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Installation

This guide explains how to install Pite on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Installation typically takes about a minute, depending on your internet connection.

GitHub Release

If you are upgrading

Pite is still v0.x, so its new versions may break compatibility with older versions and projects created in those versions. Before updating Pite, please review release notes of the version you are updating to it to see possible breakings, and consider backing up your projects. Using a VCS like Git can be useful too.

Prerequisites

  • Operating System Setup:
    • Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
    • macOS 11+
    • Linux with Vulkan support (Ubuntu 22.04+)1 + X11 or XWayland + libasound2 installed
  • CPU: No limit2
  • RAM: 500 MB free3
  • GPU API: DirectX 12+ or Vulkan 1.2+ or Metal 2+
  • Display: 1280×720 recommended at least4
  • Python: 3.12+5 to run games in dev mode6

Installation Methods

Installer Script

Run below command in your terminal:

Terminal
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/piteengine/pite/main/install.sh | sh

Requires curl and tar to be installed.

Only works for x86_64. Try other methods for other architectures.

PowerShell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/piteengine/pite/main/install.ps1 | iex

The script identifies latest version, detects OS and architecture, downloads, verifies, and then installs Pite plus each platform Pite Player for the current user. You should see a success message with the version and installation location. The pite command will be available after installation completes.

To Update: Same command works for updating to newer versions.

Installing a specific version

You can install another version than the latest one with PITE_VERSION environment variable or positional <tag> argument:

Terminal
PITE_VERSION="v0.3.0" sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/piteengine/pite/main/install.sh)"

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/piteengine/pite/main/install.sh | sh -s -- v0.3.0

You can install another version than the latest one with -Tag argument:

PowerShell
iex "& { $(irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/piteengine/pite/main/install.ps1) } -Tag 'v0.3.0'"
Installing to a specific path

Installer puts executables to $HOME/.local/bin by default. You can change this to a custom path with PREFIX environment variable:

Terminal
PREFIX="$HOME/bin" sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/piteengine/pite/main/install.sh)"

Installer puts executables to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pite by default. You can change this to a custom path with -Prefix argument:

PowerShell
iex "& { $(irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/piteengine/pite/main/install.ps1) } -Prefix 'C:\Tools\Pite'"

GitHub (Portable Install)

Engine executables are available in GitHub releases too. Each release contains engine binary for each platform with export utilities for all platforms alongside it:

  • pite-<version>-linux.tar.gz
  • pite-<version>-windows.zip
  • pite-<version>-macos.tar.gz

You can download your platform build and then run pite (or pite.exe) executable inside it without installation (portable method).

To Update: You can use any number of version with this method. If you don't want to keep old versions extract new version in same place to overwrite its files.

Note

The remaining files are standalone pite-player binaries — one per platform plus all-platform archives — used by pite export when no player sibling exists, and by cargo install users (cargo only builds pite, not the players).

For more information, see the Export Guide.

Cargo (Build From Source)

Pite can be built from source via crates.io:

Terminal
cargo install pite

Note

Cargo installation method builds from source and has system requirements:

  • Rust 1.95+ toolchain (cargo)
  • Python 3.12 with development headers (e.g. python3.12-dev on Debian/Ubuntu, or Python 3.12 on macOS/Windows).
  • ALSA headers on Linux: sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev pkg-config.

This method takes longer to finish, usually 5-15 minutes.

To Update: Use --force flag: cargo install pite --force

Info

This method won't install Pite Players, they will be downloaded at export time or when you run pite toolchain download.

Verify the Installation

To confirm that Pite installed correctly run following command inside terminal, you may need to restart your terminal:

Terminal
pite --version

It prints pite x.y.z on success.

Troubleshooting

The installer does not start

Verify you have internet connection, you can also download installer script from GitHub and then run it locally:

The editor fails to launch

Check the console log for more information. Try updating your GPU drivers to match requirements.

If the issue persists, Create an Issue and describe the situation alongside information about your OS, Pite version, and relevant logs.

Uninstall

Remove executables from where you installed them (~/.local/bin on Linux and macOS and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pite on Windows).

  1. Only depends on supporting Vulkan 1.2+ ↩

  2. Requires SSE4.2 support, which is supported in most CPUs since 2008. ↩

  3. Engine baseline: 200 MB; RAM usage of running game highly depends on Python scripts usage. ↩

  4. Default windowed size is configured to this size, but is configurable in pite.toml file. ↩

  5. Engine defaults Python 3.12 to be used exported games, so it's recommended to use Python 3.12 to have exactly same behavior as exported games in your dev runs. ↩

  6. Running game in dev mode means using pite run command or ▶ play button inside editor to run the game from source. The engine fetches a pinned slim Python 3.12 version and embeds it inside exported game, so if you just want to export a game (and not to run it in dev mode), having Python installed is not necessary. ↩