INSCAPE APARTMENT VISITS: 3D interactive Walkthroughs for Marketing

Application Domain

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3D interactive visits of apartments represent a typical use of INSCAPE in the Marketing and Communication domain.

Interactive real-estate visits enable potential clients (people who may be interested in buying or renting an apartment) to get a precise idea of what the spaces look like, while using a very natural and entertaining communication media. There are several advantages of this technique for the real-estate owners as well. They can provide visits of the apartments even before they are built, thereby improving the chance of renting them quickly. Also, because virtual visits give a very realistic idea of the real thing, they help filter uninterested customers at an early stage, hence saving the owners and agencies’ time.

Story Outline

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The scenario will present a set of apartments which can be visited interactively in 3D, and also the apartment building and its neighbourhood. We will also provide a simple interface to let the visitor navigate between these various sections within the story.

The Presentation section

In this section, the visitor will see an introduction about the situation of the object to rent. This will be done through texts, images and an introductory animation. Textual menus will give access to sub-sections with information on the neighbourhoods as well as the building commodities.

The Apartments section

Choosing the Apartments section will let the user select 3 apartments to visit. Each apartment is then displayed in 3D and allows walking around and getting basic information about each room. There is also the possibility to see each apartment with and without furniture. A small plan view will display the visitor’s position and enable jumping to any location within the apartment.

Highlighted INSCAPE Features

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In this scenario, we will be using many INSCAPE core features, most of them related to the Story Editor, Stage Editor and to using code snippets. The following capabilities will be specifically emphasised in this story:

Combining images, video and multiple 3D zones in a single story

Implementing story transitions through clickable menus

Showing / hiding objects on the fly based on user input

Setting up 3D lights

3D first-person walkthrough driven by mouse and keyboard

Using a clickable 3D “map view” to position a camera in a main 3D view.

Displaying specific information based on the spots clicked in the scene

Constraining 3D first-person navigation to predefined areas (i.e. the apartments’ rooms)