Overview

Starting Version

The Rive Renderer was introduced in the iOS runtime starting at v5.3.2, however, we recommend installing the latest version of the dependency to get the latest updates. See the CHANGELOG for details on the latest versions.

Also note that at this time, only Apple Silicon-based Mac machines will support the Rive Renderer in macOS applications.

Performance

The Rive Renderer will shine best on iOS in memory usage as an animation plays out, in comparison to previous default renderers.

With UIKit, you'll be able to see the best performance differences by drawing multiple times on a single RiveView, rather than creating multiple instances of RiveView's, or multiple RiveViewModel's.

Example: See this stress test example to see how you can override the drawing function on RiveView to draw multiple times on the same view, with each graphic at an offset. You can switch out the renderer with the above config and test out the performance for yourself!

Getting Started

Options: Rive / Skia (default)

Below are some notes on configuring the renderer in UIKit and SwiftUI.

UIKit

Set the global renderer type during your application launch:

@UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {

    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        // Override point for customization after application launch.
        // For Skia: set RendererType.skiaRenderer (current default)
        RenderContextManager.shared().defaultRenderer = RendererType.riveRenderer
        return true
    }

    ...
}

SwiftUI

New SwiftUI applications launch with the App protocol, but you can still add UIApplicationDelegate functionality.

iOS

Create a new file and class called AppDelegate as such, including a line to set the defaultRenderer to RendererType.riveRenderer:

import UIKit
import Foundation
import RiveRuntime

class AppDelegate: NSObject, UIApplicationDelegate {
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) -> Bool {
        RenderContextManager.shared().defaultRenderer = RendererType.riveRenderer
        return true
    }
}

Next, at the entry point of your application, use UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor to set the AppDelegate created above for the application delegate.

@main
struct MyRiveRendererApp: App {
    @UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor(AppDelegate.self) var appDelegate
    
    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}

macOS

Create a new file and class called AppDelegate as such, including a line to set the defaultRenderer to RendererType.riveRenderer:

import Foundation
import RiveRuntime

class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {
    func application(_ application: NSApplication, applicationDidFinishLaunching notification: Notification) -> Bool {
        RenderContextManager.shared().defaultRenderer = RendererType.riveRenderer
        return true

Next, at the entry point of your application, use UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor to set the AppDelegate created above for the application delegate.

@main
struct MyRiveRendererApp: App {
    @NSApplicationDelegateAdaptor(AppDelegate.self) var appDelegate
    
    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}