Captivate 360 images loading in IE (9 or newer)

[andreainnove]

This has been asked before but I am hoping there is more information. The product says it is viable for IE 9 or newer for 360 lessons, but it doesn't seem to be the experience of users. Has ANYONE been able to get this to work.

Please do not suggest another browser. Client specifications (for many users) is IE9 and up.

[Lilybiri]

How did you test? After publishing? IE is the worst browser for support of HTML5 output ever.  It is incomprehensible that so many companies stick to that outdated one, while MS itself is clearly promoting Edge, and is not feveloping IE anymore. Is your client aware of that?

[andreainnove]

Client is aware, but has no control of a change. I've tested at all stages. Strangely the support in IE for non 360 is not a problem. It is specifically for the courses that include 360 images and videos.

I'm mostly frustrated that the site and webinars say that IE supports it when in fact all users have indicated otherwise. If Adobe had been more up front about the issues, I wouldn't have chosen it!!!

[Lilybiri]

I'm just a user, don't complain to me. There are more issues with IE than those with 360 images or videos. Agree that there should be more documentation about those issues. The big problem is that contrary to the years where publishing to SWF was the standard, lot cannot be controlled for HTML5 output because there simply is not yet a standard.  Each browser supports in its own way, and changes can be made with each version (think about Chrome preventing AutoPlay). 

Go ahead, try to find another eLearning authoring tool which offers the same features as Captivate and publishes to HTML5 so that it can be vieaw in a crippled browser like IE9. It  will not be easy.  I would love to detect such a white blackbird.

[andreainnove]

I want to use Captivate, it works beautifully in the other browsers and if I had a voice I would totally tell my client to change. (and I am sure those who have worked with my client recognize the slow moving beast that I am referring to).

My question was for anyone who has made it work. Certainly, I sent a question to the Adobe technical team, but I am trying to find at least one use case of it actually working. Surely if they say that it is compatible they have proof of it working at least once. HAHAHAHA!

[RodWard]

I'm not certain about this but I would offer the possibility that the fact that the System Requirements page for Captivate 2019 says that its HTML5 output can run on IE9 is not necessarily meant to infer that 360 VR will also work on such an old browser.  Is that where you are getting the view that IE9 is 'supported' for VR?

This page about the VR output seems to indicate that NOT all browsers are supported: Adobe Captivate (2019 release) & Virtual Reality

And they seem to be targeting mobile OS rather than desktop.

[andreainnove]

And rightly so! mobile is so much more appropriate for 360.

Apparently there is a specific bug that is preventing loading. I have reported the Syntax error and hopefully will get that resolved soon.

For those following....make sure you update to the latest version of Captivate which has some updates for virtual reality interactions. It' hasn't solved the loading issue, but I have hope this will be fixed soon.

FWIW I love the product and what we were able to do with it. The client loves it as well, so I hope they do fix this.

[andreainnove]

Oh and I got that it was supported from a webinar I attended a couple of months ago.

[RodWard]

I would personally be VERY surprised that anything earlier than IE11 had a chance of supporting the VR code that Captivate 2019 is publishing.  But I welcome anyone able to prove these older version browsers can do it.

The reason I am sceptical is that most current version Adobe apps that publish HTML5 code (e.g. Animate) seem to be moving more to the newer ECMASCRIPT code standards for the JS code.  IE11 doesn't even handle some of that code (but MS Edge does).

The 'syntax' error that you mention being flagged might actually be due to that later version code.  It would be interesting if you could post more information about that error.  Maybe a screenshot?

Given what we are seeing in our own HTML5 development, which integrates Animate OAMs, I think the way forward for HTML5 code coming out of Adobe apps is more and more likely to be incompatible with earlier browsers.  (We've had to munch the OAM JS code through Babel.js to get these animations to work with IE11.)

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Being a responsible learning and development professional means sometimes having to inform our customers that they are making a grave mistake with their choices. I understand that they are probably supporting some old software that they commissioned 20 years ago and the only way to do that is to maintain an old browser like IE9.

Something you might want to make your client aware of is that HTML5Test.com scores browsers for their ability to handle all the specifications of the HTML5 standard. My current version of Chrome gets a score of 535/555. By comparison Internet Explorer 9 gets a score of 113/555!

https://html5test.com/results/desktop.html

Microsoft no longer provides security updates or technical support for versions of Internet Explorer prior to 11. Your client is not only missing out on the new features of HTML5 but is at risk of exploits due to malware that Microsoft will no longer patch. You may also wish to inform them that only 0.63% of desktop computers run Internet Explorer 9. If they wish to live in the past they don't get to enjoy the future at the same time.