Using Virtual tours inside Storyline

Jan 02, 2013

Happy New Year everyone!

For a training module, we want to integrate virtual tours into Storyline like the sample shown here: http://dev.keypointlearn.com/xcl09_CAC/BrainSafe/VTest/ . Of course, I can call the virtual tour (combination of HTML, Javascript and a panoramic image) as a web object from within Storyline …no problem. Users can pan around the scene and even click on hotspots (there are two blue sample hotspots close to the camera on the ice) But what we really want to achieve is this:

When a user clicks one of the hotspots, a variable should be passed on FROM the virtual tour TO Storyline, which can be used INSIDE SToryline as a score or for branching.

I wonder if you know of someone who has used virtual tours with Storyline and could shed some light on the communications between the virtual tour element and Storyline.

Any suggestions/contacts would be very much appreciated!

20 Replies

Michael Hinze
Author

11 years ago02/12/13 at 8:07 am (UTC)

It took some research, but I answered my own question. If anyone is interested, here is a brief description how I now use interactive 360 degree tours within Storyline: http://wp.me/p2BoUf-5g.

Or you can jump right to a sample here: http://dev.keypointlearn.com/xcl71_SL/VT/

Christine Hendrickson
Staff

11 years ago02/12/13 at 10:08 am (UTC)

Hi Michael,

Sorry for the delay in response! Very cool, though, I love the sample. Great job

Thanks very much for sharing this!

Michael Hinze
Author

11 years ago02/12/13 at 10:22 am (UTC)

Hi Christine,

no problem. I didn't really expect you to answer a question that is not directly related to a Storyline issue! Anyway, I did fingure it out and learnt about Cookies and JavaScript along the way.

Thanks,

Michael

Alexandros Anoyatis

almost 11 years ago05/02/13 at 1:57 pm (UTC)

Hey Michel,

Quick question out of curiosity : In terms of features, do you find Tourweaver superior to Pano2VR ?

Thanks,
Alex

Michael Hinze
Author

almost 11 years ago05/05/13 at 6:06 pm (UTC)

Hi Alex, sorry for the late response, I was away for a few days. The photographer I had worked with preferred TourWeaver, so I didn't spent too much time comparing the two. At first glance both tools seemed to provide comparable features.

Steve Flowers

almost 11 years ago05/05/13 at 6:27 pm (UTC)

Hey, Michael -

Pretty neat solution. Did you try to access the player via a parent reference? If you're on the same domain (which you'd have to be to use the Cookie solution, parent reference should get you out of the iFrame of the WebObject.

var player=parent.GetPlayer();

player.SetVar("mySLVariable",somethingFromJavaScript);

Michael Hinze
Author

almost 11 years ago05/06/13 at 8:29 am (UTC)

Hi Steve, yes once I got the hang of it, that's exactly how I got the cookie values back into Storyline variables.

Adebowale Aduloju

8 years ago04/13/16 at 11:16 am (UTC)

Hi Michael, I would like to create a virtual tour for my company, but the challenge is that the html output from Pano2vr did not work in storyline. Is there a way you can help out with this?

8 years ago04/13/16 at 12:01 pm (UTC)

Adebowale Aduloju

Hi Michael, I would like to create a virtual tour for my company, but the challenge is that the html output from Pano2vr did not work in storyline. Is there a way you can help out with this?

I used a different tool (TourWeaver) and displayed the published content in a Storyline webobject. I would imagine the process to be the same with Pano2vr. If your tour works in a browser window then it should work in a Storyline webobject.

8 years ago04/13/16 at 1:29 pm (UTC)

Michael Hinze

If your tour works in a browser window then it should work in a Storyline webobject.

You're very right, I realised that the pano2vr created a localhost itself before it can launch the panorama view in a browser window.

I will try the Tourweaver as suggested

Thanks..

8 years ago04/13/16 at 1:40 pm (UTC)

Adebowale Aduloju

Michael Hinze

If your tour works in a browser window then it should work in a Storyline webobject.

You're very right, I realised that the pano2vr created a localhost itself before it can launch the panorama view in a browser window.

I will try the Tourweaver as suggested

Thanks..

Here is a Pano2vr tour (from their website) running in a Storyline webobject.

8 years ago04/14/16 at 7:37 am (UTC)

Michael Hinze
Here is a Pano2vr tour (from their website) running in a Storyline webobject.

Wow, this is awesome, could you please run me through each step you took to create this?

Thank you

Michael Hinze
Author

8 years ago04/14/16 at 11:54 am (UTC)

See attached the .story file. There is nothing to it:

1. Find the URL of a tour (you would replace this URL with a link to your tour)

2. Add a webobject to a SL project and link it to the URL

3. Publish and upload to server.

Pano2vr.story

Adebowale Aduloju

8 years ago04/14/16 at 3:34 pm (UTC)

You are the best Michael..

Thank you

Nick Barr

over 7 years ago10/21/16 at 5:01 pm (UTC)

Hi Michael, all this is really useful but I am still struggling with it a little. I have take a photo with my Gear 360 cam, I have managed to import it into tourweaver, but now I am a bit stuck. Is it possible for hotspots on the image to pop up layers in Storyline or does it all have to be built into Tourweaver? Also, as I have never used Javascript, could you give me a little more guidance on that part please? Any help would be hugely appreciated, my boss really wants me to incorporate these images into a health and safety eLearning.

Michael Hinze
Author

over 7 years ago10/21/16 at 5:09 pm (UTC)

It's been a long time since I last used Tourweaver. Technically, it would be possible to trigger Storyline layers from within the published Tourweaver file. That does require Javascript and can get complicated quickly. I would add the popups in the Tourweaver file instead.

over 7 years ago10/21/16 at 5:20 pm (UTC)

Thanks Michael. That was a super quick response! I found TW much less user friendly than Pano2vr so having a go with that right now. I guess I'm gonna have to work out the JS stuff. Any chance you'd share the story file of the Ice Rink eLearning? Cheers.

Michael Hinze
Author

over 7 years ago10/21/16 at 5:42 pm (UTC)

Sorry, I can't share the virtual tour file and without it the Storyline file is useless. Here is a brief blog post with some info on the Javascript snippet to pass the 'click values' from the published tour into Storyline via a cookie. This was specific to this tour file (and a project requirement). There should be a way to pass click info from the tour file DIRECTLY into Storyline variables (without using a cookie).

over 6 years ago08/22/17 at 5:01 pm (UTC)

Hi,

I am creating a virtual tour of a facility as well. I noticed that the rooms blur out slightly as you change screens. Did you program it this way using the zoom feature?

Norma