FAQ - Rive 1 Manual

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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

This is the manual for the old version of Rive (formerly Flare). Visit the Help Center for the new Rive here.
What is Rive?
Rive is a real-time interactive design tool that allows you to design, animate, and immediately integrate your assets into any platform.
What is the Rive Editor?
The editor is where you create your designs and animate them.
What are the Rive Runtimes?
The runtimes are open source libraries that allow you to load and manipulate your Rive files in Swift, Flutter, Android, JavaScript/WebGL, React, C++, and more (and we're working on more).
The Rive format and runtimes are all open-source and available through the MIT license.
Is Rive Free?
Yes, Rive is free to use as part of the Open Design movement. You can create unlimited public files for free.
What is Open Design?
In short, we believe the design industry has a lot to benefit from designers sharing their entire process rather than just a final polished screenshot or video. Read our blog post about the initiative.
What is the difference between public and private files?
Public files are viewable by anybody. Private files can only be seen by the owner.
How are public files protected?
Public files are view-only by default. They have no license and they are under your exclusive copyright. Nobody else can use, copy, distribute, or modify your work unless you enable "Allow Fork." We’ll ask you to select a license from the Creative Commons before this can be enabled, so your work is always protected.
What is forking?
A fork is a copy of another user's file. It uses their file as a starting point for a new file in your account. Forking encourages sharing, and you'll probably learn some new techniques too!
What are the system requirements for Rive?
Rive runs on most modern computers, provided they have a graphics card that supports WebGL. We recommend you use Chrome, as it is our browser of choice for development, though Firefox and Safari work as well.
Can I use Rive on multiple computers?
You can use as many computers as you want. We do not have a computer limit.
How many people can use my account?
Accounts are intended for use by a single person. If you want to work with a team, each team member should have their own account. Per our Terms of Service, and for your security, your account may be locked if we notice that multiple people are using it.
What's the best way to learn Rive?
We recommend reading through this manual, beginning with the Rive core concepts. Also check out our tutorials.
Why is Rive online instead of a desktop application?
We believe our approach offers several advantages over the traditional software model:
Access your projects anywhere
No serial numbers/computer limit
Deeply integrated online community for support and learning
Open other users' files directly in the browser. Learn from their techniques.
Fork other users' shared files (if they allow it)
Automatic revision history
Modern and flexible user interface
Immediate availability of new features and functionality
What happens if my internet connection goes down?
Your files are always saved in the local storage of your browser. Even if your connection goes down, you can continue working on your file. As soon as your connection is back, Rive syncs with our online revision manager. Just make sure you find a connection before opening the file on another computer, otherwise you will not see the latest revision of that file.
How do I save my work?
Your work is automatically saved every time you make a change. If you want to force a save, you can press CMD ﹢S on a Mac or CTRL ﹢ S on a PC. You can see a list of all your revisions in the Revision History.
How do I export to Flutter, my game engine, or web?
Use the Export menu in Rive to export your file.
Then use the appropriate runtime for your platform. Our runtimes are libraries that give you full control of your characters in other tools and game engines. They allow you to load and render your character, dynamically manipulate bones, mix animations, and more.
What happens to my private files if I cancel my paid account?
If you cancel your paid account, you will be placed on the free plan. You'll still be able to open your private files, but you won't be able to make changes to them without re-activating your paid account or converting them to public files.
Can I downgrade at any time?
Yes, you can downgrade to the free plan at any time. You can also re-upgrade to the paid plan at any time.
What's Nima?
Nima was our very first product. It’s the foundation off which Rive is built. Rive is our latest tool, with all our latest features.
​Nima is optimized for game engines and only supports raster images. It is primarily designed for character animation. You can still create Nima files, but we will soon be adding support to open your Nima files into Rive. At that point, when all of Nima’s features will be added to Rive, we’ll be removing Nima from the site.
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