I wanted to know if anyone new how these virtual tours were shot.  They look amazing.  I also had a question.  
 
What is the difference between HI quality photo and a RAW Photo?  How do you convert a RAW photo to a tiff or JPEG so it can be placed in Stitcher?
 
Thanks
 
Chris

Sorry Guys I forgot to add the link  
 
http://www.panaviz1.com

I think it is quiet simple really. He pops flash in the forground to bring up the colors and for the colors outside they are pumped up in photoshop. In some I think too much photoshop was used because the colors look a little artificial. Still you are right they are very nice tours.  
 
Topper

How would I go about popping flash in the forground. I am currently using a coolpix 8400 with a nikon FC-E9 fisheye convereter.  Is there a certain type of flash that I would need?

You have to bracket several pictures, it is mentioned in their Faq. I use Phtomatix Pro which combines several pirtures of different exposure. I combine each picture before stitching.  
Their web-site looks very nice and the panos are great, although a little artificial-looking as mentioned above. I guess that their customers and target audience will perceive this as beautiful, which makes everybody happy. Only photographers used to observing pictures will see it as artificial.

Hi to all!
 
I do believe the flash was done using the "bare bulb" technique based on the shadow pattern... just a guess.
 
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Another note: The "bare bulb" does not actually have to be a flash - it could be a simple incandescent light (or a pair of them) that are moved as the images were being taken. The advantage of the bare bulb is that it is indeed bare - throwing light off in all directions at once. Whereas the typical flash/strobe is directional which may lead to inconsistent shadow casting problems... depending on the environment and the skill of the photographer.

I agree with elfinn, it's called "High Dynamic Range Images" It truly is an amazing process! Take a look: http://www.hdrsoft.com/gallery/gallery.php?id=4
here's the site: http://www.hdrsoft.com/index.html

I'm surprised people have assumed that `'CJulio25' was referring to the lighting when he asked "...how these virtual tours were shot."
 
For me the most surprising feature is the type of projection - when you view round the room the objects don't change their 'perspective' i.e. the walls and everything else maintain their curves.
 
I think that these panoramas have been rendered as cylindrical, but have then been made (somehow) into a flat strip that repeats seamlessly. In other words, as you navigate in them, you think you are 'rotating' to view the room, but its really just moving the image left and right along the viewer.
 
I'm still left wondering exactly how they were done (what software/what options).

Chris
Depending on your connection speed, you'll see them differently.
 
On a slower, Dial-Up, you get the "strip viewer" with the uncorrected perspective. If the tour can't detect a high-speed connection you get it too.
 
If it detects Broadband, you get a spherical image

Ah-ha! - I've got broadband but had only seen the "strip viewer" versions until being pointed in the right direction (thanks). Now the posts about lighting and HDR make sense to me!