Hi,
not a stupid question!
the swf file can be only downloaded as once!
partial downloads requests to load just a part of a file are not possible via HTTP,
the swf will start and run when enough data for it is there (after ~100kb), but then it needs to waits for each embedded image/file,
for big tours or multiresolution panos the tiles should be still external files,
that would be also better for the download speed, because in this case more files can be downloaded at the same time,
e.g.
just embedded the xml, plugins, buttons, preview images and let all other tiles external,
best regards,
Klaus