Is there a size limit to scenes or projects?

Sep 10, 2014

I've been building a course that is a series of branched scenarios. It's been set up as a game with 5 different levels. The levels range from 32 slides to 59 slides and most have multiple layers. There are also some very short audio clips in it. I'm just finishing it up and in doing the final summary slide in each level, I can suddenly no longer make simple triggers work in the new slide. I copied the slide into a new project and that worked just fine so I know it isn't the triggers. It's critical that I get this to work as the deadline for testing is approaching very quickly. Is the problem the size of the project or is there another factor I need to consider. If it comes down to crunch time, is there real-time support so I can get this project to work?

14 Replies
Dorothy Baker

Thanks Cary, I didn't see that thread.  I'm not sure that I understand it all but it seems to me that there shouldn't be size problem (re: the best practice discussion) since it is a branched scenario so, unless a learner is motivated to try out all the possibilities, it's only about 6 - 10 slides from start to finish in each scenario.  i will try your suggestion Julie and give my computer a break and re-boot.  I'm also going to go through and see if there are items in the scenes that don't need to be there.

Kevin Thorn

Hi Dorothy,

I've put together some rather large projects and have yet reached a "limit."

Some examples are:

  • projects with over 300 slides
  • slides with over 50 layers
  • Master slides with 25 layers and over 800 objects on *that* Master slide
  • Total .story file size upwards of 400 Mb.

When projects get that big you may experience a lag in performance, but that's mostly due to the computer you're working on and it's power - processing and memory.

I will say on those bigger projects, Storyline coughed and gagged a few times so be sure to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE frequently. And back up your project files daily.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Dorothy,

You've gotten some great recommendations here from other community members, and I wanted to answer your other question in regards to real time support. We don't offer phone support, but you can connect with our support engineers here to share your project file and you can always share it here within the forums where staff or community members can assist. Additionally, there are some other support options detailed here.

Hope a simple reboot helped!

Dorothy Baker

Thanks Kevin and Ashley. Our computers are not very powerful so the hardware is likely part of the problem. I've learned the hard way to save and back-up often. I tried saving the slide by itself to see if I could get it to work and it still doesn't. I think I've looked at this thing so many times I can't see the problem. Now I'm sure it's something little. I will attach the file with the one slide and see if someone with fresh eyes can see what the problem is. If that doesn't work, Ashley, I will be trying the other options.

So the problem triggers are on the coach layer. I have a hot spot so that learners can see a roll-up of what was done well if they choose. If they don't choose to look at it, the arrow marker will take them to the congratulations slide before leveling up.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Dorothy,

I took a look at that one slide, but I'm unsure about what isn't working? I was able to click on the hotspot and then the close button to advance to the "congrats" layer and I was also able to use the arrow button independently of going to the hotpsot.

Could you tell us a bit more about if you were expecting something different to occur?

Cary Glenn

Hi Dorothy,

Good to see another Albertan here. I think the triggers worked for me. I prefer to use transparent shapes instead of hotspots, as I can give shapes a state. One weird thing I noticed is that when I place the mouse over the map of Alberta the mouse changed but nothing happened when I clicked on it. I suspect it is a trigger on the Master Slide. I couldn't get the hotspots at the bottom of the screen to do anything, except for the "Hint". The other hotspots are on the Master Slide so I suspect that has something to do with it.

Dorothy Baker

Yes, they're on the master slide because they're the same for each slide. I didn't spend a lot of time on copying those triggers so I may have missed something when I was copying this slide to upload. The hint, on the other hand, changes depending on what is occurring on the slide so the triggers are on the individual slide.

It's curious that the coach layer triggers worked for you. They won't for me. But when I did the exact same thing in the next level, it worked just fine. Very puzzling. And frustrating because I need it to work on every level.

Dorothy Baker

Okay, I fixed the most of the missing triggers on the master slide so you can see what was supposed to happen - though I don't think it has anything to do with the problems I'm having with the coach level. The map has hotspots that have facts and stats pop up when they're moused over. They aren't working in this copied slide but are in the original so I'm okay with that.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Dorothy, 

I tested this again, and everything on the couch layer still worked for me. I took a screen recording the demonstrate what I'm seeing, and if you're seeing something a bit different it may help to explain exactly what is happening. 

Additionally, you'll want to confirm that you're working on your .story files following the guidelines detailed here:

  • Work on your local drive (your C: drive).Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, includingfile corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior. 
  • You should also make sure the directory pathto your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters(for example C:\Articulate).
  • Avoid using special characters, accents orsymbols in your file names.

Please let us know if I missed something in my screen recording or if you have additional information to share. 

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