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So, for a long time now GW has had this feature available on their website. I'm talking about the thing where you can click around a model and see it from different angles. It used to just let you look around a model, with all the new ones it lets you look at the top of a model too.

How does this work? Why haven't I seen this anywhere else except GW? If, say, someone had a website would it be possible for them to implement it?

From the really basic things I can figure out, it looks like someone from the GW design team just snapped a whole bunch of really high-res images from different angles and combined them into one thingamajigg.

Hotel websites do it all the time with 360 degree views of the room or hotel lobby etc etc.

Theres tonnes of software availble to let you do it - just google 360 degree photography software.

It's essentially just a panorma photo on a slider, so it's a set of photos taken and stictched together, plenty of ways to do it yourself.

Pretty common on estate agent websites.

They put the model on a pedestal taking photos while it turns. Then adding it to a widget which makes it a 360 degree photo.

Point of interest, some 360' pics on the website also allow vertical scrolling so you can see the model from above.

I assume it's some sort of automated rig - or at least one with a calibrated base, because there's none of the wobble I see in other 3D views.

It could be a single-camera setup, or it could be* a gadget which takes all the shots at once.

* I say that without actually knowing about the technology.

I'm pretty impressed by the Forgeworld one that is actually 360 one some models. Check it out on Fulgrim. You can look up and down as well.

IIRC, Privateer are the ones who started it in the model industry (at least, the wargaming model industry). Having seen their rig, it's basically just a static tripod mounted next to a turn table with a space demarcated for the model to stand on. Just take a bunch of pictures at a predetermined set of angles, shove it in a widget as mentioned above, and push it to your live server.

EDIT: Also, nice basilisk, AndrewGPaul.

360 viewing has been around since the late 90s, not on GW but it was used on Boo.com.

The basic principle is that you take a series of stills at preset angles, then stitch them together into a single file.

As noted above, this can also be done in the up/down direction.