Differences between Windows and Online version

Question

Hi

Before I begin tinkering, are there any differences between the Windows client and the Online version that I should be aware of?

 

Olly

Answer 1

note: The so called 'on-line' release obviously requires a web-browser to be run and it is actually a hosted copy of the Web-browser based release. This release can also be downloaded from the Releases section of the project's repository and run locally on your machine, they are the ZIP files without an operation system in the file name.

The Web-browser base release uses your selected web-browser's Local Storage to store all the META data (Passages) of your Story Project, and by default the web-browser's Local Storage area is limited in size to between 5-10MBs (depends on the brand & version) which means you are limited if you want to embed media files within the Passages of your story. The Local Storage are can also be effected by the "Empty Cache" (or similar concepts) feature of the web-browser (depend on brand & settings) so it is recommend to regularly use the Twine 2 Archive option to backup all your projects in one go, or to use the Publish to File option to create locally stored HTML files for each of your projects.

The Install-able release stores each Story Project as a local file in a automatically pre-determined location/folder on your local machine, this location should NOT be used by you as a destination for the Story HTML file you create using the Publish to File option or you could end up overwriting (and losing) your projects. Because this release uses local files for storage then the limits on embedding a media file in a Passage is removed.

Beside Story Project META data storage there isn't any real differences between the two releases.

Answer 2

I've tried using both versions, and have found the online version to be significantly better.

There were a number of bugs in the downloaded version that were not present in the online one:

• It couldn't save! Saved stories and such would not persist between sessions. This alone is a deal breaker, really, and I couldn't find any info online on what the problem was
• Using the back/forward buttons on my mouse closed the entire program immediately. In the online version, it simply takes you back/forward
• Marking a passage as the start of your story would work, but the little round green icon wouldn't update until you restarted the program
• I clicked a "help" link within the program to get help with SugarCube, and it took me to a 404'd webpage (within the program itself, rather than by using my web browser), and I had to close the program because there was no way to go back

In my experience, pretty awful. Comparatively, the online experience has been flawless. Your experience may vary though!

Comments

Have you open an Issue on the Twine 2 project's repository explaining the issues you had running the install-able release?

If not, then it is difficult for the developers to fix issues they haven't been told about.

When creating this type of issue remember to state:
1. which operating system (brand, full version number, edition, 32/64 bit) you are running.
2. if the application was installs using an administrator type account or a user account.
3. if the application was install on a fixed local drive, a removable drive, or a network drive.
4. if your operation system is setup for a language other than English. 
5. [for Windows] if you've moves the operating systems User settings storage from it's default location.
6. [for Window] if you've manually setup a HOME environment variable.