CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Mark Gash aims a 360° crossbow at H5P as he tests out 3DVista

A good few years ago, I received a free Samsung Gear VR headset with my latest S7 Galaxy phone (oooooo…). It was a clever marketing ploy to try and rush the general public to adopt virtual reality tech but it didn’t really take off, mainly because in 2017 nobody could make a good use case for it.

Fast forward 8 years, and despite a pandemic forcing more of our daily lives online, and the best efforts of Meta and Apple, I would argue that the common man/woman/non-binary remains apathetic to the idea of strapping on a headset, beyond the amusement factor of watching your gran ride a dinosaur-themed rollercoaster after a couple of Christmas brandies.

Despite all that, and because I work in e-learning, curiosity got the better of me and I began experimenting with creating VR content just as H5P brought out the Virtual Tour content type. As a browser-based tool it was ace - suddenly I could overlay 360° images with questions, text, video pop-ups and audio. But beyond these basics, there was nothing to really hook you in to the virtual experience. H5P content types have always carried a whiff of unfinished student project about them and the Virtual Tour was no different. My interest in VR waned.

Recently however, we won a tender that called for learners to explore huge swathes of British forests, clicking things, scoring points, collecting items and branching out (get it?) into different areas. We specced it up based on H5P plus layers of additional CSS whizz-bang to fill any gaps that the software couldn’t cover. But before I dusted off my old H5P password, I decided to see if there was anything else that could do what we wanted out of the box. And that’s when I discovered 3DVista.

Initially developed for real estate agents to easily create slick tours of properties they had on the market, 3DVista was an actual machineinstalled bit of kit. Their website showed demos of sniper shooting games and hospital learning environments that blew away the point-and-click auto repair shop on H5P’s showreel. Whereas I was always making excuses and workarounds for H5P’s lack of features, with 3DVista, there seemed to be an enormous leap in the possibilities for creating engaging e-learning.

Before I threw a client project at it, I decided to test it, as any decent e-learning creative does, by creating an interactive monster-hunting game. And this is what I found…

Professional Capabilities

If you’re used to the H5P way of creating 360° tours then I’m afraid you’re in for a shock - switching to 3DVista drops you into an entirely new creative space, giving you better control over how your virtual world looks, feels, and behaves. H5P allows you to add pop-up audio, video and text boxes, which is great for quick and dirty jobs, but it doesn’t provide a full suite of tools. With 3DVista I can create triggered events and chainlink actions together to create cause and effect branching. And whilst these were all initially developed for tours of houses and real-world locations, 3DVista has recently invested a lot into creating dedicated e-learning tools, making the software a proper contender for content authoring. Many of the features even work in VR headsets. Take that, H5P.

Scene Navigation and Multi-Path Exploration

H5P only really supports one-track navigation - if you’ve ever moved from one 360° scene to the next, then moved back again, it always felt, for want of a better word, janky. It’s linear, predictable, and not particularly inspiring for branching scenarios. 3DVista, on the other hand, lets learners choose their own route and be rewarded with new interactions. So in my monster game, you have to find different items across different scenes to unlock new areas. Learner curiosity drives progress and every decision can lead somewhere different. It means I can create stories that deliver experiences, not just courses that deliver static content.

Interactive Depth

Yes, H5P does hotspots. But 3DVista goes deeper. I can create conditional interactions, lock or unlock areas based on progress, and embed multiple scored quizzes directly into the tour. For my monster game, this meant I could record items found, run a negative score which counted down health and an additional timer. In e-learning terms, this means I can add checkpoints or measure engagement without bolting on another system.

Immersive Multimedia Elements

This is where 3DVista really shines. 360° video, ambient audio, 3D objects, background narration - it’s all supported. I can build mood and tone into the experience in a way that just wasn’t possible in H5P. It’s no longer just about what the learner sees, it’s about what they feel as they move through the environment. That extra layer of sensory detail pulls people in and keeps them there. Compared to that, H5P feels like a slideshow with good intentions.

Learning Curve and UX Considerations

Now, I’m not going to pretend it’s all smooth sailing. 3DVista has a steeper learning curve than H5P. It takes more time, more planning, and more trial-and-error in the early stages. But if you’re serious about designing layered, immersive learning experiences, the payoff is absolutely worth it. Once you’ve cracked the basics, it becomes second nature and the creative options open up in ways H5P just doesn’t allow for.

Compatibility and LMS Integration

Honestly, it’s not as plug-and-play as H5P when it comes to LMS integration. H5P wins for simplicity here. But 3DVista can still export to HTML5 or SCORM, which covers most bases. It just needs a little extra testing to make sure everything behaves as expected. Once it’s embedded, though, it runs beautifully, on both desktop and headsets.

Pricing is good - a one-off payment for lifetime access. And when I’m already forking out £££ every month on various tool subs, that’s a decent deal.

If you’ve got a bit of time and fancy learning a new tool that will genuinely transform your learning, 3DVista gets my recommendation.