Absolute confusion over photo spheres, virtual tours and lack of guidance

[DeanR]

Hello everyone, 

I'm in the process of launching a 360 degree production company and I have a few questions about the process in regards to getting 'certified' for the index, among others. So as I understand it, you need to take 50 photo-spheres to the required quality etc and then upload and tag them all on Google maps and then once approved you get the option to turn on you're 'for hire'. 

So firstly: I have my 50 photo-spheres (and then some!), but for some reason they get uploaded upside down and then they're incredibly difficult to move around on, ending up going side ways and almost working on a 'track' to view. I've used a Samsung Gear 360 camera with the photos stitched together to make a panorama with the photo meeting all fields of requirement, so does anyone have any idea why this happens? As well as this, Google uploads some the correct way round but slightly wonky which makes us look massively unprofessional (despite the floor being flat and the tripod etc being balanced!).

Secondly: I can't seem to find information any where about how to make and upload Google Virtual Tours - we want to offer this services to businesses. I assumed that once certified that this information would present itself, but can anyone confirm this? And then, are we given the tools by Google to make the tour? How do we then upload them? Are they available offline to show clients? We do have Panotour Pro software to make tours if not, it's just very confusing with the one page Google offers not having much information! 

Thirdly: And this one is more for Google - why on earth is there a complete lack of information about this? It seems to be all incoherent endless pages with not much on them to wade through before finding anything useful? I ended up Tweeting Google Maps to ask for help and instead got a reply from a helpful fan whom pointed me here.

Thanks in advance for your help, this has been quite frustrating! 

[LucioV · Accepted solution]

Hi @DeanR i will try to address all your questions: i'm a Google SV|T photographer since 2013, and now i'm embracing this new "revolution".

1) wrong orientation: occurred also to me, and using Samsung Gear 360 from Google loan program. I've stitched the two frame using ptgui, on my desktop, then i've uploaded to maps using Google Maps, and as result they are unusable. I think that metadata on orientation (?) are being loste during this workflow. You should try stitching on camera, using a supported device as a Samsung Galaxy S7. I will not make other tests, because for low budget projects i have a Ricoh Theta S, that connects seamless with my Android or iOS device, without any orientation issue. This tour is done with Theta and connected on SV App: https://goo.gl/maps/ysiZXpisrwL2

2) Virtual tours, now, are to be created using SV App on your tablet/smartphone. You will have to upload to maps, get approved, blur relevant informations, select all in your profile tab, and select Connect from the menu. This is the hard way to do. With the API release, and the old Street View Editor dismission, many third party players developed their own "moderators" to create and publish tours. The first in time is gothru.co ; i tried to upload to maps a VT and it's pretty straighgtforward process, look at this example: https://goo.gl/maps/b1g6cfVQVuR2 created with DSLR, Fisheye, and spherical head, connected and published via Gothru

3) You are approaching this program while is deeply changing, and Local Guides and SVT programs are converging on same platform. This is the reason about lack of information.

Hope it helps!

[DeanR]

Hi LucioV, 

Thanks for your prompt reply, I actually was using a Samsung Galaxy S7 to stitch these photos and this happened 😕 

Thanks very much for this information, I would hope that this gets published soon! 

[Csaba]

Hi @DeanR, 

Lucio is an extremely experienced photo sphere maker so indeed trust him. 

Now back to the workflow: I also have a Gear 360 and Galaxy S7 (Edge) combo but I have never ever experienced this problem. Neither when sharing (uploading) the photo spheres directly from the SV App nor if I first upload them to Google Photos and add them to the place in Maps. This is very odd. In my "signature" field you can go to my contributions and discover all the photos - including 360 photos - to see how they work normally. 

I'll subscribe to this topic to get updates. Until then, I will try to put together a simple video tutorial on connecting the spheres (I have been planning this for a while but lately I have only had rather complex "projects" with 20 something spheres and it would be extra boring). 

Can you describe your workflow in details? What I usually do is: 

1. Have geotagging in the SV App turned "On". 
2. Use the Gear 360's own software to shoot the photos (not the SV App itself).
3. Save the photos onto my phone from the Gear 360 App (it also does the stitching on the fly in this step)
4. In the SV App I import the photos, ass a listing and upload them (adding the listing can be done in the next step, too).
5. Once uploaded, I select all and from the menu, I select "Move and connect..." (or similar - I do not have my phone set to English at the moment). 

Instead of step 4 above, I can also upload the spheres to Google Maps directly or first to Google Photos and add to the map listing from there. They'll appear in the SV App for moving and connecting afterwards.

[PatricL]

I see that a few of your questions are still unanswered.

Let's see if we can fix that part.

It's required to have 50 approved spheres, not only 50 or more spheres.

Don't think that 50 spheres that are upside down and hard to navigate in will be approved.

When you reach 50 approved spheres you will get a mail with a form.

Fill it out and in a few weeks you're in the index of approved street view photographers.

Download and install google street view on your phone.

Open it and slide the XX result to the left.

Now you will see your info, tap on stats to see how many approved spheres you got.

This is also the tool you will use to make tours with.

You don't need to be approved by google to work and sell VT.

You have access to all tools you need right now.

Upload tours, as far as I know, you don't upload tours, you make them in street view app, after you uploaded your pictures.

You can move dots around, set orientation on them and connect them to a tour.

To make it even more complicated, we just got a new street view app last month, and in a few days they will launch next version, as all old tools will expire in the end of this month.

As I understand it, you haven't managed to make one single tour yet?

A good tool for tours are a tablet with a mouse or a phone with a stylus.

Can be a bit tricky to adjust those small dots with your fingers.

But who knows how next editing tool will look like and require.

If you're going to do this professionally, I would suggest to get a DSLR kit, as a GEAR360 isn't that good, but can be used in low budget tours.

Most visible problems you will see, if spheres taken inside when sun is shining through a window, or very uneven light.

A 360 snapper can't really cope in situations like that. You can time it and wait for the golden hour, but it gives you very few hours to work per day.

If you have even light, they usually preform pretty well and fast.

Information and google isn't two things that go hand in hand.

It's up to you to figure things out yourself, with a little help from forums and YouTube.

Mayor updates can be a pain in the ....

It put a hold on your production for a few days, until you figured it out again.