You know a picture tells a thousand words. Add to this line - a virtual tour (3D tour) tells it all! Plainly speaking words never speak better than a virtual tour. As the internet has become the mainstay in media, 3D tours, the new kid on the block, is breaking the clutter of web graphics. High-end virtual tours take the visibility of a business levels up.

Have it, flaunt it! Virtual tours authenticate a companies/organizations worth. It presents the big picture interactively making way for easy decisions. Virtual tours prove to be a complete makeover for sagging the web presence of a company into hospitality.

Virtual Tours - the Big Picture

Virtual tour (3D tour) is but the all-round view of a venue, location, machinery or system, composed of a varying degree of images. It can also accompany texts and audio so as to make the walkthrough interesting.

360 degree virtual tours are highly advantageous for real estate industries. Prospective clients browsing these tours get rid of the pain of physically inspecting the places and systems. As an educational aid, they are unparalleled.

Besides, 3D tour is used more or less in product advertisements.

Virtual Tours - the Technology

Bluntly saying, this is a visual media. Technicians optimize a series of photographs or a video panaroma to the web standards. Panographers can add hotspots to allow the users click-and-enter various mappings of the tour.

Compatibility and compression are the major issues in creating 3D tours for the web. Because one is exposed to the world at a click. A slow rendering graphics is worse enough to ward off the busy traffic.

Broadly, virtually tours can be divided into:

*Fixed format (do-yourself) virtual tours: One can create virtual tours by using software. All one needs is but to enter some images, texts and sounds (if required) to the program and choose the options of panning, size and time parameters. If the budget is pinching this can be well-to-do for small enterprises.

*Professional (full-service) virtual tours: Professional photographers, illustrators and programmers together can build a virtual tour as you specify. This can be expensive but one get the dream-results. One can also add/remove certain features as required. It is suitable for corporates.

Virtual Tours - the Benefits

*Over 50% of online viewers prefer to visit a real location after having viewed its virtual tour.

*It stimulates the buying decision of potential clients.

*Increases traffic and increases the recall-value in prospective clients.

*Increases retail businesses looking to show off their showrooms.