Frequently Asked Questions

What does a Virtual Tour Maker Virtual Tour consist of?

A Virtual Tour Maker virtual tour is an online slideshow presentation in your own-brand customised viewer that can include a combination of up to 10 of the following online scenes: -

  • Standard photos
  • Partial wide-angle panoramas
  • Full 360° panoramas
  • Floor plans or maps
  • A full page of property details

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How will people find my Virtual Tours?

Your audience will find your tours in the following ways: -

  • On any webpage via a direct hyperlink
  • On participating portals including REALTOR.com via direct hyperlinks
  • You can e-mail a virtual tour hyperlink directly to anyone
  • Your online tour viewers can e-mail a tour hyperlink with a message to a friend

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Do website visitors need any special software to view my Virtual Tours?

No.  Uniquely Virtual Tour Maker virtual tours play in any current Internet browser without the need for plug-ins or program downloads.

 

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Do I need webmaster or IT skills to create my own virtual tours?

No.  We designed the Virtual Tour Maker program with property professionals like you in mind, so you should find it easy to use.

If you can use a digital camera and download digital images onto your computer you'll have no problem in creating your own virtual tours.

We provide you with sample images so you can get off to a flying start.

We provide free-of-charge, unlimited live-chat, telephone and e-mail support and training.

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How long will it take me to create a Virtual Tour?

In our experience an average user spends a few minutes taking the photos (depending on the number of scenes) and less than that creating and publishing a virtual tour.  Obviously a new user unfamiliar with the program may take slightly longer.

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What technical requirements do I need to create my own Virtual Tours?

To create and display your own virtual tours you need:

  • Virtual Tour Maker software. Download for free
  • A digital camera
  • A Pentium III PC or higher or equivalent using Windows® 2000/NT 4.0 or higher/XP with 256 MB of RAM, 20 MB of available hard drive space
  • Internet access via Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher, or Netscape® Navigator 4.07

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Can I display an unbranded or IDX virtual tour on my MLS?

Subscribed users can use the MLS/IDX version of the virtual tours as is described in the virtual tour linking information in your online profile. This service is only available to subscribed users.

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I get the error message 'Jupload is null or not an object' when trying to publish a virtual tour?

This indicates that you may have a faulty or old version of Java installed. Click here to download the latest version of Java.

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I have upgraded to the latest version of VirtualTourMaker. My existing virtual tours do not appear in the list on the My Profile page – what do I do?

If you would like an existing tour to appear in the new format and to be included in your account profile, just open the VirtualTourMaker program, choose Edit Existing Tour, select the tour from the dropdown list and re-publish it.

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Can I trial the Virtual Tour Maker software without obligation ?

Yes.  You can download and install Virtual Tour Maker to create and display FREE virtual tours. 

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How do I create 360° panoramas and wide angle panning scenes ?

Most people have tried to create a wide angle view by taking sequential overlapping photos of an outdoor scene.

If you've done this yourself, you've already gained some valuable experience in creating 360° panoramas and wide angle views.

To create a 360° panorama you need to take a number of overlapping photos. Virtual Tour Maker will align the images before stitching them. For best results, use a 20% to 50% overlap. 

Shooting the photos in portrait mode is best for small spaces or tall subjects. Although you have to take slightly more photos, this gives you the tallest vertical field-of-view for your 360° panorama or wide angle view.

Images shot in landscape mode are best used for subjects that are a little further away or where a tall, vertical field-of-view is not necessary for your 360° panorama or wide-angle view. Landscape mode requires fewer images.

It is important to position the camera so that you shoot evenly spaced, 20 to 50% overlapping photos on a level plane.  This helps the program to calculate a more precise stitch. Best results are obtained when the camera is perfectly level.

You can manually support your camera to shoot photos for a 360° panorama or wide angle view. You must hold the camera steady and parallel to the ground and avoid vertical tilting when capturing sequential images.

For professional quality results, we recommend that you use our panoramic tripod kit.  This will ensure that you obtain perfectly aligned, level, evenly overlapping, floor-to-ceiling images. more.

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Can my Virtual Tours be linked to other websites and portals?

Yes.  You can link your virtual tours to as many sites as you like including REALTOR.com.

more

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How long do my Virtual Tours stay online?

Free Virtual Tour Maker user's virtual tours are displayed for 90 days from their original date of publication.

Subscribers - Virtual tours created by subscribers remain online while their subscription remains active.

Reassuringly in the event of any misunderstanding a virtual tour created with Virtual Tour Maker can be instantly re-published using the data files automatically stored by the program on the user's computer.

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What do I need to do to own-brand customize my Virtual Tours?

We have provided a banner space at the top of the virtual tour viewer, which you can use to display your company branding. If you wish to do this, please ensure that your banner complies with the following specification.

Tour Type Unit Size Weight Limit Animation Border
  Pixels GIF / JPEG FLASH    
Full Page tour 728 w x 90 h 20k 30k 15 second limit optional
Pop-up tour 435 w x 70 h 20K 30K 15 second limit optional

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Can I use images or other media already stored on my PC in a virtual tour?

The Virtual Tour Maker software allows you to include jpeg, bmp and gif files as well as wmf formats.

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Do I need to buy any special equipment?

No.  So long as you have a digital camera, a PC and a standard Internet connection we can provide everything else that you may need to get started.

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Who takes the pictures?

You do!  It's quick and easy using your existing digital camera and (optionally) our professional panoramic photography equipment  more.

For perfect panoramas you must shoot evenly spaced, level photos. You can do this manually but if you want a professional quality result, a panoramic tripod kit or one of our panoramic brackets will help you capture perfectly aligned, level and evenly overlapping ceiling to floor images.

more

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Will I have to reduce the size of my images to be able to create a virtual tour?

No. The VirtualTourMaker program will automatically reduce your photographs to the optimum size for virtual tour creation..

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Can I make no cost changes/edit my virtual tours?

Yes.  You can make unlimited changes. Add, delete or edit images, floor plans, titles, property descriptions or full written details at any time.

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How can I tell if my tours are being viewed - do you provide traffic data?

We provide you with password protected access to your own Virtual Tour Maker account management facility.

This displays the traffic statistics relating to your virtual tours.

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Nothing happens when I press the publish button in the Virtual Tour Maker

A script blocker is stopping the publishing scripts from starting. Disable the script blocker and this will allow the virtual tours to be published.

The following example describes how to disable the Norton Script blocking:

To disable Norton AntiVirus 2001 Script Blocking:

1. Start Norton AntiVirus.
2. Click Options. If a menu appears when you click Options,
then click Norton AntiVirus. The Options for Norton AntiVirus
dialog box appears.
3. Click Script Blocking.
4. Uncheck "Enable Script Blocking (recommended)."
5. Click OK.
6. Reboot the server after you make this change to the Norton AntiVirus software.

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I have deleted a virtual tour in error from the list in My Profile! Can I recover the tour?

Your virtual tours are stored on the PC which was used to publish the tour. Open the Virtual Tour Maker programme on that PC, click on Edit Existing Tour and select the tour name from the dropdown menu. Publish the tour again and it will re-appear on your My Profile page.

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help! my question is not listed on this page!

Use our Live-chat console to ask us.  Alternatively you can telephone or send your questions by

email

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