At Simply 360, we have a companies contact us wanting a virtual tour for their business. Unfortunately, due to a lot of hype during the covid era, people had virtual tours promoted to them without knowing that there are different types. So today, we will explore the differences between the two main types of tours, 3D virtual tour and 360 virtual tour and see which type of virtual tour is best for your business.

What is a virtual tour?

Before we explore the different types of virtual tours, it would be a good idea to explain what a virtual tour is in general. Virtual tours allow clients to see and interact with an environment such as a business facility, office, campus, building and much more. The virtual tour will enable them to experience the full scope of the location right in the comfort of their own home/business.

These tours are comprised of a series of 360 panoramic images combined into an interactive walkthrough tour. This can also include additional elements such as hotspots which can give additional information with text, images, video and audio/music.

Some examples of virtual tours and their uses are:

– The ability to visit a museum and able to walk around, see and explore the exhibits from different angles

– Explore a hotel/resort to see what their rooms, facilities, services and amenities look like

– Visiting a historical landmark/location and being able to read and find out more information from different perspectives

– Viewing a venue space/community centre to see the size and scope of a venue space plus have an understanding of how to decorate and style it

What is a 360 virtual tour

A 360 virtual tour is a type of virtual tour that uses a series of 360-degree panoramic images to create an immersive, interactive experience for the viewer. 360 virtual tours can be used for various purposes, from exploring a museum to viewing a hotel room or historical landmark. 360 virtual tours are an excellent way to understand a space or location fully and can be used to help plan events or projects. Below are some unique features for 360 virtual tours:

Customisable UI

360 virtual tours are incredibly customisable where. You can create an experience that is perfect for your business. You can control the tour’s layout and design the UI for specific purposes and call to action. This means that you can create a tour that is both visually stunning and easy to use, all while being a meaningful sales and marketing tool.

Example: Rydges Resort Hunter Valley is an international organisation with very strict brand and style guidelines. We worked with the marketing team directly to ensure that the virtual tour hit, integrating their call to actions, social focuses, ensuring marketing/brand alignment within an easy-to-use and adaptive UI. 

Double-click in the virtual tour for Rydges Resort Hunter Valley to make it go fullscreen, or click here

Integrable Branding

One of the core strengths of 360 virtual tours is their ability to incorporate a brand. As mentioned above, you can easily design a custom and follow a brand/style guide down to the letter. From the integration of logos/imagery, colour pallet alongside fonts, and specific requirements, a 360 virtual tour can be designed to look and feel like any organisation visual design elements. This is especially important for cross-channel marketing.

Flexible Hosting Options

One thing that often surprises people regarding virtual tours is that they must be hosted on a server to be viewed online. This will mean one of two things: the tour will be hosted with us, but we also give the option for companies to host the tour themselves. For example, a company may decide that they find our hosting reliable and more than capable of hosting their virtual tour. Alternatively, we have worked with companies with the infrastructure to host virtual tours. This is great as it means that you are not locked into one solution and can save money in the long term if they wish to host themselves.

If you decide between hosting a virtual tour yourself or with a provider, check out our blog on this topic.

Example: The below 360 virtual tour is for TAFE NSW, with over 140 campuses across NSW and massive infrastructure, they opted to host their virtual open-day tour themselves.

Double-click on the virtual tour for TAFE NSW to make it go fullscreen, or click here

Long Term Digital Marketing Solution

If you are investing time and money to create a meaningful 360 virtual tour, then it should be designed to be a long-term digital marketing asset. Because a 360 virtual tour can be designed in every detail, then it stands to reason that it should have long-term benefits. This is from the UI, content and hosting while working with your existing traditional and digital marketing channels.

Live Guided Tours

A live guided virtual tour unique feature of 360 virtual tours is the ability to interact and speak to people inside the tour itself. Imagine being able to show a client around your business/property/ showroom and give them a curated experience. Guide and show them directly to relevant points of interest and answer their questions along the way. Check out the video below to see how it works.

Shareable On Socials

A great feature of 360 virtual tours is the ability to share the tour (or even a specific position within the virtual tour) on socials or shareable via email, amongst other options. This is an excellent feature for any company so they can share the virtual tour with family/friends while in a virtual tour. Shareability is key to any great digital marketing campaign.

VR Enabled

We can not speak for every virtual tour, but our 360 virtual tours are VR-enabled. This means that while the virtual tour was photographed with high-end 360 photography, you can walk through the virtual tour as though you are there in person in VR. This bridges the gap between the digital and real world.

Interchangeable Features

Not all our clients want the same thing, so it stands to reason that they wish to have all features built into a 360 virtual tour. The ability to choose what features, functions and benefits in a 360 virtual tour make for an exceptionally customised and enhanced experience. For example, some tours have larger buttons and font sizes for clients where their client base has specific conditions. Others only want their virtual tour on their website and not shared on socials, so they are designed with a minimalist aesthetic. In short, 360 virtual tours are completely customisable feature-wise compared to others, where they offer a set of features that you can not remove or modify.

What is a 3D virtual tour?

A 3D virtual tour is a type of virtual tour that is created using 3D scanning technology or a 2D composite. This means that, unlike 360 virtual tours, a 3D virtual tour has the advantage of depth (hence the 3D). Below are some unique features for 3D virtual tours:

Fast To Create

As 3D virtual tours are made with scanning technology, they are generally created with automated systems to put the virtual tour together. This means that as quick as a location is scanned, it can go straight online.

Excellent for the Real-Estate Industry

3D virtual tours have been explicitly created with the real estate industry first in mind. These are quick and easy to create 3d virtual tours with no branding or design are their core focus. This generally least to very generic-looking and non-brand-focused experiences.

Great DIY Option

Did you know that the vast majority of 3D virtual tours are created with low-end budget friendly 360 cameras or even smartphones? This links back to being targeted to the real estate industry. To keep costs down, 3D virtual tours are designed to work with cost-effective equipment to get a quick and easy virtual tour. If you are looking to rent or sell your property, then a 3D virtual tour would be the way to go.

Here are some limitations of 3D Virtual Tours:

• You must host with their 3rd party software virtual tour company, which means unnecessary long-term expenses
• Minimal to no branding/customisation or flexibility
• Inability to export or transfer your virtual tour if you need to change hosting or looking for more cost-effective or logical hosting solutions.
• A limited set of features compared to 360 virtual tours
• Unable to edit images, so there is no way to enhance or edit the scene in post-production. EG, if a coffee cup is in the shot, it can not be removed in post-production
• You are unable to reshoot a room unless you delete whole sections first

Conclusion – 360 Virtual Tour VS 3D Virtual Tour, There Are Big Differences

In short, a 360 virtual tour is an excellent solution for a long-term digital marketing strategy with a brand focus. If you are looking to rent or sell your property with a short-term focus, then a 3D virtual tour is better suited.

Are you an organisation, educational facility, government/council or multi-site facility looking to create a high-end virtual tour? Contact us on 02 9674 9090, schedule a consultation, or fill out the form on this page to start a conversation for your virtual tour. Happy to discuss how we can create a high-end virtual experience for your organisation, facility or multi-site location and design it to your needs.

Do you think we left anything off this 360 virtual tour VS 3D virtual tour comparison? Did your company use a 3D virtual tour or 360 virtual tour, or are you still deciding between the two? Have you seen a 360 or 3D virtual tour you like? Let us know in the comments section below :)

Dimitri Cassimatis( Founder )

Dimitri is the founder of Simply 360, which specialises in creating immersive, interactive and engaging 360 / VR virtual tours, AR integration and marketing consultancy. He has worked in the digital marketing industry for over 15 years and has a passion for creating virtual tours with a key focus in strategic implementation.