Frequently Asked Questions

General

To create an AR tour you need to create an account. After that you can download the app and start composing your first AR spots.

Wintor is a startup from the Netherlands aiming to create a platform for composing and viewing AR Tours.

Augmented Reality is the process of blending the real world with additional information. This allows the presentation of stories within context.

You can contact us via email at our support email address. Alternatively, you can also use the help desk on the website with the pink chat bubble.

Virtual Reality provides an escape from the current location and places the user in an immersive world. This allows for exciting and highly interactive tours.

We optimize our tooling to provide easy methods for everyone to create their perfect tour. Prior media creation content can be used to author amazing experiences.

Currently we use mobile phones to author and view AR tours. This is supported on iPhones 11 and newer, with a minimum iOS version of 16.

Android phones with Android 11 or later are also supported, if they have the standard google services. A list of supported devices can be found here: Supported devices

Generally we recommend to pick Apple tablets. All of their latest models are compatible and work well with our app. For Apple tablets we currently recommend the following apple options: iPad 10th gen (2022 / A14) or later, iPad Mini 6th gen (2021 / A15) or later, iPad Air 4th gen (2020 / A14) or later, iPad Pro 5th gen (2021 / M1) or later.

Alternatively the following android tablets can also be used: Samsung tab S8, Samsung tab S9, Samsung tab A9, OnePlus Pad, Google Pixel Tablet or the Lenovo Yoga Tab 13. It is quite common for devices to miss some features or have compatibility issues with our app. We recommend testing the device before purchasing to ensure it meets your needs. Supported devices

The metaverse is an idea with many different interpretations. We believe the true metaverse to be the real world augmented with additional digital functionalities.

Media

The Wintor app supports many different types of media. 3D models, immersive videos, pictures and audio segments can all be used.

At the moment our web based app can be used to upload files. In the future this can also be done straight from your mobile device.

Your files will be stored on the Cloudflare CDN. From which the files can only be downloaded as part of the tours. The files can be transcoded to more efficient formats, but the originals will stay available.

We support PNG and JPEG files. These represent the most used image formats.

After your trial ends, your current editing capabilities are disabled. You can still view your tours in the app. When you do decide to get a subscription, you can continue editing your tours.

Videos

We support all major video format types. This is due to the fact that we transcode all files into a format that should be supported by all phones.

Most video pages will be viewed on a phone screen vertically. Ideally your video will match this aspect ratio. So this will be somewhere around 9 by 16 or taller. We will automatically zoom to fit the video correctly.

Unless you have really fast moving imagery in your videos, it is best to use 24 fps or 30 fps. This reduces the download size for the videos while maintaining a smooth experience.

If you already have a greenscreen, then it would be best to film in front of that. This green screen can then be removed using the settings in the app or via the website. If you do not have access to a green screen, then you can use the automatic green screen removal tool after uploading to the website. This can remove any background behind people. However, the result is less accurate than with a person.

In the case that the subject has green clothing, or other green items. Then a blue background can also be used. The color used for the chromakey can be adjusted either via the website or via the app.

When someone opens a portal, they will see the center of the image or video on the opposite side of the door frame.

The maximum resolution is 4096 by 2048. We recommended to use this value in most cases to ensure the best quality.

Wintor aims to be compatible with as many phones as possible. Some phones have limited video decoding capabilities, which can then have a less than optimal experience.

The ideal method to create a virtual guide is to record a person in front of a green screen. If the green screen is well lit and uniform this can be used to remove the background directly in the app. Ideally the video is shot vertically in 1080p. This captures sufficient details for a nice result on phones. If it is not possible to use a green screen, we also have another solution for that. On the web manager, we expose additional options to edit the background settings. One of these options is to let an AI replace the background of any video with a green screen. For this to work optimally, a background with a different background color is still needed. After request a background removal, the result will appear after 5 to 15 minutes.

Some iPhones create videos using HDR. This allows supported software to deliver slightly nicer looking colors. However, we do not support it yet. For now it can be resolved by turning off HDR in the camera settings. To do this, go to Settings > Camera > Record Video, then turn off HDR Video.

3D Models

At the moment we support just GLB files. This is a modern 3D model format in which all textures are bundled in a single file. Furthermore, it has many advanced animation and lighting features. For GLTF files we provide a conversion tool.
There is no hard limit to the complexity of a 3D models. We recommend to keep the number of vertices below 30.000. Easier is to look at the filesize of the model, generally models below 30MB tend to load well. However it is always useful to check your specific models in the app, as there are many different factors impacting performance and visual looks.

To purchase high quality 3D models, you can use the following websites: https://sketchfab.com/, https://www.cgtrader.com/, https://www.turbosquid.com/.

here are two paths you can take to create your own 3D models. The first is to use a 3D scanning software such as Polycam or RealityScan, which can be use to convert camera images to a 3D model. The quality of the results is mostly determined by the capabilities of the device used. The other methods is to create your own models using Blender or any other 3D modelling software.

When creating materials for your 3D models. Make sure that either back face culling is turned of, or that the alpha mode is not set to alpha blended.

Sharing Tours

Publishing a tour so that others can find it on the home page of the app, can be done by contacting our staff.

On the web manager we have a button to share your tour. There we have three options to share your tour. The first option "Link Share", creates a link that can be shared with anyone. This link can be used to open the tour in the app. The second option "User", allows you to share your tour with a specific user. This user will then be able to open the tour in the app and then depending on the settings can also edit this tour. Finally, the third option is "Organization", where you can share the tour with an organization. This will let anyone in the organization open the tour in the app.

All tours can be shared by using the link from the details page of the tour. Anyone with the link can open the tour, until your share limit is reached.

Every tour has a long identifier that can be used to link to it. However, you can also add your own identifiers to the link. For example, if your tour is about the history of the city of Leuven, you can add the identifier "leuven" to the link. This way, the link will be https://wintor.app/?t=leuven. You can add your own identifier by clicking on the " Share" button on the details page of your tour.

If they have the app installed, they will directly get to the tour inside the app. Otherwise, they will first be prompted to install the app. After installing the app, they will still directly go to the tour inside the app.

On the web manager, we show the number of visits to each spot and to the tour in general. These numbers represent each time the AR spot is opened.

Tour Structure

A tour is a collection of different smaller stories in the form of AR spots and pages

An AR spot can be seen as as chapter of the book. Often it is related to all the media to be shown in a single location.

A page is a type of spot without AR capabilities. This can be used as a way to show information without the need to be in a specific location.

A video page is a page that shows a video full screen. This is great for introductions without needing a lot of user interaction.

You can add your own maps by using the map editor in the web manager.

Yes, you can add multiple maps to a tour. This is great for tours that span multiple locations.

You can add markers to the map by using the map editor in the web manager.

Content Management

On the tour page on the web manager, you can click on the "Add spot" button. There you will find the option to look for existing spots. If you use this option you get the same spots in multiple tours. Any changes made in this spot will be reflected in all tours.

If you want to copy a spot and have changes not be reflected in other tours. You can use the duplicate option on the spot edit form.

If you archive a spot from a tour, it will be hidden from visitors and other creators. But it can always be retrieved from the archive.

Temporarily hiding a spot can be done by archiving the spot. When you want to show it again, you can retrieve it from the archive.

On the web manager each tour has their own analytics tab. This page will contain how often a tour is done and also how often each spot is seen.

On the web manager you can select multiple media files and then click on the share or delete button. Selecting multiple items can be done using ctrl or shift when using a computer. Alternatively you can use the selection button found on the bottom left of the screen.

AR Studio

Content is anchored to a location by creation a fingerprint of the environment. This is done completely digitally and does not require alterations to the environment. When opening a spot, the app will find the same fingerprint and place the content in the same location.

Animation of objects can currently be done using stored animations inside of 3D models.

Text can be added via the the studio in the app.

Placing media files in the real world uses gestures optimized for phones and tablets. Some of these can be seen in the following video.

Collaboration is an advanced feature which can be unlocked with a subscription.

We recommend to keep the number of objects in a spot below 20. However this is not a hard limit and dependent on factors such as the complexity of the objects and the device used to view the tour. On top of this, the creator should also keep in consideration the access to WiFi and mobile data.

The best way of previewing your tour is by going to the home screen of the app and making sure you are on "Explore". Then you can open the tour as a visitor. Or if you only want to preview the spot you are currently editing, you can also use the toggle in the top right.

IF you want to edit without having to be at the location, you can now open the spot without scanning. This is very simple to do. Just open the spot like you would do normally. At the bottom of the screen, you will find a button to skip the scanning phase. Afterwards you just need to detect a floor to place the spot.

Appearance of Media

When adding a video or audio file to a spot, you can set the autoplay option in the appearance menu. This will make sure that the media starts playing as soon as the spot is opened. Additionally, you might want the video or audio to loop, so that the playback never ends. You can also hide the controls, if you want the audio to play in the background.

3D scans can be used to occlude other objects in your spots. This can give you great control over the visuals in your spots. To start, first create a 3D scan of the object at the location of your spot. Then you can upload this as any other 3d model. After that you can place it and set it to occlusion only in the appearance menu. This will hide any objects behind this model.

Behavior and interactivity

Behaviors are a way to add interactivity to your tour. This will allow you to create more engaging and immersive experiences.

A behavior is defined by a trigger and one or more actions. A trigger defines when the behavior should occur. An action defines what should happen when the trigger occurs.

Behaviors can be added when editing a spot with the app. The first step is to select a media item in the spot. This will then show the behaviors tab in the bottom bar. From here you can start adding your behaviors. The first step is to define the trigger, after which you can add actions.

Triggers and actions can be used for many different use cases. Some examples are: Playing a video when the user looks at a specific object. Playing a sound when an object is clicked. Showing an object when an image has been looked at. Opening a webpage when clicking on an image.

First add media into the spot that you want to use as a button. Then in the behaviors tab, you can create a on tap trigger. To this on tap trigger you can add a action to open a website.

A point of interest is a shortcut to create interactivity in your spot. Additionally it uses a common image to denote the interactivity to the user. The same and more can be achieved by using the behaviors tab.

Light is an essential part of capturing the most amount of detail with a camera. This detail will then be used to determine where in the world you phone is. Thus providing enough light will help creating spots and visiting them. However, the light in a spot does not have to stay the same, as it does not have an impact on the structure of the environment.

If you want to add effects such as confetti or sparkles, there are two methods that you can use. The first is to create a 3D model with the effects in animations. The second is to use a video with a green background, that can be chroma keyed out.

Shadows are automatically calculated based on an estimation of the light in the environment. These shadows are then projected on the ground and any other surfaces above it. The look of the shadows can change a bit depending on the device used.

Organizations

An organization is a way to create a group of users. This group of users can then be used to share a subscription, or to share media and tours.

An organization can be created if the User has the professional license.

After creating your organization, you can add people by their email address. This can be done for people already on the platform or you can send an invite.

From the Media or Tour page you can sue the share button to share with a list of accessible organizations. This can only be done if the user has the required permissions to share within the Organization.

When a tour is shared with an organizations. All media and spots within the tour are also shared with the organization. This happens to prevent people from not being able to edit tours made by others.

From the web manager, the owner of the organization can remove people from the organization. This can be done on the members tab, and then clicking on the remove button next to the name.

A sub organization is meant for smaller teams within a larger organization. They can have their own shared media and tours and also their own home screen additions. Sub organizations can be created by the owner of the organization.

Organizations can change what their members see on the home screen of the app. This can be done on the "App Home" tab of the organization page. At the moment this consists of multiple rows of tours.

Integrations

After logging into your SketchFab account, you can browse your own library of models. This is enabled by setting the checkbox below the searchbar.

SketchFab is a huge library of models available for download. However, this does not mean all models are suitable for the Wintor Platform. Some models require attribution to the original creator when using, this will be denoted with "CC Attribution".
Furthermore, a lot of models on SketchFab are not optimized well. They will have an enormous amount of triangles and vertices. These models will degrade the performance of the app significantly. Thus we add a warning when trying to add such models.

From the add media menu, you can also select an option to let AI generate images for you. This is done by using a generative AI model.

Kiosk Mode

A lot of places want to save visitors from having to download the app. To achieve this tour creators can lend out devices. We support a kiosk mode in the app so that visitors can not find other content in the app. From this kiosk mode, they will not be able to see any Wintor branding. Continue reading this section to learn more about setting this up.

First log in to the app, with an account that has edit permissions of the tour. This allows you to open the tour as an editor. From here in the top right corner, we have a settings menu. In this settings menu you can find "Enable kiosk mode". This opens a pop up which allows you to set various related settings and a passcode to exit kiosk mode. Finally you can enable kiosk mode. After restarting the app, only your tour can be visited.

If you want to stop kiosk mode in the Wintor app, you need to take the following steps: 1. In the top right tap three times on the hidden button. This will prompt you to enter the passcode. After supplying the correct passcode you can edit any of the kiosk settings, or exit the kiosk mode.

To return to the overview of spots after inactivity, you can enable a setting in the kiosk mode settings menu. This menu can either be accessed via the editor or the hidden menu in kiosk mode.

Under the settings of the iPad itself, Guided Access can be found under Accessibility

If the device is meant to be shared quickly between many different visitors, you might want to reset quiz results and other actions between everytime a spot is opened. The desired behavior can be set via the kiosk mode menu. This menu can either be accessed via the editor or the hidden menu in kiosk mode.

Types of Spots and Pages

We currently have three different types of spots. They all support the same types of content. But they can be used to place content in the real world in a different way. The first option is "Precision Scan", which creates a detailed fingerprint of the environment. The visitor will have to scan for 5 seconds to find this fingerprint again, but content will be placed withing 5 centimeters of the inital creation. The second option is "Quick Scan", which works based on google street view. This works best in streets and cities. Detection of location works within seconds and is really forgiving in location. The content will be placed withing a meter of the original creation of the spot. Lastly, we have the "No scan spot" which does not work with location. This option allows visitors to open spots anywhere.

Depending on the environment, different spot types can work. In urban areas quick scans generally work the fastest. However areas with more vegetation do not always seem to work with quick scans. In this case a precision scan or no scan spot is required.

For indoor spots the precision scan works the best. Especially for spots where the environment does not change too much.

When you open the Wintor app on your phone and are logged in you can open the editor tab from the home screen. From here you can select the tour you want to edit. Then you need to find the spot that you want to add a scan to. Press on the button with the cog wheel above the title of the spot. This allows you to edit various settings for the spot. On the third page of this settings menu, you can add any type of anchor. Select either the quick scan or precision scan, this will start the process of creating a scan. Do not forget to safe after finishing the scan.

From the spot overview on the editor page. You can open the spot settings using the cog wheel on the spot card. From here you can remove your current scan. After, this you can add a new scan or leave the spot as a no scan spot.

Moving a spot can be best done by removing the current scan via the spot settings. After this you can create a new scan and move all the content to the desired location.

When editing a no scan, in the bottom left there is a move button. Using this you can change the starting view points visitors have when opening the spot.

Yes there are ways to adjust how text looks in text pages.
<size=2em>big</size>
<size=3em>bigger</size>
<size=4em>huge</size>
<size=5em>hugest</size>
<color=#ff0000>red text</color>
bold 
italic
underline
<margin=1em>Margin from the side</margin>
<align="center">Centered</align>
You can also square stuff m2
Or subscripttext normal

The above options will create the following text.

Monetization

Wintor tours can be offered to visitors for a price. When this happens, visitors will pay through the Wintor app. This method allows customers to share the tour, but when another device opens the link, they will still need to pay to access the tour. If you try to bypass this system by selling separate QR codes, visitors will be able to freely share the tour.

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