360 Virtual Tour and 3D Virtual Walkthrough Services

A 360 virtual tour lets people walk through a home, villa, office or hotel that has not been built yet, looking around as if they were standing inside it. On this page we explain how a rendered 3D virtual walkthrough is produced, how it differs from a photo-based tour, where it can be used and which files help when you order an architectural virtual tour from us.

What is a 360 virtual tour, and how is it different from a render?

A standard render looks from a single camera angle, and we choose that angle. In a 360-degree tour the camera sits at one point and produces a spherical panorama looking in every direction. Viewers drag the screen to turn toward the ceiling, the floor, the window or the wall behind them. When several panorama points are linked, you get a walkthrough that moves from the living room to the kitchen and on to the bedroom. Our glossary entry on 360 panoramas covers the basic idea.

The difference is easy to see: a single image shows the best angle, while a virtual tour shows the whole space honestly. The first question we hear from buyers on most projects is “what do I see from this room?”, and a panorama answers it on its own.

Photo-based tours vs. rendered tours

There are two kinds of virtual tour, and they are often confused:

• Photo-based tour: Shot with a special camera in an existing, finished space. It suits completed apartments for sale or rent, hotels and shops, but if the building does not exist yet, there is nothing to photograph.
• Rendered tour: Produced inside a 3D model built from the architectural drawings. Even while the building is at foundation stage, it can be explored finished, furnished, lit and with its view. If a material or a piece of furniture changes, nothing is reshot; the model is updated.

Our work belongs to the second group. It is the natural choice for developers selling off-plan, offices that want to show interiors without fitting out a show apartment, and architects who need to explain a design to their clients. Our article on virtual tours in real estate sales looks at the sales side in more depth.

Where can a virtual tour be viewed?

The same panorama files can be adapted to different settings, chosen to fit the project and the way it is sold:

• Website and listing pages: The tour can be published as a link or an embedded window and explored on a phone as well.
• Sales office: It can run on a tablet or a large screen as a guided presentation the sales consultant walks through with the buyer.
• VR headset: Viewed through a virtual reality headset, the panoramas give a much stronger sense of scale. We cover this in our article on architectural visualization and virtual reality.

Navigation such as choosing a room from the floor plan can also be added: the buyer taps a room on the plan and jumps to its panorama. A rendered color floor plan pairs well with the tour for exactly this purpose.

How is a virtual tour produced?

1. Reviewing the files: We go over the plans, sections and elevations and agree on which spaces the tour will include.
2. Choosing panorama points: The number of points is not fixed; it depends on the size of the project and the rooms you want to show. A large living room may need two points, while a small bathroom needs only one.
3. Modeling and materials: Because viewers can look in any direction, corners, ceiling details and the backs of doors that would sit outside a single render’s frame are modeled too.
4. Lighting and rendering: A spherical panorama is rendered for each point, and the view outside the windows is added to the scene.
5. Linking and delivery: Hotspots connect the panoramas, and the tour is delivered in a format suited to where it will be viewed.

We collect feedback on draft panoramas along the way. Because every surface is visible in a panorama, small mistakes stand out: a misaligned cabinet door, a window opening the wrong way or an empty corner. Before finalizing the tour we turn around in every point ourselves, and furniture layout or material choices are still easy to change at this stage.

Which files do we need?

Floor plans, sections and elevations (DWG or PDF) are enough to start. An existing SketchUp, Revit or similar 3D model can be used directly. Material and furniture preferences for the interiors, plus any reference images, speed things up. For the full list, see files needed for rendering.

Bundled with animation and renders

The model built for the virtual tour is also used for the exterior renders and the camera walkthrough video of the same project. That is why, on most projects, it makes sense to plan the tour together with renders and architectural animation: the model is built once, and every output keeps the same materials and lighting. Cost depends on the number of panorama points, whether a model already exists and the level of detail. We explain how these factors add up in how rendering prices are calculated.