---
id: embreex
version: "4.4.0"
license: Copyright (c) 2015, Anthony Scopatz All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: unclear
maintenance: active
---

# embreex — Python binding for Intel's Embree ray engine

License: unclear · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 2.9M/mo

## What it is and what it does

embreex is a fork of pyembree that packages Intel's Embree ray tracing engine as pre-built Python wheels. It was created to meet trimesh's dependency requirements—specifically to provide ray tracing without requiring compilation on Windows, Linux, or Intel macOS for Python 3.6 and newer. The package wraps Embree's ray-geometry intersection algorithms and depends only on numpy.

The project is actively maintained and provides wheels across macOS, Windows, and Linux. It exists alongside other embree bindings but distinguishes itself through its focus on zero-compilation installation and minimal dependencies.

Use it for:

- Accelerate ray-casting operations in 3D mesh processing pipelines that use trimesh or similar geometry libraries.
- Compute ray-geometry intersections for physics simulations, collision detection, or visibility queries.
- Build ray tracing applications in Python without managing separate C++ compilation or complex build dependencies.
- Integrate fast ray intersection queries into scientific computing workflows that already use numpy.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

embreex provides Python bindings to Intel's Embree ray tracing engine, enabling fast ray-geometry intersection queries with only numpy as a runtime dependency.

Yes, if you need ray tracing in Python and want to avoid compilation overhead. The pre-built wheels, active maintenance, minimal dependency footprint (numpy only), and lack of known vulnerabilities make it a practical choice. Verify the license treatment and API surface match your use case before committing to production.

## Install

pip install embreex
uv add embreex
poetry add embreex

## Installing embreex

Before you install: Medium install friction due to compiled wheels, but mitigated by pre-built binaries across macOS, Windows, and Linux. Active maintenance with recent release activity and ongoing repository development.

License in practice: BSD 2-Clause license (copyright 2015 Anthony Scopatz). License treatment is marked unclear in the fact sheet, so verify the exact licensing terms apply to your use case before depending on this in production.

Quickstart:

pip install embreex
import embreex
# Use embreex ray tracing functions with numpy arrays

Requires Python >=3.8; compiled wheels available for Python 3.8 and newer on major platforms.

Verify before relying:

- What specific ray tracing operations (intersection, occlusion, closest-hit) are exposed by the API.
- Whether the package is actively maintained or in maintenance mode given the 114-day gap since last release.
- Performance characteristics compared to alternative embree bindings.

## Package facts

- License: Copyright (c) 2015, Anthony Scopatz All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:… (full text in the JSON record) (unclear)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 2.9M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

ray tracing python, embree bindings, ray intersection geometry, 3d ray casting, intel embree python, ray-tracing, geometry, compiled-binding

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