Using Live Mode in VirtualPools

Live Mode is where VirtualPools becomes more than a design tool, it becomes a powerful sales experience. Instead of showing a 3D model on a screen, you place a true-to-scale pool directly into your client’s actual garden and explore it together in real time.

Clients can walk around it, view it from different angles, and immediately understand proportions, positioning, and overall impact. This shift from “looking at a design” to “standing next to it” often makes the difference in decision-making.

Before You Start

• Ensure the camera lens is clean and unobstructed.
• For maximum accuracy, especially with Hill Mode, use a device with a LiDAR sensor (iPad Pro recommended).

Entering Live mode

1. First, open the pool project you want to show your client.
2. At the bottom of the screen, tap Change View. Then choose Live.

Your camera will switch on, showing the real garden through your tablet. Gently move your device so the app can scan the ground and understand the space. After a few seconds, the pool will appear in the garden at true scale.

Positioning the Pool

Before confirming placement, you can slightly move your tablet to shift the pool’s position in the garden. When it looks close to the desired spot, tap Place to anchor it.

If you’d like to refine it further, open the Location tab. From there, you can gently move the pool forward, backward, or sideways, and adjust its rotation to align it wih the house, terrace, or garden layout.

You can also drag the pool directly with your finger for quicker adjustments. Small, careful movements help keep the placement stable and precise.

Take your time with this step. When the pool sits naturally in the space, the entire presentation feels more realistic and convincing.

Adjusting for Uneven Ground (Hill Mode)

Depending on your project, you may need to adjust how the pool sits in the garden. Some gardens are uneven or sloped. In these cases, you can use Hill Mode to adapt the pool naturally to the terrain.

Other times, the ground may be flat, but your client may want an above-ground or partially raised pool. Hill Mode can also be used to create this effect intentionally.

Activate Hill Mode from the top-right corner of the screen. This allows you to adjust the pool’s altitude using the slider. Raise it slightly for an elevated design, or lower it so it integrates smoothly into a slope.

After adjusting the height, take a quick look at how the pool sits on the ground. It should look natural and properly aligned with the garden. If something feels slightly off, small adjustments usually fix it.

For the best ground detection and smoother height control, a LiDAR-equipped device (such as an iPad Pro) will give more precise results, especially on uneven terrain.

Walking Around the Design

Once the pool is positioned correctly, you can begin exploring it with your client. Slowly walk around the garden while holding your tablet. The pool will remain anchored in place, just as if it were already built. View it from different angles, from the terrace, near the house or from further back in the garden.

Seeing the pool in real scale helps clients understand distances, proportions, and how the space will feel once completed. They can clearly see how much room remains around the pool and how it connects to the existing surroundings.

Encourage your client to move with you and look at the design from multiple perspectives. The more they experience it in real space, the more confident they become in their decision.

Designing in Live Mode

You can continue making changes while standing in the garden with your client. As the pool is now placed inside the real garden, you can now see how colors react to natural light, how materials reflect their surroundings, and how the water interacts with the environment.

If needed, you can still make adjustments while in Live Mode. Change colors, modify finishes, adjust dimensions, or temporarily toggle elements like the water to better evaluate details such as the liner or stairs. Seeing these changes directly in the real environment often reveals things that are less noticeable in standard 3D view.

This is especially helpful when discussing finishes, reflections, and proportions. Seeing the design directly in the garden allows both you and your client to make more confident decisions.

Adding Objects in Live Mode

You can also build out the full scene by adding objects directly into the garden. From the Object Library, you'll find pool houses, heat pumps, furniture, plants, and decoration items.

To add an object, simply select it from the library, move your tablet to place it where you want, and confirm.

Already placed something? Just tap it in the live view to reposition or remove it.

Adjusting Lighting and Environment

In Live Mode, you can also adjust environmental settings to better evaluate and present the design.

Using Effects, you can change the time of day to see how natural light interacts with the pool. This helps you assess reflections, shadow direction, and how materials appear under different lighting conditions.

You can also switch between seasons to preview how sunlight angles shift throughout the year. This is especially useful when discussing terrace placement, glare, or overall exposure.

These adjustments are not only about atmosphere, they allow you and your client to explore different possibilities, compare options, and see how the pool performs under real lighting conditions throughout the day and year.

Human Detection & Capturing Photos

Human Detection adds an extra layer of realism to Live Mode by recognizing people in the camera view and integrating them naturally into the augmented scene.

This allows clients to see themselves standing next to the pool in real scale while you present the design. It adds clarity to proportions and helps place the project into a real-life context.

You can also capture photos directly. With Human Detection active, images can include the client within the scene. In combination with Hill Mode, the pool height can be adjusted to align naturally with a person’s position, for example, creating the impression of standing inside the pool.

Photo capturing and advanced visualization techniques are covered in more detail in Create Stunning Pool Visuals.

Live Mode changes the way you present a project.

After showing a 3D model on a screen, you place the pool directly into the client’s garden.

It removes a lot of uncertainty. Clients see the proportions, the distance to the house, the flow of the garden. They don’t have to imagine it, they experience it.

That’s what makes Live Mode powerful. It turns a design discussion into a real moment in the client’s own backyard.

Visual Walkthrough

Prefer to watch? View the step-by-step guide:

Disponible en español : https://youtu.be/iP33s8OSR8c?si=wHyqJ3w9cqeO5qb5

Auf Deutsch verfügbar : https://youtu.be/4xk8xiK0wbE?si=G_2nxCt21WD2tjUZ

Disponible en français : https://youtu.be/DTc_Tdnipus?si=czAHuq-Pd6NEQdk2

Updated on: 26/02/2026