What are the best practices for creating engaging virtual tours using VR?

you know, if you ask people to leave the real world for a virtual one, even just for a minute or so, you are responsible for hospitality and quality. In my experience it is hard to reach the necessary quality with prefab solutions such as Matterport, Panono, Round Me and similar solutions. Individual places need individual design in order to represent them accordingly in virtual worlds. Therefore invite talented teams to individually design, produce and develop the perfect solution, because your clients and stakeholders deserve only the best. The investment will be worth it, because nothing is more valuable than creating powerful "Wow Moments" and that is wha virtual tours are truly capable of. DM me if you want to know more.

In my opinion, the "right platform" is the one on which the client can view the virtual tour without the use of additional technical devices or software. The exception is perhaps exhibitions or events where the use of a virtual reality helmet allows to separate and "pull" the guest from reality and virtually move to the location of the tour. The more thorough is the "separation" the more impressions the tour leaves, if of course it was made specifically for the virtual reality helmet using the full range of technologies.

Here I can add that a virtual tour is just a shell for content. For example, virtual tours based on panoramic photos are best suited for showing real estate. Since when using photos you can make a quality retouching and display the tour in high resolution. For museums are suitable 360 video with the speaker, as well as panoramic photos with superimposed interactive elements and installations of 3d objects.

In my experience, the focus should be on realism with consistency in lighting across the 3D landscape. The models or assets should be optimised for polygons to keep a tab on the frame rate and avoid motion sickness. Animated NPCs and interactive elements can be used to add depth to the experience. User experience should be smooth and comfortable by avoiding sudden rapid movements and designing smooth transitions across screen changes.