Cinematic Audio

Story Thyme now supports full cinematic audio with four independent audio layers, allowing authors to create richer and more immersive stories than ever before.

• Added a dedicated Voice layer for dialogue and narration.
• Stories can now play Music, Ambience, Voice, and Sound Effects simultaneously.
• Voice clips are non-looping by design.
• Sound Effects are now non-looping by design.
• Added independent volume controls for every audio layer.
• Removed automatic music ducking while Sound Effects play.
• Audio playback reliability has been significantly improved across Story Preview and Theater.

Wait for Audio

Frames can now automatically wait for audio playback to finish before advancing.

• Added a new "Wait for Audio" frame advancement mode.
• Frames can wait for:
• Voice
• Sound Effects
• Non-looping Music
• Non-looping Ambience
• Automatic advancement now occurs when the selected audio finishes playing.
• Improved recovery from interrupted audio buffering and playback stalls.
• If playback cannot recover, readers are automatically given a manual Next button instead of becoming stuck.

Reader Audio Controls

Readers now have complete control over their listening experience without affecting the author's intended mix.

• Replaced Theater mute buttons with reader-controlled volume sliders.
• Added separate reader volume controls for:
• Music
• Ambience
• Voice
• Sound Effects
• Reader volume acts as a multiplier on top of the author's saved volume.
• 100% preserves the author's intended mix.
• 50% plays a layer at half of the author's configured volume.
• 0% silences a layer without stopping playback.
• Reader volume changes apply immediately.
• Reader audio preferences persist across stories and browser sessions.
• Setting reader volume to 0 no longer interferes with automatic frame advancement or Wait for Audio behavior.
• Music and Ambience volume transitions continue to respect reader volume preferences.

Story Frame Limits

Story frame limits have been dramatically increased, making it possible to build significantly larger interactive stories.

• Part Thyme accounts now support up to 1,000 frames per story.
• Full Thyme accounts now support up to 10,000 frames per story.
• The official Story_Thyme account now has unlimited story frames.
• Non-official Admin accounts use the 10,000-frame limit.
• Unknown account types safely default to the 1,000-frame limit.
• Updated the Account Types page to display the new limits.

Server-Side Frame Validation

Frame limits are now enforced entirely on the server for improved reliability and security.

• Replaced client-only frame limits with authoritative server-side validation.
• Frame limits are determined using the owner's current database account type.
• Added transactional frame-count validation to prevent simultaneous requests from exceeding limits.
• Frame creation now uses the actual stored frame count as the authoritative source.
• Added strict validation for invalid frame numbers.
• Sparse frame creation is now rejected.
• Existing frames remain editable even after reaching the frame limit.
• Stories exceeding a downgraded account's limit are preserved.
• Additional frames cannot be added until the story returns below the limit.
• Frame deletion remains available for over-limit stories.
• Server frame counts are automatically reconciled after creation and deletion.
• Added structured server errors for invalid frame and frame-limit requests.
• Direct endpoint requests can no longer bypass frame limits.

Editor Frame Improvements

The Story Editor's frame lifecycle has been made significantly more reliable.

• Fixed saving the final frame from creating an extra frame beyond the account limit.
• Added frame-limit validation to both Add Frame and automatic next-frame creation.
• Added authoritative stored-frame tracking inside the editor.
• New stories now correctly save frame 0 before allowing frame 1 to be created.
• Failed frame creation no longer leaves phantom frames inside the editor.
• Frame deletion is now server-first.
• If deletion fails, the editor remains unchanged.
• Preview image cleanup now occurs after successful deletion and is treated as non-fatal.

Unlisted Story Improvements

Unpublishing an unlisted story now fully resets its sharing state.

• Unpublishing now returns stories to a normal Public draft.
• Automatically removes approval.
• Automatically clears Unlisted visibility.
• Automatically removes the private share token.
• Old Unlisted links immediately stop working.
• Republishing defaults back to Public unless Unlisted is selected again.
• Selecting Unlisted again generates a brand-new private share token.

Audio Resource Protection

Audio resources now receive the same protection as visual assets when used by stories.

• Audio, Ambience, Voice, and Sound Effects can no longer be deleted while assigned to or referenced by stories.
• Protection checks both assigned story resources and exact frame references.
• Deletion is safely blocked before any database or file removal occurs.
• Authors can see which of their own stories use a resource before deleting it.
• Stories owned by other authors remain protected without revealing private information.

Additional Improvements

• Improved audio transition reliability when rapidly changing frames.
• Improved modern transition cancellation during rapid navigation, restarting, and Story Preview.
• Improved editor Voice integration and selection behavior.
• Improved Voice preview playback inside the editor.
• Numerous stability improvements and bug fixes throughout the editor and Theater.