Storline 360 HTML5 Performance

Nov 15, 2016

John Hudson
By John Hudson

I have been a Storyline user since the beginning and I'm excited about the possibilities with 360. HTML5 output in Storyline2 has caused me a lot of grief in the past, requiring many hours of testing to uncover break-point patterns and workarounds. I am trying a couple of these courses in Storyline 360 and have a few questions/observations: 

  1. Storyline 360 Features describe "Superior HTML5 Output" - is there a more detailed description of what this means technically?
  2. HTML5/Flash Fallback - course performance has been very sluggish compared to Storyline 2 output. It appeared some pages were not working but turned out to just be a big delay.  Also had problems with a simple page with several path animations synchronized to voice-over - again it might have been just a very slow response. Are others experiencing this performance issue?
  3. Playing multiple media files simultaneously - appears this problem is resolved with my tests on an iPad?
  4. HTML5 Break-Points - The new version appears to be generally much better at finding it's way back to pages/layers after a Save/Exit and more complex branching. Storyline 2 HTML5 often had problems figuring out what to do when coming back into a page and locked in a number of situations. Does the 360 version cover these situations consistently or will it still be a trial and error process on multiple browsers, platforms and devices?

I would appreciate feedback to help uncover how far 360 has gone with HTML5 output and whether there is a way to speed up performance.

34 Replies
Natalie Sikes
over 6 years ago11/07/17 at 4:27 pm (UTC)

I received some suggestions from Articulate support, but I still had issues
with 360 on IE11. My biggest issue is with the HTML5 files that have audio
and clickable interactions - I get weird audio issues when clicking back
and forth. I don't think this is a priority for resolution since IE11 is no
longer supported by Microsoft. So, I've been using Storyline 2 for my files
that have audio, and Storyline 360 for my files that don't.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 6 years ago11/08/17 at 8:20 pm (UTC)

Hi Natalie and Kristen,

Natatlie - Were you using the same LMS as Kristen? I looked for your case, but didn't find it, and I know for a few users whose LMS forces them to use IE11 that the HTML5 output has had some odd behaviors (such as force compatibility mode - essentially displaying as if it's IE8), so I'd also be curious if you're able to use other browser or rely on Flash for those courses? 

If you want to share your case number with me, that may also give me a bit more insight into what our team suggested too! I could be way off base. 

Kristen, This discussion has gotten a bit longer, so I'd want to confirm what you're seeing and what version of Storyline you're using. Could you share a bit more information with us, also if you'd prefer to work offline with our Support Engineers to share your file they're around 24/7. 

Natalie Sikes
over 6 years ago11/08/17 at 8:36 pm (UTC)

Thanks for your response. It was my client's LMS (SumTotal) that was
somehow connected to using IE11. I found that the only mobile option for
360 that worked with their LMS was the Flash/HTML5 option (as opposed to
HTML5/Flash or simply HTML5), so the output was not ideal for HTML5. I was
told by Articulate support that the HTML5 (standalone) publishing option
provided the best mobile experience, but I was not able to use that option
with SumTotal/IE11. So, I've been using Storyline 2 for those projects with
audio to be played on mobile.

Luckily, this client is changing its LMS, so I hope that this will also
bring about a change in browsers, and therefore, solve this problem.

I submitted this case several months ago to Articulate, so I'd have to do
some digging in my email to see if I can find that case number.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 6 years ago11/09/17 at 5:54 pm (UTC)

Thanks Natalie for sharing the additional info. HTML5/Flash will provide the best mobile experience, but if you're limited to using IE11 then using Flash/HTML5 then that would work (as any mobile users who access it outside of IE11 would be directed to the HTML5 output). 

No need to dig it up, as it sounds like you've got a method that'll work in the meantime and you've got some hope that they'll upgrade their LMS and allow for using more browsers. 😉 

Keep us posted if you need anything else. 

Kristen Erwin
6 years ago02/22/18 at 3:56 pm (UTC)

Hey guys, I'm so sorry I never got back to you on this.  We are using SumTotal Growth Edition (formerly SumTotal Maestro) for our LMS.  Previously, we were limited to IE11.  I would publish Flash-HTML5-with mobile. My issue before came with blurriness happening here and there in different publishing formats, in different browsers - and affecting one or both of either the plain eCourse slides or the clarity of the mp4 video.

Recently, I just did some extensive testing on an eCourse in four browsers and on two devices. The eCourse contained regular storyline slides plus slides where I inserted mp4 video files created in camtasia.  I've attached a spreadsheet with the results.  It seems that I can finally ditch and direct folks to Chrome.  Thoughts?    [Spreadsheet attached]

Browsers
IE11
Firefox
Chrome
Edge

Devices
PC Laptop
Surface Pro 3

Testing
Clarity of regular slide content
Clarity of MP4 video inserted onto slide

Leslie McKerchie
6 years ago02/26/18 at 4:17 pm (UTC)

Hi Kristien,

Thanks for popping back in with an update and sharing your testing with the community.

We've had quite a few updates as you can see here since you last posted here on this thread.

Did you test within SCORM Cloud at all or are these results just from your LMS? Is this a recent test using the latest update?

If you are still having a specific issue that you'd like us to take a look at, please feel free to share a sample .story file so that we can take a closer look.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.