Interactive virtual tours fall into two major groups. First, there are the panorama-based tours (often called 3D tours), where the viewer can navigate from one location to another and then pan around in a panorama image at each spot.
- A Panorama Virtual Tour is photographed and assembled using the same technology we use for Google Street View for Business tours that we shoot for commercial clients and appear on their Google Maps listings. It’s time-consuming to shoot and process the panorama images using a DSLR and panorama rig, but the quality is outstanding. The navigation between panoramas is the same as in Google Street View.
- A 360 Virtual Tour is photographed with a dedicated camera that takes a 360-degree panorama in one snap. It’s much faster to shoot a tour with this camera, which means less time spent on site and lower cost. Image quality is good, but not up to the Panorama Tour standard.
- A Matterport Virtual Tour is photographed with our 360-degree panorama camera, then the processing and conversion into a tour goes through the Matterport system. The advantage is that you can get the Matterport “dollhouse” navigation and a Matterport floorplan. (Note: Floorplan measurements are not as precise as those created by the proprietary Matterport camera with Lidar.) Also note that Matterport tours no longer appear on Zillow.
- A Zillow 3D Tour is also photographed with our 360-degree panorama camera, but this one gets submitted to Zillow. If you’re a Zillow Showcase subscriber, you know the drill.
- iGUIDE and Giraffe360 Virtual Tours and floorplans are NOT offered at this time. We’ll consider adding them if there is enough demand.
In addition to the panorama tours, we offer another interactive image product.
- A Hotspot Floorplan consists of a floorplan displayed with an image viewer beside it. The user clicks a hotspot marked on the floorplan to see the still photo image taken at that location. It’s fast and easy for the viewer to use, and it doesn’t require any additional time on site to shoot panorama images.