CARLA in Docker

Users can pull an image based on a CARLA release to run in a Docker container. This is useful for users who:

  • Want to run CARLA without needing to install all dependencies
  • Run multiple CARLA servers and perform GPU mapping
  • Run the CARLA server without a display

This tutorial explains the requirements to run the CARLA image and how to run it with or without a display.

Before you begin

You will need to have installed:

  • Docker: Follow the installation instructions here.
  • NVIDIA Container Toolkit: The NVIDIA Container Toolkit is a library and toolset that exposes NVIDIA graphics devices to Linux containers. It is designed specifically for Linux containers running on Linux host systems. Install the nvidia-container-toolkit package by following the instructions here.

Note

Docker requires sudo to run. Follow this guide to add users to the docker sudo group.

Running CARLA in a container

1. Pull the CARLA image.

You can pull either the latest CARLA image or a specific release version. The latest image refers to the most recent packaged release. To pull the image, run one of the following commands:

# Pull the latest image
docker pull carlasim/carla:latest

# Pull a specific version
docker pull carlasim/carla:0.9.16

2. Run the CARLA container.

Note

The way CARLA is executed inside a Docker container has changed over time. If you are using a version earlier than 0.9.16, please refer to the documentation for that specific version.

Running CARLA without display:

docker run \
    --runtime=nvidia \
    --net=host \
    --env=NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all \
    --env=NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all \
    carlasim/carla:0.9.16 bash CarlaUE4.sh -RenderOffScreen -nosound

Running CARLA with a display:

Note

To run the Docker image with a display, you will need the x11 display protocol.

docker run \
    --runtime=nvidia \
    --net=host \
    --user=$(id -u):$(id -g) \
    --env=DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \
    --env=NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all \
    --env=NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all \
    --volume="/tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:rw" \
    carlasim/carla:0.9.16 bash CarlaUE4.sh -nosound

Any issues or doubts related with this topic can be posted in the CARLA forum.

CARLA forum