Forum Discussion
64bit and Multithread Workloads for Storyline
I just want to share something I have been sitting on for quite some time and that is my thoughts on the frankly old architexture that Storyline 360 is built on. From a back end point of view it only seams to be a marginal leap over Storyline 2 and none of the real performance issues that came in storyline 2 have been improved on in 360 / 3. Now in truth this may not be the case, it may have been re built from the ground up as some responses from Articulate have suggested but from a users perspective this seems to be simply untrue. There are a few outstanding questions asked by people on this forum dating back to 2016 regarding 64bit Support and with that Multithread workload support. Every response to these has been 'submit a feature request' of which those I have spoken too, all have submitted this request and it has fallen on deaf ears. Can we please have an actual answer on whether or not this support is coming on the development roadmap?
To give a bit of reasoning stoyline as a 32bit app is currently limited to single thread (1 cpu core) support and 4gb of RAM. If your system has a multi core cpu (which in almost every case it will have) that is system hoursepower that is untapped and similarly if you have over 4GB of ram, and the system average according to hardware surveys is 8GB for the average user these days. It is possible for a 32bit app to use multiple threads but that does not seam to be the case here monitoring the cpu loads when using storyline.
Storyline 360 is a new product, that is already old out of the box. As developers we are using products like Blender and the Adobe Creative suite along side this product to develop our courses, all of which have been native 64 bit only apps for almost a decade and take full advantage of a system, and for those who do video editting and 3D design to create content for their courses, they will have extremely powerful computers that are being completely underutilised by Storyline. A lot of the performance issues we see on a day to day basis are due to running out of memory or being bogged down by a single cpu core due to these limitations.
This is not a feature request this is an architecture request, this is a plea to just tell us is this on the roadmap, because I and many other developers are rapidly starting to loose patience in this products inability to keep up with the pace of the people who use it in this industry.
Hi Everyone!
Great news! I'm happy to share that we just released Storyline 360 (version 3.82.31354.0), which includes a new 64-bit version of Storyline 360! Harness the processing power in modern computers with 64-bit Storyline 360. Large, media-rich courses benefit from increased stability and faster performance!
To use 64-bit Storyline 360, please update your Articulate 360 desktop app, then click the Install button next to the Storyline 360 app with the 64-bit and beta labels. The Install button will change to an Open button when the installation is complete.
This was highly requested, so we hope it serves you in your course creation! If you run into any snags, don't hesitate to contact our team in a support case.
- MichaelAnder569Community Member
I can understand your frustration, and for the time being I would suggest doing anything CPU intentive like video editing in software dedicated to that task, and then inserting the video into Storyline.
- SamFreethCommunity Member
I'm not sure this really addresses the problem, can you provide a better response to the actual points raised?
- DanielMoore-5c7Community Member
Hear, hear Luke; it's crazy that it's still 32-bit.
There are posts on this forum promising 64-bit from 2009.
- HelenDavies-901Community Member
I agree with Luke, I have found that on occasion it really chugs - and that is even with course builds that do not include video content. This is very frustrating because my PC is capable of keeping up the pace of me working, it is the software letting it down.
Hi all,
Memory usage and performance are two of the top priorities for our team right now, and work is underway in both areas. I shared this discussion with them for some additional insight into the experiences you're currently having with Storyline.
I did want to clarify one point, Luke.
To give a bit of reasoning stoyline as a 32bit app is currently limited to single thread (1 cpu core) support and 4gb of RAM.
Storyline is extensively multi-threaded and will currently take advantage of systems with multiple processors.
The requests have not fallen on deaf ears, as we've continued to work on memory and performance issues, and will continue to do so. I've tagged this discussion so that I can share any updates with you here once available.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else, and if you'd like our team to take a look at any of the performance issues you've run into, they are always happy to help. Reach out to our Support Team directly here.
- LukeGeach-b3dfcCommunity Member
Hi Ashley thank you for this update this is very informative and does put me at ease. One thing regarding the multithreaded performance. Monitoring the cpu core usage on a 16 thread Ryzen system and an 8 thread Intel system, the only instance I can see that multiple cores are employed is when publishing a course, one thread is used to maintain storyline operations where others are used to render video, audio elements and compress images etc. I have yet to come accross a case where more than one core is being engaged during development of a course. Obviously I may not have covered every instance of how the builder may be used but I think this is worth noting.
- MichaelGibbo284Community Member
Been hearing this for years. I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, I'll just keep my chin up while suffering the multiple Storyline crashes that will occur today. By the way my machine is built with some of the best hardware available today. It's definitely Storyline and not my rig.
- LizzieAngellCommunity Member
oooo what kind of updates are you doing Ashley? this would be very welcome! I hope it is coming soon. can you give us a time frame? - this year? the start of next year?
Hi Lizzie,
I don't have a timeframe to share yet as our team is continuing to work on these memory/performance issues. As we are closer to an update that would include those features we'll be certain to let folks know!
Luke,
Thanks for that info too - I can share it with the team to keep an eye on the processors used as they continue to work on this. If you have any other experiences to share, please let me know and I can pass along, or feel free to share with our Support Team. We're all working together to build a product you can truly love using, so any additional feedback is welcome and appreciated. 😀
- MikaelSalonenCommunity Member
Has anything happened with multithread support and the limitation of 32 bit memory handling?
It's key information when planning for investment in new hardware. Should we go for multicore or higher clock rate... ? Should we invest in more RAM...? Hi Mikael,
Our team is still investigating a 64-bit version of Storyline, and we'll update this discussion as soon as we have more info to share!
As for what to invest in with hardware, I'll leave that to our community experts building many more courses than I!
- LukeGeach-b3dfcCommunity Member
It is unfortunate that almost a year on there is still no more information to share.
- DaveCampbell-9eCommunity Member
I agree, we need better performance to take advantage of multicore computers.