We will add the missing features you requested as soon as possible (early 2026). The rendering engine was updated and as a consequence, lighting behaves a bit differently on some setup. We are working on making it more uniform across versions.
The Free STL Viewer will be kept online until we have a solution to ensure availability of it for all users who supported us by buying Pretty STL Viewer.
Options reported to be missing will be added back to Pretty STL Viewer early 2026. Reason they were not: we did not migrate them yet (costly) + we thought they were not necessary. When the Free STL Viewer is discontinued, we plan to add a desktop version of it accessible retroactively to all supporters/customers for legacy purposes (but without support).
The online version of Pretty STL Viewer is limited but free for now, we plan to keep it this way as long as supporters or other incomes can pay for it.
Maintenance of such a tool is more expensive than it may seem, and we need regular support if we want to be able to improve and maintain it.
We are considering the release of a lite version, limited to original options and for non-commercial use only. Let us know what cost would be acceptable for a casual user like you (you can email us at contact@pretty-stl-viewer.com)
The original app was created to be a viewer, as a prototype demo for online services we do provide (Embedded viewers). It's only when releasing this new version that we realized the use was mostly to generate and save renders, and also that it was used for professional purposes...
Many features are missing in this respect, for example the ability to save all parameters including point of view so that you could re-render all your 500 shots in one go. Adding it will probably not help your case, but is important to not repeat the mistake for new users.
Concerning the free prototype, unfortunately it depends on on external infrastructure which is costly to maintain, and the current offer is not sustainable for us. Your point makes sense however, and we had a couple of other requests for legacy support. The Free STL Viewer will not be shut down until we have a downloadable desktop version of it, which will be accessible for all people who bought a Pretty licence on itch.
Concerning the options you are missing, my question was oriented toward the Raytracer load and resolution. This option was here to adapt to device capabilities, the higher those numbers are, the higher is the quality of the final image. The new version is supposed to adapt to your device automatically and pick the highest possible value. Do you notice issues? Is there a reason why you would want to lower the quality?
Note: when using the website, you can find the values of the slider in the URL, so that if you copy paste the URL you get to keep all parameters. Unfortunately this feature has not yet been ported on the Desktop app.
Hello, Thanks for your support. We noted your request for the numerical values of the sliders. Added to the TODO list :) Concerning the Shadows strength and Size, it's planned for supporters only, we will add it to the Desktop build and later on you will be able to link your purchase to your online account to benefit from the same features online.
Concerning the raytracer load however, we did not plan to add it in order to keep the UI clean. We set the values to high enough in theory. Can you tell us why you would need those options? Is the quality of the rendered image not good enough for your needs?
