Getting consistent Error when installing for Nerf Studio

[Lievargus]

Every time I try to install tiny-cuda-nn I get the error "[WinError 5] Access is denied". I am running things out of anaconda as an administrator. I have been trouble shooting for 2 days and am out of ideas.

Below is my current versions:

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"

---

** Visual Studio 2022 Developer Command Prompt v17.13.6
** Copyright (c) 2022 Microsoft Corporation

---

[vcvarsall.bat] Environment initialized for: 'x64'

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>where cl
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.43.34808\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>cl
Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.43.34810 for x64
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

usage: cl [ option... ] filename... [ /link linkoption... ]

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>python --version
Python 3.8.20

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>python -m pip --version
pip 25.0.1 from C:\ProgramData\anaconda3\envs\nerfstudio\lib\site-packages\pip (python 3.8)

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>python -c "import torch; print(torch.version); print(torch.version.cuda); print(torch.cuda.get_device_capability())"
2.1.2+cu118
11.8
(8, 9)

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>conda list

packages in environment at C:\ProgramData\anaconda3\envs\nerfstudio:

Name Version Build Channel

bzip2 1.0.8 h2bbff1b_6
ca-certificates 2025.2.25 haa95532_0
certifi 2025.1.31 pypi_0 pypi
charset-normalizer 3.4.1 pypi_0 pypi
cmake 4.0.0 pypi_0 pypi
cuda-cccl 11.8.89 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-command-line-tools 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-compiler 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-cudart 11.8.89 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-cudart-dev 11.8.89 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-cuobjdump 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-cupti 11.8.87 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-cuxxfilt 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-documentation 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-libraries 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-libraries-dev 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-memcheck 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nsight-compute 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvcc 11.8.89 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvdisasm 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvml-dev 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvprof 11.8.87 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvprune 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvrtc 11.8.89 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvrtc-dev 11.8.89 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvtx 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-nvvp 11.8.87 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-profiler-api 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-sanitizer-api 11.8.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-toolkit 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-tools 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
cuda-visual-tools 11.8.0 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
filelock 3.16.1 pypi_0 pypi
fsspec 2025.3.0 pypi_0 pypi
idna 3.10 pypi_0 pypi
jinja2 3.1.6 pypi_0 pypi
libcublas 11.11.3.6 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcublas-dev 11.11.3.6 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcufft 10.9.0.58 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcufft-dev 10.9.0.58 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcurand 10.3.0.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcurand-dev 10.3.0.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcusolver 11.4.1.48 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcusolver-dev 11.4.1.48 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcusparse 11.7.5.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libcusparse-dev 11.7.5.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libffi 3.4.4 hd77b12b_1
libnpp 11.8.0.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libnpp-dev 11.8.0.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libnvjpeg 11.9.0.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libnvjpeg-dev 11.9.0.86 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
libuv 1.48.0 h827c3e9_0
lz4-c 1.9.4 h2bbff1b_1
markupsafe 2.1.5 pypi_0 pypi
mpmath 1.3.0 pypi_0 pypi
networkx 3.1 pypi_0 pypi
ninja 1.12.1 hc790b64_0 conda-forge
nsight-compute 2022.3.0.22 0 nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0
numpy 1.24.4 pypi_0 pypi
openssl 3.5.0 ha4e3fda_0 conda-forge
pillow 10.4.0 pypi_0 pypi
pip 25.0.1 pypi_0 pypi
python 3.8.20 h8205438_0
requests 2.32.3 pypi_0 pypi
setuptools 75.3.2 pypi_0 pypi
sqlite 3.45.3 h2bbff1b_0
sympy 1.13.3 pypi_0 pypi
torch 2.1.2+cu118 pypi_0 pypi
torchvision 0.16.2+cu118 pypi_0 pypi
typing-extensions 4.13.2 pypi_0 pypi
ucrt 10.0.22621.0 h57928b3_1 conda-forge
urllib3 2.2.3 pypi_0 pypi
vc 14.42 haa95532_5
vc14_runtime 14.42.34438 hfd919c2_26 conda-forge
vs2015_runtime 14.42.34438 h7142326_26 conda-forge
wheel 0.45.1 pypi_0 pypi
xz 5.6.4 h4754444_1
zlib 1.2.13 h8cc25b3_1
zstd 1.5.6 h8880b57_0

Below is the exact output:

(nerfstudio) C:\Users\Monk2>pip install git+https://github.com/NVlabs/tiny-cuda-nn/#subdirectory=bindings/torch
Collecting git+https://github.com/NVlabs/tiny-cuda-nn/#subdirectory=bindings/torch
Cloning https://github.com/NVlabs/tiny-cuda-nn/ to c:\users\monk2\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-xf5c2it4
Running command git clone --filter=blob:none --quiet https://github.com/NVlabs/tiny-cuda-nn/ 'C:\Users\Monk2\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-req-build-xf5c2it4'
Resolved https://github.com/NVlabs/tiny-cuda-nn/ to commit 075158a
Running command git submodule update --init --recursive -q
Preparing metadata (setup.py) ... done
Building wheels for collected packages: tinycudann
Building wheel for tinycudann (setup.py) ... error
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× python setup.py bdist_wheel did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> [23 lines of output]
C:\Users\Monk2\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-req-build-xf5c2it4\bindings/torch\setup.py:5: DeprecationWarning: pkg_resources is deprecated as an API. See https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html
from pkg_resources import parse_version
Building PyTorch extension for tiny-cuda-nn version 1.7
Obtained compute capability 89 from PyTorch
Detected CUDA version 11.8
Targeting C++ standard 17
running bdist_wheel
running build
running build_py
creating build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-38\tinycudann
copying tinycudann\modules.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-38\tinycudann
copying tinycudann_init_.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-38\tinycudann
running egg_info
creating tinycudann.egg-info
writing tinycudann.egg-info\PKG-INFO
writing dependency_links to tinycudann.egg-info\dependency_links.txt
writing top-level names to tinycudann.egg-info\top_level.txt
writing manifest file 'tinycudann.egg-info\SOURCES.txt'
reading manifest file 'tinycudann.egg-info\SOURCES.txt'
writing manifest file 'tinycudann.egg-info\SOURCES.txt'
copying tinycudann\bindings.cpp -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-38\tinycudann
running build_ext
error: [WinError 5] Access is denied
[end of output]

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
ERROR: Failed building wheel for tinycudann
Running setup.py clean for tinycudann
Failed to build tinycudann
ERROR: Failed to build installable wheels for some pyproject.toml based projects (tinycudann)

[nicholaswbowen]

I am also having this when I follow the guide for nerf-studio.

On windows 11 with mobile 4070.

[Lievargus]

@nicholaswbowen
I ended up having to do a clean install and use a very specific version and edition of visual studio that is not publicly available using normal means. You can find the steps below:
#494 (comment)