CGI Virtual Tour vs Matterport: Which One Your Project Needs
People treat these as rivals, and they are not. They are two tools for two different jobs, and the only mistake is using the wrong one. I run both at 100CGI Studio, a Matterport camera for capture and a full CGI pipeline for building tours, so here is the distinction in one line: Matterport records a space that exists, a CGI virtual tour builds a space that does not yet.
Get that right and the choice makes itself. Get it wrong and you either pay to scan a room you could have shot on a phone, or worse, you try to sell an unbuilt development with a tool that physically cannot show it.
What Matterport actually is
Matterport is a 3D capture system. You walk a camera through a real, finished space and it produces an accurate, navigable 3D model you can explore and measure. It is genuinely good at that. We use it to capture and understand existing spaces, and for a finished office, a built showroom or a property already standing, it is the fast, right answer.
Its limit is built into how it works: there has to be something there to scan. Matterport cannot show a flat that is still a foundation, an office that is a set of drawings, or a lobby six months from completion. No camera can photograph a building that does not exist.
What a CGI virtual tour is
A CGI virtual tour is built, not captured. We construct the whole space in 3D from your drawings in 3ds Max with Corona, then turn it into a browser-based 360 experience someone can walk at their own pace. Because it starts from plans, it can show a space long before construction, which is exactly when you most need to sell it.
That is the work we did for the Siro One Za'abeel project in Dubai, with Inc Solutions: a VR tour that let stakeholders walk the lobby while it was still on the drawings. A scan could not have existed yet. A CGI tour could, and did, in about four weeks.
The honest comparison
So pick by the state of your space, not by the brand.
If the space exists and you want an accurate record or an online walk of the real thing, Matterport wins on speed and cost. If the space is unbuilt and you are trying to sell, lease or get approval for it, a CGI tour is the only option that shows the actual subject of the decision. I will say the blunt version, because it is true: for selling an unbuilt scheme, a CGI tour beats a Matterport scan every time, because there is nothing to scan.
There is a quality gap worth naming too. A Matterport scan looks like what it is, a capture of a real room, lighting, clutter and all. A CGI tour is art-directed: we control the light, the staging and the finish, so an unbuilt space looks its best rather than its rawest. For marketing, that control matters.
Which to commission
A simple test settles most cases. Does the space exist right now, exactly as you want to show it? Then scan it with Matterport. Is the space unbuilt, or finished but not yet dressed the way you want to sell it? Then build a CGI tour.
Our 3D virtual tours start from 1,500 pounds plus 1,000 pounds per 5,000 square feet, and we send an estimate within 24 hours of seeing your plans. The honest caveat is that some projects want both: a CGI tour to pre-sell off-plan, then a Matterport scan once it is built. Different stages, different tools. For the wider picture, see our 360 virtual tour service and our explainer on what a virtual tour is.