Forum Discussion
Layer slow to load
Hi. I'm working on my first Storyline project.
In a previous discussion about slide layer "lag" a community member responded:
I would check two things
- if there is an animation for the entrance of the layer
- does the timeline for the layer begin at the start
I have several slides that load two different layers with results based on user input. The first layer that appears just has simple shapes with some text and variables in them. The second results layers that appear include three small graphics (totaling about 45KB) that animate in one at a time while an mp3 (under 10KB) plays. There's a long delay before the second results layers appear which might make users think they're done with the slide before they really are. How can I speed up the loading of the results layers? Don't they get preloaded with the slide? What should I be looking for that might cause a delay? If having an animation at the entrance of a layer causes a delay, how can I ameliorate that?
I've included a video demonstrating the issue. Thank you for any insight you can provide.
P.S. You'll also notice that on the first results layer that appears, the text "Housing Unit Assessment Overall" shows up after the rectangles. It's supposed to show up before the "Good!" rectangle to its right, but no matter where I try to time its entrance on the timeline (by having it show up later in the timeline than the appearance of the "Good!" rectangle), it shows up after. Any insight into how to troubleshoot that would also be helpful.
So, here's what I see. I looked just at slide 1.4. If you have similar problems on the others, it may be related to these issues. I attached a modified version of your project for reference.
For Layer 1 (FS Results):
- On the Base Layer, you have several state change triggers associated with the timeline start that overlap with others later on linked to the calculate button click. Since you don't need to set the states of layer objects when the base layer timeline starts, these are likely uneeded. I disabled them.
- Related to changing the states of objects on the other layers from the base layer, it seems that changing an object's state is causing it to immediately start its timeline. It also happens if done on the on the layer itself: Changing the state of an object before it reaches its timeline entry is causing it to appear and start its timeline early. This is not noticable if the object starts at 0 seconds, but for things starting later in the timeline, it is messing up the timings.
- This does not seem like it would be the expected behavior and may be a bug that should be submitted to Articulate support for evaluation.
- The workaround for your situation, since your Combined score - results rectangle is delayed on its layer and requires a state change, is to
- Create a cue point (right click on the top of the timeline) on the layer's timeline where the rectangle should begin (I put it at 1.5 seconds).
- Copy the 3 Set state of Combine score - results to... triggers from the Base Layer to the FS Results Layer
- Disable the original 3 triggers on the Base Layer.
- Set the new FS Results Layer triggers to start when timeline reaches cue poit #1 (1.5sec, or wherever).
- Now, the HUA Overall text will appear first, then the results rectangle will start its animation and state change 0.5 seconds later.
For Layer 2:
- You have the Show layer Combined Good Layer trigger set to fire AFTER the FS Results Layer ends.
- Change that to something sooner, like maybe to the same cue point you set above. That way the animations will flow together without the delays.
As a side note: You may want to set your timeline objects to Show Until End (right click on blocks in the timeline) to make sure ethey don't disappear as soon as the timeline runs out, unless that's what you want. I'm not sure what's keeping your objects visible right now, but when I was tesing, my edits caused them to start vanishing when the timeline ended, which would be normal if they're not set to persist.
So, here's what I see. I looked just at slide 1.4. If you have similar problems on the others, it may be related to these issues. I attached a modified version of your project for reference.
For Layer 1 (FS Results):
- On the Base Layer, you have several state change triggers associated with the timeline start that overlap with others later on linked to the calculate button click. Since you don't need to set the states of layer objects when the base layer timeline starts, these are likely uneeded. I disabled them.
- Related to changing the states of objects on the other layers from the base layer, it seems that changing an object's state is causing it to immediately start its timeline. It also happens if done on the on the layer itself: Changing the state of an object before it reaches its timeline entry is causing it to appear and start its timeline early. This is not noticable if the object starts at 0 seconds, but for things starting later in the timeline, it is messing up the timings.
- This does not seem like it would be the expected behavior and may be a bug that should be submitted to Articulate support for evaluation.
- The workaround for your situation, since your Combined score - results rectangle is delayed on its layer and requires a state change, is to
- Create a cue point (right click on the top of the timeline) on the layer's timeline where the rectangle should begin (I put it at 1.5 seconds).
- Copy the 3 Set state of Combine score - results to... triggers from the Base Layer to the FS Results Layer
- Disable the original 3 triggers on the Base Layer.
- Set the new FS Results Layer triggers to start when timeline reaches cue poit #1 (1.5sec, or wherever).
- Now, the HUA Overall text will appear first, then the results rectangle will start its animation and state change 0.5 seconds later.
For Layer 2:
- You have the Show layer Combined Good Layer trigger set to fire AFTER the FS Results Layer ends.
- Change that to something sooner, like maybe to the same cue point you set above. That way the animations will flow together without the delays.
As a side note: You may want to set your timeline objects to Show Until End (right click on blocks in the timeline) to make sure ethey don't disappear as soon as the timeline runs out, unless that's what you want. I'm not sure what's keeping your objects visible right now, but when I was tesing, my edits caused them to start vanishing when the timeline ended, which would be normal if they're not set to persist.
Thank you so much, Nathan. I really appreciate your help and I'm looking forward to digging into this.
You just need to tighten up the end of the timeline on "FS Results Layer" and maybe the start of "Combined Good Layer".
Er, that would be "sooner" rather than later in the timeline than the appearance of the "Good!" rectangle in my P.S. there.🤪
It's hard to tell what's really going on without the actual project file (or at least that one slide by itself). How are the animatons triggered? Timeline start on layer, or other objects? Are the animations motion paths? Do they have easing that slows down the initial motion? Are things grouped?
For the best help, an excerpt of the project would be useful.
Hi Nathan. Thanks for jumping in. Here's a slimmed-down portion of the project. The double-compartment solid walled box is the only one of the three slides I left in there where the user can get a Good! overall score but really that doesn't matter since even the layer that appears for not-good also has that delay.
