Get Started¶
Lucky Engine is a desktop editor for building and running robotics simulations. This page covers installing it, the first launch and the Welcome screen, signing in, running the bundled Welcome scene, and creating a project of your own.
The current release is 2026.3. It runs on Windows and Linux (64-bit). macOS builds are experimental.
In short
Install the .NET 9 SDK, then download Lucky Engine from luckyrobots.com and start the editor. It opens on the Welcome screen with the bundled Welcome project. Click Continue, then press Play to run the scene. Start a project of your own from a card under TEMPLATES. Signing in is optional, and you need it to record datasets.
Install¶
- Install the .NET 9 SDK. The editor builds and runs C# scripts with it, and checks for it every time it starts.
- Download Lucky Engine for your platform from luckyrobots.com.
- Start the editor:
- On Windows, run
LuckyEngine.exefrom the folder you installed or extracted Lucky Engine to. - On Linux, extract the downloaded archive and run the AppImage it contains, for
example
./LuckyEngine-2026.3-Linux-x64.AppImage. The first launch also adds a Lucky Engine entry to your application menu.
- On Windows, run
A splash screen shows the version and the startup progress, then the editor window opens maximised.
Requirements¶
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 (version 1809, build 17763) or later, or a 64-bit Linux distribution. macOS builds are experimental and don't support Path Traced rendering. |
| Graphics | A GPU and driver supporting Vulkan 1.3 or later. The editor doesn't start without it. |
| Ray tracing (optional) | Needed only for Path Traced rendering: a GPU with hardware ray tracing, such as NVIDIA RTX, AMD Radeon RX 6000 series or newer, or Intel Arc. Without it the editor renders Rasterized and the Path Traced option is unavailable. The DLSS options also need an NVIDIA RTX GPU. |
| .NET | The .NET 9 SDK or higher. The runtime alone isn't enough. |
| Network | Needed to sign in and to download templates, examples and Content Vault packs. |
If the editor can't find the .NET SDK when it starts, it shows a dialog saying that Lucky Engine requires the .NET 9 SDK, offers to download it, and doesn't start. Install the SDK and start the editor again.
First launch¶
When it starts, the editor opens the project you used last. The first time, or when that project no longer exists, it opens the bundled Welcome project instead. It then shows the Welcome screen.
| Part of the screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Project | The button at the top right. Browse for a project file (.hproj) and open it. |
| CURRENT | The project that is open now. Continue takes you into the editor, to the layout you used last (the Scene layout the first time after the editor starts). |
| RECENT | Up to ten projects you opened recently. Open, or a click anywhere on the card, opens one. |
| TEMPLATES | Cards that start a new project: New Project (Blank), Unitree G1 (5 Fingers) and Emika Panda (Franka). See Creating a project. |
| EXAMPLES | Example projects from the Content Vault. Download creates a new project from one, and Tutorial opens its tutorial where there is one. See Example Projects. |
To come back to the Welcome screen later, click Home, the top button of the side bar.
The editor skips the Welcome screen when it's launched with certain
command-line options, such as --scene.
The Welcome project opens on the Welcome scene: a Franka Emika Panda arm that picks marbles out of a marble run and drops them back onto the track. It's described in Example Projects. The scene is set to Path Traced rendering, which needs a GPU with hardware ray tracing; on other GPUs it renders Rasterized. See Requirements.
Signing in¶
Signing in with a Lucky Robots account is optional. The editor, your projects and Play mode all work signed out. You need to sign in to record datasets and to use the LuckyHub panel.
- Click Profile at the bottom of the side bar.
- Your browser opens. Sign in and authorise Lucky Engine.
- The browser hands you back to the editor, which shows a Signed in as notification with your name. A dot on the Profile button shows that you're signed in.
While sign-in is in progress, the editor shows a Paste Authorization Code dialog. If the browser doesn't return you to the editor, copy the code shown on the browser page, paste it into the dialog and click Login, or press Enter. Open browser again restarts the sign-in, and Cancel stops it.
Once you're signed in, click Profile to see which account you're using (Personal account or Org: followed by the organisation's name). The popup also has Profile, which opens your profile page in the browser, LuckyHub, which opens the LuckyHub panel, and Logout.
Choosing an account¶
If you belong to an organisation on LuckyHub, you can record under your Personal account or under the organisation. To see or change which one is in use, open Profile → LuckyHub and go to the Organizations tab. Active context names the account in use, and its row is marked [Active]. Click Switch next to Personal account or next to an organisation to use that account instead.
Recording sessions are created under the active account, so check it before you start one. A session keeps the account it started under until it ends, and a switch applies from the next session. If the account isn't allowed to record, the session doesn't start and the Observer panel shows LuckyHub: You don't have permission to record under this account. Switch to an account that can record, then start the session again.
Running a scene¶
On the Welcome screen, click Continue. The editor switches to the Scene layout, with the Welcome scene in the viewport. The play controls are in the middle of the Scene viewport's toolbar:
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Play | Runs the scene: physics and scripts together. Shortcut: F5, or Alt+P while the viewport or Scene Hierarchy has focus. |
| Pause | Holds the simulation. The button changes to Resume; click it to continue. |
| Stop | Ends Play mode and returns to the editable scene. Pressing F5 or Alt+P again while the scene runs also stops it, but not while it is paused. |
F5 doesn't start Play while you're typing in a field, or while the Content Browser or the File Tree has focus, where it refreshes the panel instead.
In the Welcome scene, the Panda arm starts its pick-and-place loop as soon as you press Play. Press Enter to restart the routine.
How simulation time advances is set by the Time Manager. To move the camera and select objects, see Viewport Navigation.
Creating a project¶
Start a new project from the TEMPLATES row on the Welcome screen:
| Template | Creates |
|---|---|
| New Project (Blank) | An empty project. Its start scene holds a ground, a directional light, a sky light and a camera. |
| Unitree G1 (5 Fingers) | A project with the Unitree G1 humanoid, with five-fingered hands, placed in its start scene. |
| Emika Panda (Franka) | A project with the Franka Emika Panda arm placed in its start scene. |
File → Create Project... opens the same dialog as the New Project card.
- Click a template card. The new-project dialog opens, ready for you to type the name.
- Enter a Project Name.
- Check the Location, or click ... to choose another folder. Below the fields, the dialog shows the folder it will create (Creates: and the path), or warns that a project with that name already exists there.
- Click Create, or press Enter in either field. When the project is ready, the editor opens it.
Cancel, or Esc, closes the dialog without creating a project.
Creating a project closes the open one. If it has unsaved changes, the editor first asks whether to save them; see Unsaved changes.
The robot templates download the robot and the project template from the Content Vault first, so they need a network connection. The dialog shows the download progress, with a Cancel button, until the project opens.
A project name can be up to 128 characters. It can't contain / \ < > : " | ? *, start
with a dot, end with a dot or a space, or be a name Windows reserves, such as CON or
COM1.
The default location is:
| Platform | Default location |
|---|---|
| Windows | Documents\Lucky Engine\Projects |
| Linux | ~/Documents/LuckyEngine/Projects (your documents folder) |
Help → Paths lists it as Default Projects.
The editor creates the project in a new folder named after it, inside the location. A blank
project is saved as <Location>/<Name>/<Name>.hproj, with an Assets folder (Audio,
Materials, Meshes, Scenes, Scripts and Textures subfolders), a start scene at
Assets/Scenes/Main.hscene, and a default .gitignore. How the editor tracks a project's
files is covered in Assets. To add C# behaviour, see
Creating and Building Scripts.
Keep your own copy of the Welcome project
The editor keeps the bundled Welcome project in its own settings folder and can replace it with a fresh copy, for example when it can't find a recent project to open. Before you customise the Welcome scene, choose File → Save Project As... and pick a folder and a name. The editor saves a copy of the project in a new folder with that name and opens the copy.
Where to go next¶
- Editor Interface is a tour of the editor window, its panels and menus.
- Example Projects covers the Welcome scene and the examples you can download.
- Robots covers robot packs and placing a robot in a scene.
- Scripting is the C# path for driving behaviour in a scene.
- Command Line covers launching the editor from scripts, for example for training over gRPC.