warp env path — they need Kit, which the warp runtime does not initialise.

API differences vs stable

• Reset events use a boolean env_mask (wp.array(dtype=wp.bool)) instead of an env_ids list. This is required for capture safety: variable-length indexing changes graph topology and breaks replay.
• All buffers must be pre-allocated in __init__. There is no dynamic allocation inside the captured step loop, so observation / reward / termination output dimensions must be known at env init.
• Term functions write into a pre-allocated out buffer rather than returning a tensor. See Migrating Existing Environments for the kernel + launch pattern.
• Code inside the captured step loop must follow capture-safety rules (no wp.to_torch, no torch arithmetic, no lazy-evaluated properties, no Python branching on GPU data). See Capture Safety for the full set of rules.

Benchmarking Your Environment

The performance table above was produced with isaaclab benchmark training, which runs a fixed iteration count and reports step-time statistics. Use the same command to estimate the gain for your own task before committing to a migration.

Single-task A/B

Run the same stable task id twice, differing only in --frontend. Pass presets=newton_mjwarp to both runs so the physics backend is identical and the measured difference isolates the frontend (manager pipeline + CUDA graph capture):

# Torch frontend (stable managers)
uv run isaaclab benchmark training \
    --rl_library rsl_rl \
    --task <Task-Name> \
    --num_envs 4096 \
    --max_iterations 500 \
    --benchmark_formatter summary \
    --output_path benchmarks/torch \
    presets=newton_mjwarp
# Warp frontend (warp managers, CUDA-graph captured) — same task id
uv run isaaclab benchmark training \
    --rl_library rsl_rl \
    --task <Task-Name> \
    --frontend warp \
    --num_envs 4096 \
    --max_iterations 500 \
    --benchmark_formatter summary \
    --output_path benchmarks/warp \
    presets=newton_mjwarp

The summary formatter prints step time (min / mean / max) and total throughput. Compare “step time” between the two runs to estimate the gain per env step.

Sweep across all available tasks

Run isaaclab benchmark training for each task in the stable set (cartpole, ant, humanoid, locomotion, manipulation) and again with --frontend warp, then diff the two output directories.

What to look at in the output

• Step time (min / mean / max): the headline number — what each env step costs.
• Iteration time: includes policy update; useful for end-to-end training throughput.
• Capture overhead: for warp runs, the first few iterations include CUDA graph capture cost; exclude those when comparing steady-state numbers.

Estimating before you migrate

If you can’t run the warp variant yet (e.g. the task isn’t ported), measure the stable step time and look at where it’s spent:

• num_envs * step_time dominated by physics → expect modest warp gains.
• step_time dominated by manager.compute_* calls → expect large gains, since those are exactly what the warp managers replace with captured kernel launches.

Use --num_steps on runtime.py for a no-policy step-time microbenchmark when you want to isolate env overhead from policy compute.

Migrating Existing Environments

This section covers the key conventions and patterns used by the warp-first environment infrastructure, useful for migrating existing torch environments or creating new ones natively: project layout, the kernel + launch pattern shared by observations / rewards / events / terminations / actions, capture-safety rules, and parity testing.

Design Rationale

The warp environment path is built around CUDA graph capture. A CUDA graph records a sequence of GPU operations (kernel launches, memory copies) during a capture phase, then replays the entire sequence with a single launch. This eliminates per-kernel CPU overhead — the parameter validation, kernel selection, and buffer setup that normally costs 20–200 μs per operation is performed once during graph instantiation and reused on every replay (~10 μs total). All CPU-side code (Python logic, torch dispatching) executed during capture is completely bypassed during replay. See the Warp concurrency documentation for Warp’s graph capture API (wp.ScopedCapture).

All design decisions in the warp infrastructure follow from this constraint: every operation in the step loop must be a GPU kernel launch with stable memory pointers so that the captured graph can be replayed without modification.

Key consequences:

• All buffers are pre-allocated — no dynamic allocation inside the step loop
• Data flows through persistent wp.array pointers — never replaced, only overwritten
• MDP terms are pure @wp.kernel functions — no Python branching on GPU data
• Reset uses boolean masks (env_mask) instead of index lists (env_ids) to avoid variable-length indexing that changes graph topology

Project Structure

Warp-specific implementations that diverge from the torch-based managers and env classes live in the _experimental packages:

• isaaclab_experimental — warp managers, base env classes, warp MDP terms
• isaaclab_tasks_experimental — warp task configs and task-specific MDP terms

Any new warp implementation that differs from the torch-based managers or env classes belongs in these packages. Warp task configs reference Newton physics directly (no PresetCfg) since the warp path is Newton-only.

Writing Warp MDP Terms

Imports

Warp task configs import from the experimental packages:

# Warp
from isaaclab_experimental.managers import ObservationTermCfg, RewardTermCfg, SceneEntityCfg
import isaaclab_experimental.envs.mdp as mdp

The term config classes have the same interface — only the import path changes.

Common Pattern

All warp MDP terms (observations, rewards, terminations, events, actions) follow the same kernel + launch pattern. Torch terms use torch tensors and return results; warp terms write into pre-allocated wp.array output buffers via @wp.kernel functions:

# Torch — returns a tensor
def lin_vel_z_l2(env, asset_cfg) -> torch.Tensor:
    return torch.square(asset.data.root_lin_vel_b[:, 2])
# Warp — writes into pre-allocated output
@wp.kernel
def _lin_vel_z_l2_kernel(vel: wp.array(...), out: wp.array(dtype=wp.float32)):
    i = wp.tid()
    out[i] = vel[i][2] * vel[i][2]
def lin_vel_z_l2(env, out, asset_cfg) -> None:
    wp.launch(_lin_vel_z_l2_kernel, dim=env.num_envs, inputs=[..., out])

The output buffer shapes differ by term type:

• Observations: (num_envs, D) where D is the observation dimension
• Rewards: (num_envs,)
• Terminations: (num_envs,) with dtype bool
• Events: (num_envs,) mask — events don’t produce output, they modify sim state

Observation Terms

Since warp terms write into pre-allocated buffers, the observation manager must know each term’s output dimension at initialization to allocate the correct (num_envs, D) output array. This is resolved via a fallback chain (see ObservationManager._infer_term_dim_scalar in isaaclab_experimental/managers/observation_manager.py):

1. Explicit out_dim in decorator (preferred):

@generic_io_descriptor_warp(out_dim=3, observation_type="RootState")
def base_lin_vel(env, out, asset_cfg) -> None: ...

out_dim can be an integer, or a string that resolves at initialization:

• "joint" — number of selected joints from asset_cfg
• "body:N" — N components per selected body from asset_cfg
• "command" — dimension from command manager
• "action" — dimension from action manager

2. axes metadata: Dimension equals the number of axes listed:

@generic_io_descriptor_warp(axes=["X", "Y", "Z"], observation_type="RootState")
def projected_gravity(env, out, asset_cfg) -> None: ...
# → dimension = 3

3. Legacy params: term_dim, out_dim, or obs_dim keys in term_cfg.params.

4. Asset config fallback: Count of asset_cfg.joint_ids (or joint_ids_wp) for joint-level terms.

Event Terms

Events use env_mask (boolean wp.array) instead of env_ids, and each kernel checks the mask to skip non-selected environments:

def reset_joints_by_offset(env, env_mask, ...):
    wp.launch(_kernel, dim=env.num_envs, inputs=[env_mask, ...])
@wp.kernel
def _kernel(env_mask: wp.array(dtype=wp.bool), ...):
    i = wp.tid()
    if not env_mask[i]:
        return
    # ... modify state for selected envs only

• RNG uses per-env env.rng_state_wp (wp.uint32) instead of torch.rand
• Startup/prestartup events use the torch convention (env, env_ids, **params)
• Reset/interval events use the warp convention (env, env_mask, **params)

Action Terms

Actions follow a two-stage execution: process_actions (called once per env step) scales and clips raw actions, and apply_actions (called once per sim step) writes targets to the asset. Both stages use warp kernels with pre-allocated _raw_actions and _processed_actions buffers.

Capture Safety

When writing terms that run inside the captured step loop, keep in mind:

• No wp.to_torch or torch arithmetic — stay in warp throughout
• No lazy-evaluated properties — use sim-bound (Tier 1) data directly; if a derived quantity is needed, compute it inline in the kernel
• No dynamic allocation — all buffers must be pre-allocated in __init__

Parity Testing

Two levels of parity testing are used to validate warp terms:

1. Implementation parity (torch vs warp) — verifies that the warp kernel produces the same result as the torch implementation. This is optional for terms that have no torch counterpart (e.g. new terms written directly in warp).

import isaaclab.envs.mdp.observations as torch_obs
import isaaclab_experimental.envs.mdp.observations as warp_obs
# Torch baseline
expected = torch_obs.joint_pos(torch_env, asset_cfg=cfg)
# Warp (uncaptured)
out = wp.zeros((num_envs, num_joints), dtype=wp.float32, device=device)
warp_obs.joint_pos(warp_env, out, asset_cfg=cfg)
actual = wp.to_torch(out)
torch.testing.assert_close(actual, expected)

2. Capture parity (warp vs warp-captured) — verifies that the term produces identical results when replayed from a CUDA graph vs launched directly. A mismatch here indicates capture-unsafe code (e.g. stale pointers, dynamic allocation, or lazy property access that doesn’t replay). This test should always be run, even for terms without a torch counterpart.

# Warp uncaptured
out_uncaptured = wp.zeros((num_envs, num_joints), dtype=wp.float32, device=device)
warp_obs.joint_pos(warp_env, out_uncaptured, asset_cfg=cfg)
# Warp captured (graph replay)
out_captured = wp.zeros((num_envs, num_joints), dtype=wp.float32, device=device)
with wp.ScopedCapture() as cap:
    warp_obs.joint_pos(warp_env, out_captured, asset_cfg=cfg)
wp.capture_launch(cap.graph)
torch.testing.assert_close(wp.to_torch(out_captured), wp.to_torch(out_uncaptured))

See source/isaaclab_experimental/test/envs/mdp/ for complete parity test examples.

Available Warp MDP Terms

Terms not listed here remain in torch only. When using an env that requires unlisted terms, those terms must be implemented in warp first.