Installation

All commands below use pip. For editable (development) installs from a local clone, pass the -e flag (e.g. pip install -e .).

Tip

We recommend uv as a fast, modern package manager. To use it, substitute uv pip for pip in all commands below.

PyPI

Install the stable version of slmsuite from PyPI using:

pip install slmsuite

GitHub

Install the latest version of slmsuite from GitHub using:

pip install git+https://github.com/holodyne/slmsuite

One can also clone slmsuite directly and add its directory to the Python path. Remember to install the dependencies (next sections).

git clone https://github.com/holodyne/slmsuite

Required Dependencies

The following python packages are necessary to run slmsuite. These are listed as PyPI dependencies and thus are installed automatically if PyPI is used to install.

• python >= 3.10

• numpy

• scipy

• opencv-python

• matplotlib

• h5py

• tqdm

One can also install these dependencies directly by calling the following inside the package directory.

pip install -e .

Hardware Dependencies

The following python packages are optional acceleration or hardware requirements, which the user can install selectively.

• GPU pip install -e ".[gpu]"

  • cupy, highly recommended for GPU-accelerated holography. Once installed, holograms and SLMs (unless gpu=False) run on cupy; camera frames are returned in host memory unless a simulated camera is called with get_image(get=False). Without cupy, numpy is used as a backup. The gpu extra installs cupy-cuda13x (CUDA 13). For another CUDA version, skip the extra and pip install cupy-cudaYYx, finding YY with nvcc --version.

• Gradients pip install -e ".[torch]"

  • pytorch, required for gradient-based ("CG") hologram optimization with a torch.optim optimizer, either in GPU or CPU mode. Uses cupy - torch interoperability to pass data between modules without copying overhead, even on the GPU.

• Cameras pip install -e ".[cameras]"

  • instrumental-lib

  • pylablib

  • pymmcore

  • pypylon

  • mvsdk (non-PyPI)

  • PySpin (non-PyPI)

  • tisgrabber (non-PyPI)

  • thorlabs_tsi_sdk (non-PyPI)

  • VmbPy (non-PyPI)

  • Other cameras are loaded directly via .dll.

• SLMs pip install -e ".[slms]"

  • pyglet

  • hidapi and pyyaml, for Texas Instruments PLMs

  • Other SLMs are loaded via their vendor’s SDK or .dll.

• Image saving pip install -e ".[images]"

  • For most images and videos, imageio

  • Many video formats additionally require pyav

  • For .gif optimization, pygifsicle

Jupyter

We highly recommended using Jupyter notebooks for interactive computing. Consider also using IPython magic, features like %autoreload 2 or %matplotlib inline.

• jupyter

• ipywidgets and ipyevents, for the live() viewer of cameras and SLMs

• The images extra

Outside Jupyter, plt.show() blocks; call slmsuite.configure_plotting() with mode="suppress" or mode="save" (and headless=True without a display).

Use the following to install recommended jupyter-related packages.

pip install -e ".[jupyter]"

All Dependencies

To install the optional dependencies for GPU, gradients, SLMs, cameras, images, Jupyter, docs, and testing at once, use the dev extra.

pip install -e ".[dev]"