README.md
January 14, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
For complete documentation of this software, please consult https://plantsimulationlab.github.io/Helios/.
Helios is a C++ library for 3D physical simulation of plant and environmental systems. It can generate and manipulate plant and other geometric objects, which can feed into biophysical model plug-ins such as radiation transfer, photosynthesis, and evapotranspiration, among others.
In order to build and compile the core library, you will need to install a C/C++ compiler (recommended are the GNU C compilers version 7.0+), and CMake. In order to run many of the model plug-ins, you will need to install NVIDIA CUDA 10.2+, and a GPU with compute capability 5.0+. The software has been tested on Linux, Mac, and Windows platforms. The YouTube channel linked above has a number of tutorials for getting started.
NEW : Helios now has a Python API! Please see the PyHelios API documentation for more information.
