AI Panorama – How to Create Virtual Tours using AI

How to Take Advantage of AI to Create Better Virtual Tours

Overview

Explore how AI panorama technology is transforming the creation of 360-degree virtual tours, offering immersive experiences for real estate, photography, and more. Learn the benefits and features of AI panorama stitching, enhancements, and automated workflows. Discover how this technology in collaboration with threesixty.tours can elevate your virtual tour experiences and grow your audience.

AI Panorama: Revolutionizing Virtual Tour Creation

Panoramic photography, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), is revolutionizing the way we capture and experience immersive images. From real estate to tourism, AI panorama technology enables anyone to create high-quality 360-degree virtual tours with ease and precision. As AI continues to streamline processes like panorama stitching, scene enhancement, and automated image adjustments, it has become an essential tool for anyone seeking to create engaging and interactive visuals.

What is AI Panorama?

AI panorama refers to the use of artificial intelligence to create, enhance, and stitch together panoramic images. Panoramic photography traditionally involved capturing multiple overlapping images and then carefully stitching them together to form a seamless 360-degree view. Now, AI algorithms can automatically detect overlaps, blend edges, and even enhance colors and lighting, significantly reducing the manual effort required to create panoramas.

This technology has become particularly useful for creating virtual tours. Real estate agents, photographers, and organizations can use AI panorama solutions to develop high-quality, interactive tours that immerse viewers in a simulated physical environment.

Take the AI panorama below for instance, this was completely created by AI using Skybox AI by Blockadelabs.

Skybox AI by Blockade Labs is a tool for generating AI-powered 360-degree images, often used for virtual worlds, gaming, VR projects, and other creative applications. Utilizing generative AI, Skybox AI creates immersive scenes based on user prompts, allowing users to generate panoramic backgrounds quickly.

Try it out below!

AI Panorama Below 👇 - Try it Out!

The prompt for the above AI panorama was “an aerial image of the statue of liberty in new york from Jersey city looking toward brooklyn during the day and facing the statue of liberty as a starting view”.

While the 360 image is quite powerful, you can still see some errors or limitations. The most prominent one is the sky. The image is not perfect but very close.

Try Skybox AI yourself with different prompts and see what you get. There are many options you can try and these are changing fast with advancements in Artificial intelligence today.

At the time of publication of this article, you still cannot edit the AI panoramas however that will probably change in the coming months.

Pros of Using Skybox AI

Fast and Efficient Panorama Creation

Skybox AI generates 360-degree images with speed, allowing creators to produce stunning panoramic scenes in minutes. This is particularly useful for developers, designers, and VR artists who want a quick way to visualize environments without manual rendering.

Customization with Text Prompts

The platform’s text-based prompt system enables users to describe scenes in detail, and the AI generates panoramas based on these descriptions. This functionality allows for creative freedom and the ability to experiment with various styles and themes without needing advanced design skills.

Variety of Visual Styles

Skybox AI offers a range of artistic styles, from realistic landscapes to stylized illustrations. Users can choose styles that best suit their project needs, whether it’s a hyper-realistic setting for a virtual reality tour or a fantasy-themed world for gaming.

Cost-Effective Solution

Compared to the expense of hiring 3D artists or photographers for custom panoramic backgrounds, Skybox AI offers an affordable alternative, especially for smaller projects or indie developers. This affordability enables more creators to access high-quality assets without a hefty budget.

Integration with VR and AR Projects

Skybox AI’s 360-degree images can be seamlessly integrated into virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) environments, making it an attractive option for VR developers looking for rapid prototyping or immersive background options.

User-Friendly Interface

The Skybox AI platform is straightforward and accessible, even to those without technical skills in 3D rendering or graphic design. Its simplicity makes it easy for beginners to jump in and create high-quality panoramas quickly.

The virtual tour below is an actual authentic (Not AI) virtual tour created and hosted on threesixty.tours. The virtual tour is much more authentic than the AI generated tour above.

How does this virtual tour compare to the AI generated Tour?

Virtual Tour of Luxury Home👇 - Try it Out!

Cons of Using Skybox AI

Limitations in Detail and Precision

While Skybox AI can produce visually impressive backgrounds, it may lack the intricate details and precision that custom-designed or manually-created panoramas offer. For projects requiring high realism or specific textures, Skybox AI’s results may sometimes appear less polished.

AI generated virtual tours cannot be used to showcase a property or hotel for example. This limitation, for now at least, is a big one especially for photographers that want to showcase properties to real estate agents so that they can sell more.

For cases like that threesixty.tours is a great option and can help photographers host virtual tours and increase their revenue.

Dependence on AI Interpretation

Because the panoramas are generated based on AI’s interpretation of text prompts, the final output can vary and may not always match the user’s vision perfectly. Users may need to iterate through multiple prompts to achieve the desired look, which can be time-consuming.

Limited Control over Fine-Tuning

Currently, Skybox AI offers limited options for editing or fine-tuning elements within the generated image. Users looking to adjust specific details or add custom features will need additional software to edit the images manually, reducing the efficiency that Skybox AI aims to provide.

Potential for Inconsistent Quality

AI-generated visuals can sometimes produce inconsistent quality, particularly in complex scenes where fine details or realistic lighting are critical. For high-stakes projects, these inconsistencies may require further post-processing work.

Licensing and Commercial Use Limitations

Users should review the licensing terms, especially for commercial projects, as there may be restrictions depending on Skybox AI’s policies. Certain use cases might require additional permissions or licensing fees, which can complicate commercial applications.

Not Ideal for Complex 3D Environments

Skybox AI’s primary use case is for creating panoramic backgrounds, not complex 3D objects or interactive elements. Developers requiring advanced 3D modeling or interactive assets may need to look for additional tools that provide those specific functionalities.

Skybox AI is an excellent choice for artists, developers, and designers looking for a quick and cost-effective way to create immersive panoramic backgrounds. It shines in applications where speed, style, and ease of use are prioritized over highly customized details and interactive elements.

For projects with more complex requirements, additional editing tools or manual touch-ups may be needed to enhance the AI-generated outputs.

AI Panorama Below 👇 - Try it Out!

How Can You Use AI Panoramas in Your Virtual Tours

Using AI panoramas in virtual tours opens up new creative possibilities for crafting immersive, engaging environments. With AI panorama generation, you can quickly create unique 360-degree images that set the scene for various tour locations, whether depicting realistic spaces or imaginative settings.

On platforms like threesixty.tours, these AI-generated panoramas are easy to incorporate into your virtual tours, allowing you to produce scenes that may be challenging to capture with traditional photography alone.

For example, an interior designer can use AI panoramas to visualize different design styles or layouts, enabling clients to explore multiple aesthetics in one seamless tour.

Once you’ve generated your AI panoramas, you can enhance them on Threesixty tours with interactive features like hotspots, embedded videos, and clickable information points.

Hotspots make it possible to add layers of detail by directing users to specific points of interest, such as product details in a showroom or historical information within a museum setting.

Videos can also be embedded within the panoramas to provide additional context or narrative, making the experience richer and more informative. The editing capabilities on threesixty.tours give you control over how each scene looks and feels, allowing you to fine-tune the panoramas by adjusting lighting, perspective, and color balance to align with the real-world spaces you’re presenting.

Using AI panoramas is also a great option for gaming. If you are looking to create games within virtual reality then you have many prompts you can add to create a complete game made solely from AI panoramas.

Combining real-life panoramas with AI Panoramas

Combining real-life panoramas taken by photographers with AI-generated ones can further elevate the virtual tour experience. This approach enables you to blend real-world authenticity with the flexibility of AI, creating a seamless journey through both actual spaces and digitally created scenes.

For example, a real estate agent might use real-life panoramas for property interiors while using AI to depict imagined outdoor landscaping or future home upgrades.

On Threesixty tours, you can integrate both types of panoramas into one cohesive tour, giving viewers a comprehensive and visually captivating experience that showcases real spaces alongside conceptual environments.

This hybrid approach provides audiences with a richer and more dynamic way to explore virtual spaces. This is one method to improve your virtual tours. There are many.

Be sure to check out our article on 8 Tips to Create Great Virtual Tours.

Virtual Tour of Luxury HoTEL - Try it Out!

Alternative Ways of Creating AI Panoramas

Aside from dedicated panorama tools, you can also create AI panoramas by generating individual images with AI image generators and then stitching them together. Tools like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion allow you to generate highly customized scenes based on text prompts.

By describing elements like landscapes, interiors, or specific themes, you can create a series of overlapping images that capture different parts of a scene. These individual images can then be aligned and combined into a full 360-degree panorama.

For instance, if you want to create a panoramic view of a futuristic cityscape or an enchanted forest, generating segments with AI image software can provide visually unique pieces that can later be merged into a cohesive whole.

Once you have these images, you can use stitching software to assemble them into a single, seamless panorama. Programs like PTGui, Autopano Giga, and Hugin are popular choices for this purpose.

PTGui offers an intuitive interface and strong control over stitching details, ideal for aligning AI-generated images precisely. Autopano Giga uses advanced algorithms to detect overlap points and blend images smoothly, which can be particularly helpful if the AI images have varied lighting or tones.

Hugin, a powerful open-source option, provides extensive customization and manual control, allowing you to correct distortions and fine-tune the panoramic composition.

By combining AI-generated images with stitching software, you can create intricate and visually captivating panoramas for virtual tours, storytelling, or immersive art projects.

Creating panoramas by stitching together AI-generated images is significantly more complex and time-consuming compared to using tools like Skybox AI or threesixty.tours.

With the stitching method, users must first create multiple individual images that capture slightly overlapping sections of the desired panorama.

This requires careful planning to ensure consistency in lighting, angles, and scene composition, as AI generators like DALL-E, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion don’t inherently produce overlapping sections for seamless stitching.

Once the images are generated, the stitching process itself involves using specialized software like PTGui or Hugin to align and blend edges, often requiring manual adjustments to achieve smooth transitions and eliminate visible seams.

By contrast, platforms like Skybox AI in combination with threesixty.tours streamline the entire process; Skybox AI can create a complete 360-degree scene from a single prompt, while threesixty.tours offers built-in tools to edit, enhance, and add interactive elements to panoramas.

This automated, user-friendly approach saves creators valuable time and removes the technical complexity of traditional image stitching.

Final Thoughts

AI panorama technology is transforming the way businesses and professionals create and share immersive content. From real estate agents seeking to engage remote buyers to educational institutions offering virtual campus tours, AI panorama simplifies and enhances the virtual tour creation process. If you’re ready to take your virtual tours to the next level, explore the powerful tools and platforms available today.

Visit threesixty.tours to see how AI panorama can bring your visions to life and engage your audience like never before.