When publishing a virtual tour, it is sometimes useful to be able to dynamically set the starting mode (PLAN/MODEL/TOUR) for the tour. Historically, this involved distinct published links with the option set in the tour editor. this method had two main drawbacks: it was using more storage and it required distinct URLs for the same tour. By using the tour URL additional parameters, you can use the same URL and control how the tour starts dynamically, while only using a single published tour.

Procedure

Open the tour sharing option

Look for this icon when hovering over the tour link in the project dashboard


It will open this dialog:

Choose the appropriate options and see the resulting URL

For example,

Clicking Start in tour view will generate: https://tour.metareal.com/apps/player?asset=<tour ID>&starting=tour
Clicking Start in model view will generate: https://tour.metareal.com/apps/player?asset=<tour ID>&starting=model
Clicking Start in floorplan view will generate: https://tour.metareal.com/apps/player?asset=<tour ID>&starting=floorplan

Reference

The additional parameters to the URL are:

starting

Sets the starting mode

Possible values:
tour
model
floorplan

autostart

Automatically start the virtual tour, bypassing the welcome screen

Possible values:
true
false

Recap

By using the additional URL parameters, you can reuse the same published tour link to start in different modes without having to set it up in the tour editor and publish a different version.

Updated on: 08/06/2022