---
title: "Running Ogre3d locally (without installing it)"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2015/03/running-ogre3d-locally-without-installing-it/
last_updated: 2026-03-03
---


Simple build systems, huh? Hello there. In this post we will run the "Basic 1"
example from the [Ogre3d wiki](http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php)
without installing [ogre](http://www.ogre3d.org/) in the system. For that, I'll
assume you're using an Unix system. First things first: grab the latest ogre
version. At the time of this post, it is the 1.9 release, and you can find its
repository [on Bitbucket](https://bitbucket.org/sinbad/ogre/downloads).
**Note:** you want to download the 1.9 version using the tag download feature
from Bitbucket; **do not** simply download the master branch. After that,
extract it, create a build directory inside its directory, cd into it, and do a

```shell
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/.lib -DOGRE_INSTALL_SAMPLES=TRUE -DOGRE_INSTALL_DOCS=TRUE -DOGRE_INSTALL_SAMPLES_SOURCE=TRUE -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
```

This is a pretty much standard cmake build. If your system is missing some of
its dependencies, you will be warned and you should install them. Then:

```shell
make OgreDoc install
```

Now it is a good moment to read [xkcd](https://xkcd.com/303/). The usual
difference here is that we don't do a normal **make install**. Why? Because we
don't want our stuff ending up on **/usr/local**. Instead, we want it somewhere
where we have full access as a normal (non-root) user – in this example,
**$HOME/.lib/ogre**.

## Basic 1

Now, head to the [basic
1](http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Basic+Tutorial+1) page of
the ogre wiki and download its example. You should try to build it, but take
care to change all ogre3d references from /usr/local to your new install
directory ($HOME/.lib/ogre). Yeah, that's it. **Note:** if the _basic 1_
download doesn't come with a CMakeLists.txt file, you can download it from [the
Ogre CMake wiki
page](http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Building+Your+Projects+With+CMake)
(clean ogre cmake project). You can use it verbatim; just put it in the same
directory as the basic 1 files **and** – again – change any references to
_/usr/local_ to your new install directory. Also, copy the **dist/** directory
too (if it is missing from the Basic 1 project), I'll add a small observation:
in the case cmake complains about pkg-config, try adding this line to the top of
your CMakeLists.txt (but after the project version):

```cmake
set(ENV{PKG_CONFIG_PATH} "$ENV{HOME}/.lib/ogre/lib/pkgconfig:$ENV{PKG_CONFIG_PATH}")
```

**Credits:** the build style I adopted here was derived from the [Ogre Arch Linux package](https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/community.git/tree/trunk/PKGBUILD?h=packages/ogre). Thanks Sven for your excellent packaging skills! :) **Update:** in your _plugins.cfg_ , **do not** use "$HOME" as your PluginFolder. This seems to cause issues when you run your ogre app. Instead, expand $HOME manually (in my case, to '/home/thiago'). This is not much portable, I know, but there must be some workaround for this I haven't discovered yet.