Thanks for the response, Shekhar!
Let me clarify, maybe I'm using the wrong terms. At some point, the content assets have to reside on the users machine in temp in order to view them - that is what's happening during a site's or a swf's initial load. My question is: does the main captivate file insist that everything within it be downloaded during initial load, or are the separate assets within the project loaded as they are required - as in a background jpg loading only when a given step in a system simulation is reached.
Does that make more sense?