Panoramic Camera & Cycles Export
Set up a 360° panoramic camera in Blender and export with Cycles.
Setting up a panoramic camera in Blender
A 360° panoramic render lets clients look around a room as if they're standing in it. Here's how to set up the camera and export with Cycles — the practical version, no fluff.
01
Select your camera
In Blender, select your camera object. If you don't have one, add it with Add → Camera. Position it where you want the viewer to stand — typically at eye height (about 1.6m from the floor).
02
Set camera type to Panoramic
With the camera selected, go to the Camera Properties panel (camera icon in the properties sidebar). Change Type from Perspective to Panoramic.
03
Choose Equirectangular
Under the Panoramic type, set the Panorama Type to Equirectangular. This is the standard 360° projection that works with most panorama viewers.
04
Set the resolution
Go to Output Properties (printer icon). For a good quality 360° render, set the resolution to 4096 × 2048 pixels (2:1 ratio). For higher quality, use 6144 × 3072 or 8192 × 4096 — but render times go up significantly.
05
Switch to Cycles
In the Render Properties panel (camera icon at the top), set the render engine to Cycles. Set your sample count — 128-256 samples is usually a good balance between quality and speed. Enable Denoising to clean up noise without cranking up samples.
06
Export the render
Set your output format in Output Properties — PNG or JPEG works fine for panoramas. Hit Render → Render Image (or F12). Save the result with Image → Save As.
The output image will look stretched and distorted — that's normal for equirectangular projections. Upload it to a 360° viewer (like Pannellum or A-Frame) and it'll look correct.