An Explanation Of How Virtual Tours Integrate Into A Website

Virtual tours use virtual reality to allow viewers to visit locations and buildings. This is a wise investment for many types of businesses. This tool is highly favored among real estate websites. They are also used for educational purposes. For instance, these tours are used to visit the Seven Wonders of the World and the Louvre.

Several images are combined to create them. To enrich the experience, many types of multimedia may be added. These may include sound effects, text, narration, and music. Generally, virtual tours are either photograph or video based media. To create photographic tours, one of three ways is used.

Rectilinear Stitching is the first. A digital camera is set up on a tri-pod. Someone manually rotates it, clockwise, 360degrees. A photograph is captured every so many degrees. The amount of degrees desired may be set. The pictures are next stitched together using specialized software. This creates a 360 degree view of the scene. This method has a limited up and down view of about 50 degrees.

The second method is called Spherical Stitching. This technique requires more costly camera equipment. It also takes less time than the Rectilinear Stitching method. This is because a 360 degree, floor to ceiling view is created with only 4 shots. The Rectilinear method needs 8 to 12 shots per view. The last method is known as Cubical Stitching. A three dimensional type box is created from stitching then converting the panoramas. In this way, a 360 x 360 view is produced. It is generally thought that this method is obsolete.

Nowadays, there are also video-based 360 virtual tours. The popularity of these is increasing.

To assist with the creation of panoramic virtual tours consult a virtual tour provider. Assistance in integrating or embedding them into the website is also provided by them. The virtual tour business uses several different ways to integrate these tours into websites. Among these are thumbnails, icons, and hyperlinks. HTML source code is used to embed these onto the website. To be taken on the virtual tour, the visitor simply clicks on one of these. Also, using flash, the virtual tour company may use flash to place the tour directly on the website itself.

There are a couple additional considerations to keep in mind. The visitor watching the tour must have their browser up to date. Javascript must be supported by the browser. This is a programming language. Javascript must be enabled and up to date. The browser must also be supported by Adobe Flash Player version 9.0.28 or better. Other times Apple Quicktime Player is required instead. All of these programs may be found free of charge all over the internet. The provider assisting in the creation of the virtual tour can also add links that allow clients access to the programs. The visitor clicks on the icon or link. They are quickly directed to the site to download the program at no charge. Often, the visitor will have the required programs, but they have not been up dated. The site enables updates too.