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Requirements & Dependencies

Everything Aboleth STT needs to run, from hardware to bundled libraries.


GPU Requirement

Aboleth STT requires GPU acceleration for real-time inference.

Backend Requirements Notes
CUDA NVIDIA GPU, Compute Capability 5.0+ Preferred -- fastest inference path
Vulkan NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel GPU with Vulkan support Cross-vendor fallback

The Auto backend setting (default) selects CUDA when an NVIDIA GPU is detected and falls back to Vulkan otherwise.

Tip

CUDA consistently outperforms Vulkan on NVIDIA hardware. If you have an NVIDIA GPU, let Auto select CUDA or set it explicitly in Project Settings.


Platform

Requirement Value
Engine Unreal Engine 5.7
Platform Windows Win64
CPU AVX instruction set required
C++ Standard C++20

AVX Requirement

whisper.cpp and GGML require AVX support. CPUs without AVX (some older or low-power processors) will fail at runtime. All modern desktop and laptop CPUs from 2011 onward support AVX.


Bundled Dependencies

Aboleth STT ships with all required libraries. No external installs or SDKs are needed.

Dependency Purpose
whisper.cpp Speech-to-text inference engine
ggml Tensor library powering CPU, CUDA, and Vulkan compute
Silero VAD v6.2.0 Neural voice activity detection (runs via GGML -- no ONNX runtime)

CUDA DLLs

The following NVIDIA DLLs are bundled for CUDA backend support:

DLL Purpose
cublas64_12.dll CUDA Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms
cublasLt64_12.dll CUDA BLAS lightweight runtime
cudart64_12.dll CUDA runtime library

Vulkan

Library Purpose
ggml-vulkan GGML Vulkan compute backend

Info

Vulkan support uses the system's Vulkan driver. No additional Vulkan SDK installation is required -- the driver bundled with your GPU's display driver is sufficient.


Unreal Engine Module Dependencies

The plugin depends on the following UE modules:

Module Purpose
AudioCapture Microphone input access
Synthesis Audio processing utilities
AudioMixer Audio mixing and routing
AudioCaptureCore Platform audio capture abstraction
SignalProcessing DSP and resampling
AudioSynesthesia Audio analysis features
AudioExtensions Extended audio API support
DeveloperSettings Project Settings integration

Model Files

Whisper and Silero models are stored in:

Plugins/AbolethSTT/Models/

Use the Model Downloader to fetch models directly from HuggingFace, or download them manually and place them in the Models/ directory.

Packaged builds stage model files to:

$(TargetOutputDir)/Models/

Note

Models are not included with the plugin download. You must download at least one Whisper model before first use. The Silero VAD model (ggml-silero-v6.2.0.bin) ships with the plugin.


DLL Loading

Core DLLs are loaded at module startup during FAbolethSTTModule::StartupModule(). GPU backend DLLs (CUDA, Vulkan) are loaded conditionally based on the selected backend and available hardware.

Packaged builds stage all DLLs to:

$(TargetOutputDir)

Warning

If CUDA DLLs fail to load (e.g. missing NVIDIA driver), the system falls back to Vulkan automatically when using the Auto backend. If both GPU backends fail, the plugin will not function -- CPU-only inference is not supported.