虚拟现实(Virtual reality)可能还不是很主流，但您不必使用 VR 耳机即可享受身临其境的多媒体！您可以在平面屏幕上以及使用各种类型和预算的 VR 耳机 观看360 度照片和视频。(360-degree photos and video)
它们非常有趣，非常适合向人们展示您的度假胜地有多好。然而，您实际上也可以将 360 度媒体用于更严肃的追求，例如构建虚拟旅游。你问什么是虚拟旅游？我们不仅会解释它们的全部内容，还会解释如何构建自己的。
什么是虚拟旅游？
虚拟之旅几乎就是这个名字所暗示的。这是一种让人们体验博物馆、宾馆或其他景点等场所的方式。它在房地产行业非常受欢迎，可以让人们在舒适的家中查看房屋。正如您可能知道的那样，虚拟旅游的应用范围很广。
虚拟游览是使用 360 度照片或视频构建的。照片是迄今为止最受欢迎的选择。此外，他们还可以有音频、旁白、热点和其他增强功能，以丰富体验。
当用户启动虚拟游览时，他们会发现自己位于游览中指定的第一个位置。根据旅游创建者的设置方式，用户可以沿着固定路径移动，在兴趣点之间自由移动，或者可以在多个引导路径之间进行选择。这一切都取决于您正在创建的虚拟旅游类型的最佳选择。
这是您需要的
创建虚拟游览涉及相当冗长的工作流程，其中包含许多移动部件。在创建这些旅行时，不同的人有不同的解决方案。但是，一般来说，您会发现以下内容将成为项目的一部分：
- 360 度相机或合适的“全景头(pano head)”以适应普通相机
- 用于操作相机的智能手机或平板电脑
- 用于缝合、编辑和以其他方式处理照片以使其适合出版的软件
- 虚拟旅游创作工具
- 虚拟旅游托管解决方案
- 附加内容，如旁白、普通照片等。
创作工具和旅游平台通常来自同一个开发人员并集成在一起。在虚拟旅游建设的高端，您可能会发现需要编码知识的高度复杂的创作工具，但在大多数情况下，使用旅游创建工具不需要超过几天的学习和实践。
让我们谈谈相机设备
虚拟游览工具包中最重要的部分当然是您使用的相机。这为您制作的图像的初始质量设定了标准。如今，市场上有许多 360 度相机。它们都不便宜，但有些是针对专业用户的，而另一些则是供个人社交媒体使用的。
专业的 360 度相机是一个不错的选择，因为它们通常是一键式解决方案。换句话说，您将它们放置在所需的位置，应用您想要的设置，然后在触发相机快门之前隐藏在角落。
也可以使用手机相机拍摄这些照片，该软件使用从多个普通快照创建 360 度照片的软件。但是，此类照片的质量和图像拼接仍然不如专业的 360 相机。
建议？Ricoh Theta SC 2被广泛吹捧为专业结果的入门级选项，深受房地产经纪人和小型虚拟旅游创作者的欢迎。然而，理光 Theta Z1(Ricoh Theta Z1)被认为是专业创作者的可靠入门。
有很多 360 度相机，但没有一个是完美的。有些人更擅长摄影，而另一些人则更擅长视频。有些具有良好的相机内拼接，而另一些则需要手动帮助。
这将是您研究的最大部分，将相机的质量和优势与您的预算、需求和能力相匹配。
真正的高端创作者使用DSLR相机以及称为全景头(panoramic head)的特殊相机支架。这使您可以围绕其光学中心旋转相机，然后使用PTGui(PTGui)等软件包将它们拼接在一起。
虚拟旅游编辑工作流程
从 360 度相机拍摄的照片的编辑工作流程很大程度上取决于您使用的相机类型、您使用的设置以及还需要完成多少工作。所以很难提供一个特定的、通用的工作流程。但是，有一些非常典型的一般步骤：
- 使用正确的设置和照明拍摄照片
- 将其导入您的编辑软件
- 校正(Correct)颜色、消除色差、修复拼接问题、移除三脚架等。
- 将最终图像导出(Export)到您的虚拟旅游创作工具中
- 使用创作工具从您的图像和其他内容构建导览
- 在选择的托管平台上发布导览
这显然只是一个粗略而广泛的概述，但这确实涵盖了虚拟旅游创建过程中的基本步骤。
寻找合适的创作(Right Authoring)和托管平台(Hosting Platform)
在制作和发布您的虚拟旅游时，有很多选择。有些提供免费帐户等级，而另一些则非常昂贵。
Kuula是一个很好的起点，因为他们有一个基本(Basic)的免费层来帮助您入门。如果您想拥有热点或自定义品牌等功能，您可以使用这个平台创作和发布您的旅行，并在以后升级到付费帐户。
还有像Metareal这样的服务，可以为您的 360 度照片提供惊人的 3D 映射能力。这需要一些练习和学习，但您可以将您的 360 度照片变成真正的 3D 空间，也可以将其视为 3D“玩具屋”，将多个房间连接成一个有凝聚力的建筑或建筑部分。
选择取决于您需要什么、愿意支付多少以及哪个平台提供了正确的功能和容量组合。
很棒的在线资源
以上信息只是虚拟游览过程的概述。如果您对制作它们感兴趣，则必须对它们创作的各个方面进行更多研究。幸运的是，网络上有一些很棒的资源专门针对这个主题。
我们可以轻松地推荐访问Ben Claremont的(Ben Claremont)YouTube频道，他是国际公认的 360 度摄影和虚拟旅游专家。Ben还在他自己的网站上出售课程，但他的频道上有足够多的免费信息让您入门。
您还应该查看360 Rumors，这是一个完全致力于 360 度摄像头技术和 VR 等相关内容的博客。
虚拟旅游：爱好还是职业？
制作有趣的虚拟旅游是向社区提供信息、记录您最喜欢的景点并了解创建 360 度内容的复杂性的好方法。
然而，作为一个虚拟旅游创作者也可以是一个可行的职业或巨大的第二收入。当您深入研究艺术形式时，这一点值得牢记。您可能不仅获得了一个很酷的新爱好，而且还进入了您的下一个职业！
What Is A Virtual Tour And How Do You Make One?
Virtual reality might not be quite mainstream yet, but you don’t have to use a VR headset to enjoy immersive multimedia! You can watch 360-degree photos and video on a flat screen as well as with VR headsets of every type and budget.
They’re a lot of fun and perfect to show people how nice your vacation spot was. Yet, you can actually use 360-degree media for more serious pursuits as well, such as building virtual tours. What is a virtual tour you ask? We’ll not only explain what they’re all about, but how you can build your own.
What Is a Virtual Tour?
A virtual tour is pretty much what the name implies. It’s a way to let people experience a place such as a museum, guest house or other point of interest. It’s extremely popular in the real estate industry as a way to let people view homes from the comfort of their home. As you can probably tell, the scope of application for virtual tours is wide.
Virtual tours are built using either 360-degree photos or videos. Photos are by far the most popular choice. In addition, they can have audio, narration, hotspots and other enhancements to enrich the experience.
When a user starts up a virtual tour, they’ll find themselves in the first spot specified in the tour. Depending on how the tour creator sets things up, the user can then move along a fixed path, move freely between points of interest, or can choose between multiple guided paths. It all depends on what’s best for the type of virtual tour you’re creating.
Here’s What You’ll Need
Creating a virtual tour involves a fairly lengthy workflow with lots of moving parts. Different people have different solutions when creating these tours. However, in general, you’ll find that the following are going to be part of the project:
- A 360-degree camera or suitable “pano head” to adapt a regular camera
- A smartphone or tablet to operate the camera
- Software to stitch, edit and otherwise process the photos to make them suitable for publication
- A virtual tour authoring tool
- A virtual tour hosting solution
- Additional content such as narration, normal photos, etc.
More often than not, the authoring tool and tour platform come from the same developer and are integrated. At the high end of virtual tour construction, you may find highly-complex authoring tools that require coding knowledge, but for the most part using tour creation tools doesn’t require more than a few days of learning and practice.
Let’s Talk Camera Equipment
The most important part of the virtual tour toolkit is of course the camera you use. This sets the bar for the initial quality of the images you produce. There are many 360-degree cameras on the market these days. None of them are cheap, but some are aimed at professional users while others are meant for personal social media use.
Specialized 360-degree cameras are a good option because they are generally a one-button solution. In other words you place them in the desired spot, apply the settings you want and then go hide around a corner before triggering the camera shutter.
It’s also possible to take these photos using a phone camera using software that creates a 360-degree photo from multiple normal snapshots. However, the quality and image stitching of such photos is still inferior to specialized 360-cameras.
Recommendations? The Ricoh Theta SC 2 is widely touted as the entry level option for professional results and is popular with real estate agents and small virtual tour creators. However, the Ricoh Theta Z1 is considered the solid entry for professional creators.
There are a lot of 360-degree cameras and none of them are perfect. Some are better at photography and others at video. Some have good in-camera stitching, while others need manual help.
This is going to be the biggest part of your research, matching the quality and strengths of a camera to your budget, needs and ability.
Truly high-end creators use DSLR cameras along with a special camera mount known as a panoramic head. This allows you to rotate your camera around its optical center and then use a software package such as PTGui to stitch it all together.
Virtual Tour Editing Workflow
The editing workflow for the photos that come out of your 360-degree camera depend a lot on the type of camera you use, what settings you use and how much still needs to be done. So it’s hard to provide a specific, universal workflow. However, there are some general steps that are pretty typical:
- Take the photo using the right settings and lighting
- Import it into your editing software
- Correct color, remove chromatic aberration, fix stitching issues, remove the tripod, etc.
- Export the final image into your virtual tour authoring tool
- Build the tour from your images and other content using the authoring tool
- Publish the tour on the hosting platform of choice
This is obviously just a crude and broad overview, but this does cover the essential steps in the virtual tour creation process.
Finding the Right Authoring and Hosting Platform
There are plenty of choices when it comes to making and publishing your virtual tour. Some offer free account tiers and others are quite expensive.
Kuula is a great place to start, since they have a Basic free tier to get you started. You can both author and publish your tour using this one platform and upgrade to a paid account later if you want to have features such as hotspots or custom branding.
There are also services like Metareal with amazing 3D mapping abilities for your 360-degree photos. It takes some practice and study, but you can turn your 360-degree photo into a true 3D space, which can also be viewed as a 3D “dollhouse”, linking multiple rooms together into a cohesive building or building section.
The choice depends on what you need, how much you’re willing to pay and which platform offers the right mix of features and capacity.
Great Online Resources
The information above is just an overview of the virtual tour process. If you’re interested in making them, you’ll have to do a little more research on each aspect of their creation. Luckily there are some fantastic resources on the web that specialize in just this topic.
We can easily recommend visiting the YouTube channel of Ben Claremont, an internationally recognized expert in 360 photography and virtual tours. Ben also sells courses on his own site, but there’s more than enough free info on his channel to get you started.
You should also check out 360 Rumors, which is a blog completely dedicated to 360-camera technology and related stuff like VR.
Virtual Tours: Hobby Or Career?
Making virtual tours for fun is a great way to give to the community, document your favorite spots and learn about the intricacies of creating 360-degree content.
However, being a virtual tour creator can also be a viable career or a great second income. That’s worth keeping in mind as you dig deeper into the artform. You might not just be getting a cool new hobby, but entering your next career!
