Ok, I think the confusion here is that you don’t mean resolution. Resolution means pixels per inch. I think what you are talking about is quality of rendering. That includes things like rendering textures, smooth curves, highlights, shadows etc to produce a photo realistic impression.
That is a whole more complex thing than changing the resolution.
[quote=“bobc, post:8, topic:6825, full:true”]
Ok, I think the confusion here is that you don’t mean resolution.[/quote]
I meant exactly that. Right now there is no way to improve the resolution of what is rendered in 3DViewer. Photorealistic impression is already implemented thanks to mario.
I didn’t know the render to image is already implemented in mario’s branch, lets hope in merged soon in the master tree =)
Ok, so you just want to make the image bigger than is displayed on screen?
Yes, so you can export a 20MB image if you are so inclined.
That would generate very zoomable images of the boards for review and marketing. Is good for posters where you need high res images, or for a dude that shoots 4k video (well, that dude probably has a 4k display anyway).
See this example, this is the best image I could get from my older laptop
this is exactly the road I use:
that is much more effort than just using @kammutierspule great 3D raytracer, but can give you more flexibility
By the way… there is a workarround trick to get arbitrary resolution from 3D Viewer.
This works for me (tested on Linux):
On other words, you increase (resize) your 3D Viewer window and hide some part so you make the menu visible for you, so you can export the render as an image.
http://paltatech.com/files/VESC-controller.png
it really does work. Sometimes the saved file looks poorly lit when saved at high resolutions.
Thanks for the workaround MarioImpressive render Marcos! I didn’t believe it was made with KiCad at first look 
Great work getting all the 3D models for the board!
Btw, as I personal preference, I usually do something similar as you did with the labels for documentation but I make the renders in “orthographic projection” mode enabled.
Here is the actual pcb in case you wonder.
I like how accurate are the shadows near the green connectors. The only noticeable difference would be the copper keepout in the right bottom. [OT]The copper in inner layers is usually very close to the pcb surface, around 15um, so you can tell the difference if there is or there isn’t copper in those inner layers.
In the 3D models the distance between all copper layers is the same.[/OT]
Do you think it possible to add a feature to the 3D viewer?
Every time I look at the back of a board the light is not ‘following’.
It’s way way darker there.
Couldn’t there be some option to flip the lighting rig around once the viewpoint switches the plane described by the pcb and give the same results as the front of the board?
I remember some (precision) issues on rendering the inner refractions of the board. Also I believe I only enabled the top and bottom copper layers when you have the option “Show Board Body”.
Can you try to disable the “Show Board Body” and see if it renders the inner layers? There may be some precision issues so the result will depend on the zoom. (a closer zoom should work better).
Not sure if I understand correctly. Are you talking about the Raytracing render mode?
I think you are describing the case when you render with raytracing and with a floor plane. At this moment it is only possible to add a floor plane (to the back side).
So when you place the camera back it will render the back of the board in the shadow.
It misses an options to add a “floor plane” on the top or something.
Also I had in mind before to add a light position editor GUI … but I didn’t get a chance to develop it…
That way it will be possible to rotate the light directions…
I deactivated ‘floor plane’ for the raytracing view…
I essentially flipped the whole board and then also had to turn the ‘camera’ in the 3D viewer 180 degrees to get the same view…
The one with the parts on the back is def darker.
Here is rendered with raytracing without the board body
And without raytracing
The inner layers are rendered, but looks like the soldermask is too opaque.
You said that you desactivated the “floor plane” but I can see on the image on the left the shadows on the “floor plane”.
yeah I know it is not perfect the refractions / transparencies… 
Maybe its only a matter to bring the inner layers much closer to the outer layers. Right now the 3d shows them 0.5/0.5/0.5mm apart, but the real board has a stackup of 0.15mm / 1.2mm / 0.15mm (its a 4 layer pcb)
I deactivated it, but that didn’t stick it seems, got it working now. Thx for patience! 
Altium updated 3D Movie option. I hope Kicad will be update this option on 3D viewer 
