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Introduction

**The historic Chilworth Gunpowder Mills in the UK, operational from the 1620s to 1920 and now an atmospheric ruin, offers an excellent educational setting for creators new to the ARuVR platform. **

Using the site’s rich historical and visual assets, a simple virtual tour of the Chilworth gunpowder mills is ideal for a hands-on introduction to the ARuVR. This project is ideal for honing skills with various presentation tools, including 360° photography and video, interactive elements, quizzes and 3D models.

Specifically we are going to:

Log-in to the ARuVR authoring tool Work with 360 content (video and images) Add overlays (images and icons) Add interactivity (hotspots, links and popups)

Each tutorial step includes a short embedded video. Click the play button at the bottom left to view it.**

Log-in to the ARuVR authoring tool

To access the ARuVR platform, go to and log in. Your credentials were sent to you previously, likely in an email with the subject “You are invited to join ARuVR” from ‘noreply@aruvr.com’.

After entering your password, check your email for a Two-Factor Authentication Code; it will be from ‘noreply@aruvr.com’.

Upon log-in you will be presented with the new home screen:

Import a finished ARuVR project from Google Drive

You will find an ARuVR project file at - chilworth-gunpowder-mills-complete.aruvr (92MB) - download it, then return to the ARuVR platform and hit [ ↓ IMPORT ]

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Choose the ‘chilworth-gunpowder-mills-complete.aruvr’ file you just downloaded.

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Wait a few moments for the file to import. Once completed, your project will be visible on the screen…

You will not be using this imported presentation directly, as you will be creating your own. The necessary assets have been added to your Media Manager through this import, eliminating the need for individual imports later.

To create a new project, click the [+ Create New ] button at the top right of the screen, entering the required Presentation data:

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1 Working with 360 video and images

We’ll start by adding a short, looping 360 video of the Tillingborne River, at the entrance of Gunpowder Mills to our introductory slide.

1.1 Adding a 360 video

To start, click [ [ Select 360 Content ] , then ‘360 Videos’ and choose ‘stream.mp4’:

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You will now notice that a 360 video has been added to your intro slide!

Try looking around in the editor, playing the video and unmuting it so you can hear the sound of the water!

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While you are here, note that the '2D Marker View’ on the bottom right offers a comprehensive single-image overview of the entire presentation. This window is resizable; you can match its size to the 360 view, or minimize it entirely.

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We need to ensure that the video plays correctly when the user enters the slide, so go to [ S Slide ] , check ’Autoplay Video’ and ’Loop’

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1.2 Adding a graphical panel

Next, we will add an introductory image to this slide.

Got to [A Assets ] > ‘Images’ > look for ‘1-title page.png’ > then ‘Add’

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You’ll notice that the ‘Chilworth Gunpowder Mills - heritage trail’ intro panel has now appeared on the canvas:

We need to shrink it slightly and move it up…

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We’re now going to add a ‘Next’ button, which will advance the presentation to the following slide when clicked. Follow the same procedure as outlined previously, but using the ‘Next.png’ image.

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To avoid confusion down the line, it’s good practice to name the objects in the scene. Call them ‘Intro text’ and ‘Next button’, by clicking on the markers and then clicking [ P Properties ]

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Similarly, we should always name our slides too. Before proceeding, let’s call this first slide ‘Introduction’:

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1.3 Making a button appear after a short delay

We’d like the ‘Next’ button to initially be hidden and then appear after a brief delay. Once visible, clicking it will advance the user to the following slide.

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Next, we must configure how long it takes until the hidden Next button appears. For this, we need to edit the Slide properties and add something called a Behaviour: [ (S) Slide ] > [ Edit behaviors ] then [ + Add Idle Behavior ] - configure the behaviour as demonstrated in this video and then [Save & Exit] .

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Note that we are choosing to trigger this behaviour 'on Idle’, essentially determining what happens when the user accesses the slide and does nothing.

To introduce interactivity, we need to set up the button to advance to the next slide when it is clicked. Create a new slide; click [ + ADD ] > Slides > 360° Panorama, as follows:

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Rename the new slide, (which is initially titled ‘360° Panorama Slide’), to ‘West Lodge’, following the same procedure as before.

1.4 Adding simple interactivity to the Next Button

Go back to the ‘Introduction’ slide and click the ‘Next’ button > [ P Properties] > [ Behaviors] , then [ + Add Click Behavior ], creating the behaviour as demonstrated in this video:

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How about adding a satisfying ‘click’ sound when the user clicks the next button, too? The process is similar; ‘Next’ button > [ P Properties] >[ Behaviors] > [ + Add Click Behavior ], then create the behaviour, as demonstrated here:

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Before testing your Presentation, it’s helpful to review the different view options again, which are available in the editor: the ‘Full 2D editor’, the ‘Split view’ (which combines 2D and 3D), and the ‘3D view’, with an embedded mini 2D panel.

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Ok - it’s time to check your work!

To preview your presentation, click [ Present ] and then ‘Test in VR’.

You will be presented with a panel - make sure you ‘Enable Self-Paced’

In a moment, you will hear the sound of running water - take a look around!

The Next button appears after a short delay; clicking on it will trigger a sound effect and take you to the subsequent slide (which is currently blank).

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We’ll be adding the content into West Lodge in Part 2 - this ends Part 1.

START PART 2: Adding further multimedia elements (pop-up images, icons and sounds)