What counts as a 3D walkthrough?
Three things make a 3D walkthrough: it is captured from a real place, rebuilt as one connected 3D space, and explored by the viewer rather than played to them. Capture happens on site, with a dedicated 3D camera or a phone. Software then aligns the photographs and depth readings into a single reconstruction, which opens from a link in a browser.
The names vary. Wikipedia uses “virtual tour” for any simulation of an existing place, whether it is built from video, still images or 360° photographs, and notes that 3D virtual tours can be made by 3D reconstruction. Matterport says its own 3D tours are also called models, spaces and digital twins.
“Walkthrough” also means two other things in property marketing, so ask which one you are being offered:
- A walkthrough video: a filmed walk through the property. One Brisbane photographer, for example, sells a single-take walkthrough video alongside its Matterport tours.
- A rendered walkthrough: a computer-generated visualisation of a building, often one not yet built. Architectural rendering covers walkthroughs as well as still images and animations.
- A captured 3D walkthrough: the subject of this guide, and what Veylet makes.
How is it different from a 360° tour or a video?
The difference is who controls the movement: a 360° tour lets you look around from fixed spots and jump between them, a video moves you along a path someone else chose, and a 3D walkthrough lets you travel through one connected space yourself.
| Format | Built from | How the viewer moves | Sense of layout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D walkthrough | Photographs and depth data, aligned into one 3D space | Chooses where to go and where to look | Rooms connect as they do on site; some platforms add an overview or floor plan |
| 360° photo tour | Separate spherical photographs, each taken from one spot | Looks around each spot, then jumps to the next | Depends on the links between spots and any floor plan supplied |
| Video walkthrough | Continuous footage, edited | Watches; the path is fixed | Depends on how it was filmed and edited |
Matterport’s help article draws the same line. Its 360° views are single spherical photographs: “visitors can see them, but can’t navigate within them”, and they do not join the tour’s dollhouse or floor plan views. The same article defines a video as pre-recorded and non-interactive. Wikipedia makes the same point about video tours: they are linear, and the videographer, not the viewer, decides what is seen.
A 360° tour is not a lesser product; it answers a different question. It shows what a room looks like from a chosen spot. A 3D walkthrough shows how the place fits together.
What does “captured with LiDAR” mean?
It means the device used pulses of light to measure how far away each surface was while it photographed the space, so the rooms were rebuilt from measured depth rather than from photographs alone.
LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes it as a method that uses pulsed laser light to measure distances. Apple added a LiDAR Scanner to iPad Pro in 2020 and describes it as measuring the distance to objects up to five metres away, indoors and outdoors.
The main alternative is photogrammetry, in which software works out depth by comparing overlapping photographs. Matterport’s comparison of the two puts the difference simply: LiDAR measures shape, while photogrammetry calculates it from pictures. Either way, the result depends on the device, how carefully the space was captured and how it was processed, so “captured with LiDAR” describes the method, not the accuracy of the finished walkthrough. How phone capture compares with a dedicated camera is covered in iPhone LiDAR or a dedicated 3D camera?
What can a viewer do, and what can’t they?
A viewer can move through the space at their own pace, look in any direction and see how rooms connect, but they only see what was captured, as it was on the day.
A walkthrough gives visual context, not a guarantee of size or condition, so keep listing photographs and required property information alongside it, as our guide to a first walkthrough recommends. What to clear away before a home is captured is covered in Privacy when a home goes online as a 3D tour.
What a viewer can do
- Move between viewpoints and look around from each one.
- Follow the route between rooms, doorways and levels.
- On some platforms, switch to an overview such as Matterport’s dollhouse view, or take on-screen measurements.
- Open it from a link or a website embed, usually without installing anything.
What a viewer cannot do
- See what the capture did not cover: inside cupboards, behind closed doors, or areas left out for privacy.
- Judge condition reliably. Small defects, noise, smells and the street outside do not come through a screen.
- Know what has changed since the capture. A walkthrough is a snapshot, not a live view.
- Rely on it for dimensions. It is not a measured floor plan or a building survey; where a measurement matters, use a measured plan or a surveyor.
How does Veylet make a walkthrough?
Veylet turns a few minutes of iPhone capture into a reviewed walkthrough: the person who controls a space captures it with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad Pro in the Veylet Capture app, the studio processes and checks it, and the account reviews that exact version before anyone else sees it.
A released walkthrough is shared as a browser link and a website embed and is hosted for twelve months after release. Viewers need no app or account. Our website guide shows how the embed goes on a page, and the offer page sets out the plans.
Not yet proven: Veylet Capture is in TestFlight testing, not on the App Store. The studio’s own captures are still under quality review, and no client-accepted walkthrough exists yet. Veylet has no property-portal integration.