1. Install prereqs
  1. sudo apt-get install xvfb g++ make libzmq3-dev libtool pkg-config build-essential autoconf automake libc6-dev cmake libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libxi-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libsqlite3-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libopenal-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libfreetype6-dev zlib1g-dev libgmp-dev libjsoncpp-dev libzstd-dev libluajit-5.1-dev protobuf-compiler

2. Build SDL2
  1. clone the SDL2 repo https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL
  2. checkout release-2.26.2 https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/tree/release-2.26.2
  3. create a build directory inside the SDL repo
  4. cd into it and run ../configure --prefix=/path/to/SDL/dir/build && make && make install

3. Build zmqpp
  1. clone https://github.com/zeromq/zmqpp
  2. checkout the develop branch
  3. run make

4. Clone EAI alignment minetest repos
  1. clone https://github.com/EleutherAI/minetest
  2. checkout the develop branch
  3. clone https://github.com/EleutherAI/irrlicht
  4. checkout headless-renderer

5. Clone minetest game spec
  1. clone https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game
  2. checkout master branch

5. Establish symlinks
  1. cd into minetest/lib
  2. rm -r zmqpp irrlichtmt
  3. ln -s ../../zmqpp/ zmqpp
  4. ln -s ../../irrlicht/ irrlichtmt
  5. cd into minetest/games
  6. ln -s ../../minetest_game/ minetest_game

6. Build minetest
  1. cd into minetest
  2. either run
     cmake . -DRUN_IN_PLACE=TRUE -DBUILD_HEADLESS=1 -DSDL2_DIR=<path to SDL repo>/SDL/build/lib/cmake/SDL2/
     or
     cmake . -DRUN_IN_PLACE=TRUE -DBUILD_HEADLESS=0 -DSDL2_DIR=
  3. run make -j$(nproc)

7. setup python
  1. create and activate a new python conda env or venv (tested with python3.9)
  2. pip install gym matplotlib protobuf==3.20.1 psutil zmq -e ./minetest
  3. cd into the scripts directory and run compile_proto.sh
  4. run python -m minetester.scripts.test_loop