🚀 Get Started

This article walks you through the initial steps to use the packages in the Stride Community Toolkit.

🔗 Which version for which Stride

Each toolkit release is built against one Stride release and will not work with another, because the engine's own packages change between them. Match the two:

Stride	Toolkit packages
4.4.0-beta5	`1.0.0-preview.63` (not released yet - build from source until then)
4.3	`1.0.0-preview.62`
4.2	`1.0.0-preview.61`

dotnet add package ... --prerelease always takes the newest preview, so on an older Stride pin the version explicitly, for example dotnet add package Stride.CommunityToolkit --version 1.0.0-preview.62.

🛠️ Prerequisites

Ensure the following are installed. If you already have Stride 4.4 installed, they are present.

Microsoft Visual C++ v14 Redistributable (x64)
- vc_redist.x64.exe (~19 MB)
- You may be asked to restart your PC after installation.
.NET 10 SDK x64: Download (~216 MB)
- Verify installation:
```
dotnet --info
```
IDE of your choice
- Visual Studio 2026
  - Visual Studio 2026 Community (Free)
- Visual Studio Code (Free, ~95 MB)
  - Install the C# Dev Kit extension
  - Restart VS Code to ensure the dotnet command works
- Rider (Free for non-commercial use)

📦 Adding the NuGet package

The toolkit is available via several packages named Stride.CommunityToolkit and Stride.CommunityToolkit.*. The main package includes all functionality. Add it via your IDE or CLI. It works for both regular Stride game projects and code-only projects.

To add the package via the command line:

dotnet add package Stride.CommunityToolkit --prerelease

Note

When using Stride.CommunityToolkit in code-only projects, you may need to add some dependencies manually to your project file. Using Stride.CommunityToolkit.Windows handles these automatically.

Additional toolkit packages

Stride.CommunityToolkit
- The core library, providing general-purpose extensions for both regular Stride projects and code-only approaches.
Stride.CommunityToolkit.Bepu
- Adds support for Bepu Physics, a pure C# 3D real time physics simulation library.
Stride.CommunityToolkit.Bullet
- Adds support for Bullet Physics. Note that we no longer plan to support or expand its features as our focus shifts to Bepu Physics.
Stride.CommunityToolkit.DebugShapes
- Provides easy-to-use Debug shapes to be able to visualize and debug your Stride scenes
Stride.CommunityToolkit.ImGui
- Includes extensions for Dear ImGui, a fast, simple-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) library, accessed via the C# wrapper Hexa.NET.ImGui. Ideal for creating debugging tools, editor windows, and in-game UI elements.
Stride.CommunityToolkit.Shapes
- Draws filled convex shapes whose outline stays a constant few pixels wide at any zoom or distance, because a signed distance function measures it per fragment instead of building it as geometry. Discs, rings, rounded rectangles, wire boxes, camera-facing billboards and genuinely thick 3D lines, flat but placeable on any plane in 3D, thousands per frame in one instanced draw call.
Stride.CommunityToolkit.Skyboxes
- Enhances code-only projects by adding skybox functionality.
Stride.CommunityToolkit.Windows
- This library contains Windows-specific dependencies required for code-only approach (package reference Stride.AssetCompiler).
Stride.CommunityToolkit.Linux
- The Linux counterpart of the Windows package: brings in Stride.AssetCompiler and the native libraries a code-only project needs to build and run on Linux.