diff --git a/python/ray/rllib/agents/agent.py b/python/ray/rllib/agents/agent.py
index e1d2ae8ae08e..4b56eb8e36aa 100644
--- a/python/ray/rllib/agents/agent.py
+++ b/python/ray/rllib/agents/agent.py
@@ -129,6 +129,10 @@
     "compress_observations": False,
     # Drop metric batches from unresponsive workers after this many seconds
     "collect_metrics_timeout": 180,
+    # If using num_envs_per_worker > 1, whether to create those new envs in
+    # remote processes instead of in the same worker. This adds overheads, but
+    # can make sense if your envs are very CPU intensive (e.g., for StarCraft).
+    "remote_worker_envs": False,
 
     # === Offline Datasets ===
     # __sphinx_doc_input_begin__
@@ -463,7 +467,9 @@ def make_local_evaluator(self,
                         "tf_session_args": self.
                         config["local_evaluator_tf_session_args"]
                     }),
-                extra_config or {}))
+                extra_config or {}),
+            remote_worker_envs=False,
+        )
 
     @DeveloperAPI
     def make_remote_evaluators(self, env_creator, policy_graph, count):
@@ -476,9 +482,16 @@ def make_remote_evaluators(self, env_creator, policy_graph, count):
         }
 
         cls = PolicyEvaluator.as_remote(**remote_args).remote
+
         return [
-            self._make_evaluator(cls, env_creator, policy_graph, i + 1,
-                                 self.config) for i in range(count)
+            self._make_evaluator(
+                cls,
+                env_creator,
+                policy_graph,
+                i + 1,
+                self.config,
+                remote_worker_envs=self.config["remote_worker_envs"])
+            for i in range(count)
         ]
 
     @DeveloperAPI
@@ -544,8 +557,13 @@ def _validate_config(config):
             raise ValueError(
                 "`input_evaluation` should not be set when input=sampler")
 
-    def _make_evaluator(self, cls, env_creator, policy_graph, worker_index,
-                        config):
+    def _make_evaluator(self,
+                        cls,
+                        env_creator,
+                        policy_graph,
+                        worker_index,
+                        config,
+                        remote_worker_envs=False):
         def session_creator():
             logger.debug("Creating TF session {}".format(
                 config["tf_session_args"]))
@@ -573,10 +591,10 @@ def session_creator():
                 compress_columns=config["output_compress_columns"]))
         else:
             output_creator = (lambda ioctx: JsonWriter(
-                    config["output"],
-                    ioctx,
-                    max_file_size=config["output_max_file_size"],
-                    compress_columns=config["output_compress_columns"]))
+                config["output"],
+                ioctx,
+                max_file_size=config["output_max_file_size"],
+                compress_columns=config["output_compress_columns"]))
 
         return cls(
             env_creator,
@@ -605,7 +623,8 @@ def session_creator():
             callbacks=config["callbacks"],
             input_creator=input_creator,
             input_evaluation_method=config["input_evaluation"],
-            output_creator=output_creator)
+            output_creator=output_creator,
+            remote_worker_envs=remote_worker_envs)
 
     @override(Trainable)
     def _export_model(self, export_formats, export_dir):
diff --git a/python/ray/rllib/env/base_env.py b/python/ray/rllib/env/base_env.py
index b54fdff36826..0483d7434e0d 100644
--- a/python/ray/rllib/env/base_env.py
+++ b/python/ray/rllib/env/base_env.py
@@ -66,10 +66,18 @@ class BaseEnv(object):
     """
 
     @staticmethod
-    def to_base_env(env, make_env=None, num_envs=1):
+    def to_base_env(env, make_env=None, num_envs=1, remote_envs=False):
         """Wraps any env type as needed to expose the async interface."""
+        if remote_envs and num_envs == 1:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "Remote envs only make sense to use if num_envs > 1 "
+                "(i.e. vectorization is enabled).")
         if not isinstance(env, BaseEnv):
             if isinstance(env, MultiAgentEnv):
+                if remote_envs:
+                    raise NotImplementedError(
+                        "Remote multiagent environments are not implemented")
+
                 env = _MultiAgentEnvToBaseEnv(
                     make_env=make_env, existing_envs=[env], num_envs=num_envs)
             elif isinstance(env, ExternalEnv):
@@ -81,7 +89,12 @@ def to_base_env(env, make_env=None, num_envs=1):
                 env = _VectorEnvToBaseEnv(env)
             else:
                 env = VectorEnv.wrap(
-                    make_env=make_env, existing_envs=[env], num_envs=num_envs)
+                    make_env=make_env,
+                    existing_envs=[env],
+                    num_envs=num_envs,
+                    remote_envs=remote_envs,
+                    action_space=env.action_space,
+                    observation_space=env.observation_space)
                 env = _VectorEnvToBaseEnv(env)
         assert isinstance(env, BaseEnv)
         return env
diff --git a/python/ray/rllib/env/env_context.py b/python/ray/rllib/env/env_context.py
index bec6cc9d8722..3a9101ab661f 100644
--- a/python/ray/rllib/env/env_context.py
+++ b/python/ray/rllib/env/env_context.py
@@ -20,13 +20,23 @@ class EnvContext(dict):
             uniquely identifies the worker the env is created in.
         vector_index (int): When there are multiple envs per worker, this
             uniquely identifies the env index within the worker.
+        remote (bool): Whether environment should be remote or not.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, env_config, worker_index, vector_index=0):
+    def __init__(self, env_config, worker_index, vector_index=0, remote=False):
         dict.__init__(self, env_config)
         self.worker_index = worker_index
         self.vector_index = vector_index
+        self.remote = remote
 
-    def with_vector_index(self, vector_index):
+    def copy_with_overrides(self,
+                            env_config=None,
+                            worker_index=None,
+                            vector_index=None,
+                            remote=None):
         return EnvContext(
-            self, worker_index=self.worker_index, vector_index=vector_index)
+            env_config if env_config is not None else self,
+            worker_index if worker_index is not None else self.worker_index,
+            vector_index if vector_index is not None else self.vector_index,
+            remote if remote is not None else self.remote,
+        )
diff --git a/python/ray/rllib/env/vector_env.py b/python/ray/rllib/env/vector_env.py
index 240d05f67de1..565097a40895 100644
--- a/python/ray/rllib/env/vector_env.py
+++ b/python/ray/rllib/env/vector_env.py
@@ -2,8 +2,13 @@
 from __future__ import division
 from __future__ import print_function
 
+import logging
+
+import ray
 from ray.rllib.utils.annotations import override, PublicAPI
 
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 
 @PublicAPI
 class VectorEnv(object):
@@ -18,8 +23,17 @@ class VectorEnv(object):
     """
 
     @staticmethod
-    def wrap(make_env=None, existing_envs=None, num_envs=1):
-        return _VectorizedGymEnv(make_env, existing_envs or [], num_envs)
+    def wrap(make_env=None,
+             existing_envs=None,
+             num_envs=1,
+             remote_envs=False,
+             action_space=None,
+             observation_space=None):
+        if remote_envs:
+            return _RemoteVectorizedGymEnv(make_env, num_envs, action_space,
+                                           observation_space)
+        return _VectorizedGymEnv(make_env, existing_envs or [], num_envs,
+                                 action_space, observation_space)
 
     @PublicAPI
     def vector_reset(self):
@@ -70,14 +84,20 @@ class _VectorizedGymEnv(VectorEnv):
         num_envs (int): Desired num gym envs to keep total.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, make_env, existing_envs, num_envs):
+    def __init__(self,
+                 make_env,
+                 existing_envs,
+                 num_envs,
+                 action_space=None,
+                 observation_space=None):
         self.make_env = make_env
         self.envs = existing_envs
         self.num_envs = num_envs
         while len(self.envs) < self.num_envs:
             self.envs.append(self.make_env(len(self.envs)))
-        self.action_space = self.envs[0].action_space
-        self.observation_space = self.envs[0].observation_space
+        self.action_space = action_space or self.envs[0].action_space
+        self.observation_space = observation_space or \
+            self.envs[0].observation_space
 
     @override(VectorEnv)
     def vector_reset(self):
@@ -101,3 +121,71 @@ def vector_step(self, actions):
     @override(VectorEnv)
     def get_unwrapped(self):
         return self.envs
+
+
+@ray.remote(num_cpus=0)
+class _RemoteEnv(object):
+    """Wrapper class for making a gym env a remote actor."""
+
+    def __init__(self, make_env, i):
+        self.env = make_env(i)
+
+    def reset(self):
+        return self.env.reset()
+
+    def step(self, action):
+        return self.env.step(action)
+
+
+class _RemoteVectorizedGymEnv(_VectorizedGymEnv):
+    """Internal wrapper for gym envs to implement VectorEnv as remote workers.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self,
+                 make_env,
+                 num_envs,
+                 action_space=None,
+                 observation_space=None):
+        self.make_local_env = make_env
+        self.num_envs = num_envs
+        self.initialized = False
+        self.action_space = action_space
+        self.observation_space = observation_space
+
+    def _initialize_if_needed(self):
+        if self.initialized:
+            return
+
+        self.initialized = True
+
+        def make_remote_env(i):
+            logger.info("Launching env {} in remote actor".format(i))
+            return _RemoteEnv.remote(self.make_local_env, i)
+
+        _VectorizedGymEnv.__init__(self, make_remote_env, [], self.num_envs,
+                                   self.action_space, self.observation_space)
+
+        for env in self.envs:
+            assert isinstance(env, ray.actor.ActorHandle), env
+
+    @override(_VectorizedGymEnv)
+    def vector_reset(self):
+        self._initialize_if_needed()
+        return ray.get([env.reset.remote() for env in self.envs])
+
+    @override(_VectorizedGymEnv)
+    def reset_at(self, index):
+        return ray.get(self.envs[index].reset.remote())
+
+    @override(_VectorizedGymEnv)
+    def vector_step(self, actions):
+        step_outs = ray.get(
+            [env.step.remote(act) for env, act in zip(self.envs, actions)])
+
+        obs_batch, rew_batch, done_batch, info_batch = [], [], [], []
+        for obs, rew, done, info in step_outs:
+            obs_batch.append(obs)
+            rew_batch.append(rew)
+            done_batch.append(done)
+            info_batch.append(info)
+        return obs_batch, rew_batch, done_batch, info_batch
diff --git a/python/ray/rllib/evaluation/policy_evaluator.py b/python/ray/rllib/evaluation/policy_evaluator.py
index 6416d89246be..bcc9ee94cb94 100644
--- a/python/ray/rllib/evaluation/policy_evaluator.py
+++ b/python/ray/rllib/evaluation/policy_evaluator.py
@@ -117,7 +117,8 @@ def __init__(self,
                  callbacks=None,
                  input_creator=lambda ioctx: ioctx.default_sampler_input(),
                  input_evaluation_method=None,
-                 output_creator=lambda ioctx: NoopOutput()):
+                 output_creator=lambda ioctx: NoopOutput(),
+                 remote_worker_envs=False):
         """Initialize a policy evaluator.
 
         Arguments:
@@ -192,6 +193,10 @@ def __init__(self,
                     use this data for evaluation only and never for learning.
             output_creator (func): Function that returns an OutputWriter object
                 for saving generated experiences.
+            remote_worker_envs (bool): If using num_envs > 1, whether to create
+                those new envs in remote processes instead of in the current
+                process. This adds overheads, but can make sense if your envs
+                are very CPU intensive (e.g., for StarCraft).
         """
 
         if log_level:
@@ -250,7 +255,9 @@ def wrap(env):
 
         def make_env(vector_index):
             return wrap(
-                env_creator(env_context.with_vector_index(vector_index)))
+                env_creator(
+                    env_context.copy_with_overrides(
+                        vector_index=vector_index, remote=remote_worker_envs)))
 
         self.tf_sess = None
         policy_dict = _validate_and_canonicalize(policy_graph, self.env)
@@ -293,7 +300,10 @@ def make_env(vector_index):
 
         # Always use vector env for consistency even if num_envs = 1
         self.async_env = BaseEnv.to_base_env(
-            self.env, make_env=make_env, num_envs=num_envs)
+            self.env,
+            make_env=make_env,
+            num_envs=num_envs,
+            remote_envs=remote_worker_envs)
         self.num_envs = num_envs
 
         if self.batch_mode == "truncate_episodes":
diff --git a/test/jenkins_tests/run_multi_node_tests.sh b/test/jenkins_tests/run_multi_node_tests.sh
index d001419d1a1d..e748d9d70f25 100755
--- a/test/jenkins_tests/run_multi_node_tests.sh
+++ b/test/jenkins_tests/run_multi_node_tests.sh
@@ -71,6 +71,13 @@ docker run --rm --shm-size=${SHM_SIZE} --memory=${MEMORY_SIZE} $DOCKER_SHA \
     --stop '{"training_iteration": 2}' \
     --config '{"kl_coeff": 1.0, "num_sgd_iter": 10, "lr": 1e-4, "sgd_minibatch_size": 64, "train_batch_size": 2000, "num_workers": 1, "use_gae": false, "batch_mode": "complete_episodes"}'
 
+docker run --rm --shm-size=${SHM_SIZE} --memory=${MEMORY_SIZE} $DOCKER_SHA \
+    python /ray/python/ray/rllib/train.py \
+    --env CartPole-v1 \
+    --run PPO \
+    --stop '{"training_iteration": 2}' \
+    --config '{"remote_worker_envs": true, "num_envs_per_worker": 2, "num_workers": 1, "train_batch_size": 100, "sgd_minibatch_size": 50}'
+
 docker run --rm --shm-size=${SHM_SIZE} --memory=${MEMORY_SIZE} $DOCKER_SHA \
     python /ray/python/ray/rllib/train.py \
     --env Pendulum-v0 \