feat(envs): lazy env init + AsyncVectorEnv as default for n_envs > 1

LiberoEnv and MetaworldEnv previously allocated GPU resources (EGL context,
OpenGL framebuffer) in __init__, before AsyncVectorEnv's fork(). Worker
processes inherited stale GPU handles, causing EGL_BAD_CONTEXT crashes on
first render.

Fix: defer OffScreenRenderEnv / MT1 construction to _ensure_env(), called on
first reset() or step() inside the worker subprocess. Each worker creates its
own clean context after fork().

Also fixes lerobot_eval.py:170 (add_envs_task TODO): replace with
env.call("task") which works with both SyncVectorEnv and AsyncVectorEnv.

AsyncVectorEnv is now the default for n_envs > 1; auto-downgraded to
SyncVectorEnv when n_envs=1 (no benefit, less overhead).

Expected speedup: ~15-20x for LIBERO Spatial with batch_size=50.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/lerobot/configs/default.py

@@ -67,7 +67,8 @@ class EvalConfig:
     # `batch_size` specifies the number of environments to use in a gym.vector.VectorEnv.
     batch_size: int = 50
     # `use_async_envs` specifies whether to use asynchronous environments (multiprocessing).
-    use_async_envs: bool = False
+    # Defaults to True; automatically downgraded to SyncVectorEnv when batch_size=1.
+    use_async_envs: bool = True
 
     def __post_init__(self) -> None:
         if self.batch_size > self.n_episodes:

src/lerobot/envs/configs.py

@@ -75,13 +75,14 @@ class EnvConfig(draccus.ChoiceRegistry, abc.ABC):
     def create_envs(
         self,
         n_envs: int,
-        use_async_envs: bool = False,
+        use_async_envs: bool = True,
     ) -> dict[str, dict[int, gym.vector.VectorEnv]]:
         """Create {suite: {task_id: VectorEnv}}.
 
         Default: single-task env via gym.make(). Multi-task benchmarks override.
+        AsyncVectorEnv is the default for n_envs > 1; auto-downgraded to Sync for n_envs=1.
         """
-        env_cls = gym.vector.AsyncVectorEnv if use_async_envs else gym.vector.SyncVectorEnv
+        env_cls = gym.vector.AsyncVectorEnv if (use_async_envs and n_envs > 1) else gym.vector.SyncVectorEnv
 
         if self.gym_id not in gym_registry:
             print(f"gym id '{self.gym_id}' not found, attempting to import '{self.package_name}'...")
@@ -388,12 +389,12 @@ class LiberoEnv(EnvConfig):
             kwargs["task_ids"] = self.task_ids
         return kwargs
 
-    def create_envs(self, n_envs: int, use_async_envs: bool = False):
+    def create_envs(self, n_envs: int, use_async_envs: bool = True):
         from lerobot.envs.libero import create_libero_envs
 
         if self.task is None:
             raise ValueError("LiberoEnv requires a task to be specified")
-        env_cls = gym.vector.AsyncVectorEnv if use_async_envs else gym.vector.SyncVectorEnv
+        env_cls = gym.vector.AsyncVectorEnv if (use_async_envs and n_envs > 1) else gym.vector.SyncVectorEnv
         return create_libero_envs(
             task=self.task,
             n_envs=n_envs,
@@ -456,12 +457,12 @@ class MetaworldEnv(EnvConfig):
             "render_mode": self.render_mode,
         }
 
-    def create_envs(self, n_envs: int, use_async_envs: bool = False):
+    def create_envs(self, n_envs: int, use_async_envs: bool = True):
         from lerobot.envs.metaworld import create_metaworld_envs
 
         if self.task is None:
             raise ValueError("MetaWorld requires a task to be specified")
-        env_cls = gym.vector.AsyncVectorEnv if use_async_envs else gym.vector.SyncVectorEnv
+        env_cls = gym.vector.AsyncVectorEnv if (use_async_envs and n_envs > 1) else gym.vector.SyncVectorEnv
         return create_metaworld_envs(
             task=self.task,
             n_envs=n_envs,

src/lerobot/envs/factory.py

@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ def make_env_pre_post_processors(
 def make_env(
     cfg: EnvConfig | str,
     n_envs: int = 1,
-    use_async_envs: bool = False,
+    use_async_envs: bool = True,
     hub_cache_dir: str | None = None,
     trust_remote_code: bool = False,
 ) -> dict[str, dict[int, gym.vector.VectorEnv]]:

src/lerobot/envs/libero.py

@@ -150,7 +150,17 @@ class LiberoEnv(gym.Env):
 
         self.init_state_id = self.episode_index  # tie each sub-env to a fixed init state
 
-        self._env = self._make_envs_task(task_suite, self.task_id)
+        # Extract task metadata without allocating GPU resources (safe before fork).
+        task = task_suite.get_task(task_id)
+        self.task = task.name
+        self.task_description = task.language
+        self._task_bddl_file = os.path.join(
+            get_libero_path("bddl_files"), task.problem_folder, task.bddl_file
+        )
+        self._env: OffScreenRenderEnv | None = (
+            None  # deferred — created on first reset() inside the worker subprocess
+        )
+
         default_steps = 500
         self._max_episode_steps = (
             TASK_SUITE_MAX_STEPS.get(task_suite_name, default_steps)
@@ -221,28 +231,32 @@ class LiberoEnv(gym.Env):
             low=ACTION_LOW, high=ACTION_HIGH, shape=(ACTION_DIM,), dtype=np.float32
         )
 
+    def _ensure_env(self) -> None:
+        """Create the underlying OffScreenRenderEnv on first use.
+
+        Called inside the worker subprocess after fork(), so each worker gets
+        its own clean EGL context rather than inheriting a stale one from the
+        parent process (which causes EGL_BAD_CONTEXT crashes with AsyncVectorEnv).
+        """
+        if self._env is not None:
+            return
+        env = OffScreenRenderEnv(
+            bddl_file_name=self._task_bddl_file,
+            camera_heights=self.observation_height,
+            camera_widths=self.observation_width,
+        )
+        env.reset()
+        self._env = env
+
     def render(self):
+        self._ensure_env()
         raw_obs = self._env.env._get_observations()
         image = self._format_raw_obs(raw_obs)["pixels"]["image"]
         image = image[::-1, ::-1]  # flip both H and W for visualization
         return image
 
-    def _make_envs_task(self, task_suite: Any, task_id: int = 0):
-        task = task_suite.get_task(task_id)
-        self.task = task.name
-        self.task_description = task.language
-        task_bddl_file = os.path.join(get_libero_path("bddl_files"), task.problem_folder, task.bddl_file)
-
-        env_args = {
-            "bddl_file_name": task_bddl_file,
-            "camera_heights": self.observation_height,
-            "camera_widths": self.observation_width,
-        }
-        env = OffScreenRenderEnv(**env_args)
-        env.reset()
-        return env
-
     def _format_raw_obs(self, raw_obs: RobotObservation) -> RobotObservation:
+        assert self._env is not None, "_format_raw_obs called before _ensure_env()"
         images = {}
         for camera_name in self.camera_name:
             image = raw_obs[camera_name]
@@ -294,6 +308,7 @@ class LiberoEnv(gym.Env):
         )
 
     def reset(self, seed=None, **kwargs):
+        self._ensure_env()
         super().reset(seed=seed)
         self._env.seed(seed)
         raw_obs = self._env.reset()
@@ -320,6 +335,8 @@ class LiberoEnv(gym.Env):
         return observation, info
 
     def step(self, action: np.ndarray) -> tuple[RobotObservation, float, bool, bool, dict[str, Any]]:
+        self._ensure_env()
+        assert self._env is not None
         if action.ndim != 1:
             raise ValueError(
                 f"Expected action to be 1-D (shape (action_dim,)), "
@@ -350,7 +367,8 @@ class LiberoEnv(gym.Env):
         return observation, reward, terminated, truncated, info
 
     def close(self):
-        self._env.close()
+        if self._env is not None:
+            self._env.close()
 
 
 def _make_env_fns(

src/lerobot/envs/metaworld.py

@@ -97,8 +97,9 @@ class MetaworldEnv(gym.Env):
         self.visualization_height = visualization_height
         self.camera_name = camera_name
 
-        self._env = self._make_envs_task(self.task)
+        self._env_name = self.task  # already stripped of "metaworld-" prefix above
-        self._max_episode_steps = self._env.max_path_length
+        self._env = None  # deferred — created on first reset() inside the worker subprocess
+        self._max_episode_steps = 500  # MT1 environments always have max_path_length=500
         self.task_description = TASK_DESCRIPTIONS[self.task]
 
         self.expert_policy = TASK_POLICY_MAPPING[self.task]()
@@ -136,6 +137,24 @@ class MetaworldEnv(gym.Env):
 
         self.action_space = spaces.Box(low=-1, high=1, shape=(ACTION_DIM,), dtype=np.float32)
 
+    def _ensure_env(self) -> None:
+        """Create the underlying MetaWorld env on first use.
+
+        Called inside the worker subprocess after fork(), so each worker gets
+        its own clean rendering context rather than inheriting a stale one from
+        the parent process (which causes crashes with AsyncVectorEnv).
+        """
+        if self._env is not None:
+            return
+        mt1 = metaworld.MT1(self._env_name, seed=42)
+        env = mt1.train_classes[self._env_name](render_mode="rgb_array", camera_name=self.camera_name)
+        env.set_task(mt1.train_tasks[0])
+        if self.camera_name == "corner2":
+            env.model.cam_pos[2] = [0.75, 0.075, 0.7]
+        env.reset()
+        env._freeze_rand_vec = False  # otherwise no randomization
+        self._env = env
+
     def render(self) -> np.ndarray:
         """
         Render the current environment frame.
@@ -143,26 +162,13 @@ class MetaworldEnv(gym.Env):
         Returns:
             np.ndarray: The rendered RGB image from the environment.
         """
+        self._ensure_env()
         image = self._env.render()
         if self.camera_name == "corner2":
             # Images from this camera are flipped — correct them
             image = np.flip(image, (0, 1))
         return image
 
-    def _make_envs_task(self, env_name: str):
-        mt1 = metaworld.MT1(env_name, seed=42)
-        env = mt1.train_classes[env_name](render_mode="rgb_array", camera_name=self.camera_name)
-        env.set_task(mt1.train_tasks[0])
-        if self.camera_name == "corner2":
-            env.model.cam_pos[2] = [
-                0.75,
-                0.075,
-                0.7,
-            ]  # corner2 position, similar to https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.14244
-        env.reset()
-        env._freeze_rand_vec = False  # otherwise no randomization
-        return env
-
     def _format_raw_obs(self, raw_obs: np.ndarray) -> RobotObservation:
         image = None
         if self._env is not None:
@@ -209,6 +215,7 @@ class MetaworldEnv(gym.Env):
             observation (RobotObservation): The initial formatted observation.
             info (Dict[str, Any]): Additional info about the reset state.
         """
+        self._ensure_env()
         super().reset(seed=seed)
 
         raw_obs, info = self._env.reset(seed=seed)
@@ -232,6 +239,7 @@ class MetaworldEnv(gym.Env):
             truncated (bool): Whether the episode was truncated due to a time limit.
             info (Dict[str, Any]): Additional environment info.
         """
+        self._ensure_env()
         if action.ndim != 1:
             raise ValueError(
                 f"Expected action to be 1-D (shape (action_dim,)), "
@@ -263,7 +271,8 @@ class MetaworldEnv(gym.Env):
         return observation, reward, terminated, truncated, info
 
     def close(self):
-        self._env.close()
+        if self._env is not None:
+            self._env.close()
 
 
 # ---- Main API ----------------------------------------------------------------

src/lerobot/scripts/lerobot_eval.py

@@ -73,7 +73,6 @@ from lerobot.configs import parser
 from lerobot.configs.eval import EvalPipelineConfig
 from lerobot.envs.factory import make_env, make_env_pre_post_processors
 from lerobot.envs.utils import (
-    add_envs_task,
     check_env_attributes_and_types,
     close_envs,
     preprocess_observation,
@@ -166,9 +165,9 @@ def rollout(
         if return_observations:
             all_observations.append(deepcopy(observation))
 
-        # Infer "task" from attributes of environments.
+        # Infer "task" from sub-environments.
-        # TODO: works with SyncVectorEnv but not AsyncVectorEnv
+        # env.call() works with both SyncVectorEnv and AsyncVectorEnv.
-        observation = add_envs_task(env, observation)
+        observation["task"] = env.call("task")
 
         # Apply environment-specific preprocessing (e.g., LiberoProcessorStep for LIBERO)
         observation = env_preprocessor(observation)