One thing that has been frequently suggested is the ability to connect Mapwing virtual tours together. Right now, Mapwing Creator Pro can build a tour with up to 1000 points. That’s pretty substantial, and I’m not aware of any user reaching that limit. However, a virtual tour of that size can become difficult to manage. For example, if a section of it is updated, the entire virtual tour must be uploaded to the web server.

Enabling Mapwing tours to be linked together solves this problem along with several others. First, it enables one to build a tour of an infinite size, everything from a home to an entire city...maybe even larger! Second, it helps make tours more modular and maintainable. For instance, Redbug built a tour of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. We have also shot several tours of buildings in Dillsburg. By linking tours together, we can keep these as separate files while maintaining a singular virtual tour experience.

In order to accomplish tour linking, we will be adding a new type of hotspot. The Tour Hotspot will enable a user to specify a region on a view that, when clicked, will load another Mapwing tour. The hotspot will require users to specify what tour file is being linked as well as a startup point, view direction, and map zoom level for the linked tour.

Tour linking will come with an added bonus - hyperlinking directly into a virtual tour. What exactly does this mean? Well, consider how Google Maps enables users to get a URL directly to a location. Mapwing tours will soon have a similar behavior. Using Mapwing Web Viewer, content creators and end users will be able to retrieve a URL that describes their present location in the tour.

This is going to allow Mapwing users to do some pretty amazing things. One of the most notable is integrating their virtual tours into services like Google Earth. Using Google Earth, people are already uploading 3D exteriors for specific buildings on the planet’s surface. Many of these are done using an application called Sketchup. Soon, they will be able to shoot first-person virtual tours for their locations. Then link to these from Google Earth. This way someone can zoom in and see a building modeled 3D, then click on it to explore a walkthrough Mapwing tour of the location. Pretty cool, huh?

We think so too.