Hello everyone and happy mid-winter from WP3D Models! We’ve been working on this update for some time now and are very pleased to have this shipped off and in your hands. We’ve made some fundamental changes to how “Models” are defined withing WP3D and this deeper rewrite will allow us to make some exciting new changes in coming versions.
Be sure to read through the items below to make sure you aren’t missing out on a new feature that will benefit you or your business in 2017.
WP3D Models Version 2.2 Updates:
- NEW : Static Image (Photography Only) Models
Considering that many of our customers came to Matterport from more traditional photography careers, it isn’t surprising that we’ve received so many requests for an “Image Only” Model. So, we listened, and now you can create a Model with all the WP3D-based bells/whistles but built around a single static image, and doesn’t REQUIRE a Matterport Tour. - NEW : Zoom Gallery
A new Gallery option has been requested several times in recent months and we’ve now delivered! Our goal was to improve how “portrait” oriented images were displayed as well as remove any auto-cropping that was/is necessary with the original “Standard Gallery”. Starting now, you can choose whichever Gallery option you like best, on a per-Model basis.* - NEW : Enhanced Schema Data
After a couple customers inquired we decided to dig in and get additional SEO-rich markup added. Now, every Model that is published via WP3D comes bundled with very accurate Schema data. This “structured data” format now lives in the code of your WP3D-generated pages and silently boosts your SEO! More info on Schema data, straight from Google » - NEW : VR Collections Builder
Like most of our updates, this one is also inspired by customer feedback. Now, with the use of a new WP3D shorcode attribute, you can easily generate links to your very own “VR Collections”. This feature is described by Matterport here » - NEW : Overlay Logo Select
It was pointed out to us that, in some cases, it would be nice to (on the “Skinned” view) be able to show your own Company (set in “Settings”) logo as the “Overlay” and yet still provide your client with their branding in the header. Done. 🙂 - NEW : Agent Logo & More Info
We’ve heard that certain MLS’s in the US (and elsewhere) sometimes require that an Agent has their brokerage logo/info appear next to the Agent’s name. Now you can do just that, or use these new fields to otherwise supplement Agent data. - NEW : Matterport Parameters
In the past few months, Matterport has released several new Parameters and now each/every one of them can be controlled via WP3D. We think it is especially cool to be able to manage every sophisticated customization that Matterport offers with nothing more than some simple checkboxes and text/number fields. - NEW : BETA Showcase Language
Somewhat silently, Matterport has released Showcase label translations for both Spanish & French. While it is entirely possible that this functionality could change or disappear, we’ve enabled the ability for you to set one of these custom languages for each of you Models, if you prefer.** - NEW : Global Parameters
We feel that certain options need “global” settings (that can still be overridden per-Model) to save the headache of setting the same thing over and over. Here are the latest “Global Options” additions: Global Quickstart, Force “No Links”, Global Guided Tour Delay, Global Default Highlight Time, BETA Global Showcase Language. - FIX : Quickstart + Force Help
Well, we tried to help everyone out with our last release and apply Matterport’s “quickstart” option dynamically, wherever possible. This worked well until we (and many of you) realized that one couldn’t use both the “Force Help” option alongside “Quickstart”. So, we’ve polished this up and “Quickstart” is disabled wherever “Force Help” is enabled. - FIX : Avada Namespacing
Wow, a lot of you guys use the Avada theme! We learned this after discovering that a recent Avada update created quite a bug with WP3D Models. Both parties are somewhat to blame here and the fix was relatively easy. We sent out a number of “patched” versions in recent weeks, and the same permanent fix has been applied here. - FIX : Overlay Logo Placement
A few versions ago, we introduced the ability to present your own logo overlaid atop the running Matterport Showcase. This has been a huge hit, but we’re always needing to pay attention to other Matterport-specific UI elements that are being moved around over time. We now look for the MP Tour thumbnails and then adjust the overlay logo placement accordingly. - FIX : Updated FontAwesome
We’re now running the latest version of FontAwesome which includes new icons that work great for “Bathrooms” and “Bedrooms”. There’s something of an easter egg in WP3D Models that allows for the use of these icons in your “Property Info” details. Contact Us for more information on how to do this (also letting us know that you read this far). - FIX : Agent Subtitle
We fixed a little layout bug that sometimes left the Agent subtitle content covered up a bit. Everyone can now sleep easier.
* Note that for Models with existing Galleries, you can easily switch to the new “Zoom Gallery” option, but you may want to either re-upload those existing Gallery images, or consider using a plugin to “re-generate” your site’s stored image sizes. In this new version of WP3D Models, we’ve introduced a new (auto generated) image size that works perfectly with the “Zoom Gallery”, but didn’t exist before. We’ve had great luck using the plugin Regenerate Thumbnails for this task.
** While Matterport currently only offers translations in Spanish & French (again, BETA support), WP3D Models labels can be translated into several different languages: Spanish, French, Chinese, Slovak, & Persian. Please Contact Us if you’d like help create a translation file for language we do not yet support.