3DVT refers to the street-level navigation of virtual reality

Virtual reality

Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...

 environments for purposes of exploring physical places in space and time without physically traveling there. 3DVT invokes a virtual tour

Virtual Tour

A virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of video images. They also may use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text....

 that employs usage of 3D

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

 models

3D modeling

In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...

 in addition to 2D

2D computer graphics

2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...

 panoramic images

Panoramic photography

Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. The term has also been applied to a photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio...

, a sequence of hyperlink

Hyperlink

In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...

ed still or video images, and/or image-based models

Image-Based Modeling And Rendering

In computer graphics and computer vision, image-based modeling and rendering methods rely on a set of two-dimensional images of a scene to generate a three-dimensional model and then render some novel views of this scene....

 of the real location and multimedia support elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text. As opposed to actual tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

, 3DVT is accessed on a computer (typically over the Internet). It does not require travel, but ideally, 3DVT viewing evokes an experience of moving through the represented 3D space.

Virtual tours

Virtual tours can be especially useful for universities and in the real-estate industry, looking to attract prospective students and tenants/buyers, respectively, eliminating for the consumer the cost of travel to numerous individual locations. For these kind of applications, typically involving on-line maps, 3DVT can be designed and constructed from 3D interactive mapping technologies, such as Google Earth or Virtual Earth or X3D Earth.

Virtual tours can also allow tourists to see and explore locations to assess whether they would like to visit a region, city or specific site prior to physically travelling there. The Moroccan National Tourist Office http://www.visitmorocco.com/index.php/eng recently launched a campaign to allow tourists to “Visit Marrakech from the comfort of [their] seat”.. The campaign virtually recreated historical sites and fashionable areas in Marrakech to encourage a more diverse audience to come and see the city for themselves.

Historical virtual tourism

Additionally, historical virtual tourism platforms, such as Heritage Key

Heritage Key

Heritage Key is a content-orientated online community aimed at those with an interest in history and culture. It features both media resources and an interactive experience....

, can allow travellers to not simply see historic sites as they are now, but to see them at any point in history.