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Adding Rive Assets

To add a .riv file to a Unity project, simply drag it into the Project Window. Once dropped, a Rive Asset will be automatically created.

Now you can display the Rive Asset within a Rive Panel and Rive Widget or create a custom script using the low-level API to display the graphic.

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File

A Rive.File contains Artboards, StateMachines, and Animations.

If you’re working with the Rive Panel and Rive Widgets components, the Rive Widget will automatically handle loading the underlying Rive File from the assigned Asset.
You only need to use this class directly if you want control of the lifecycle of the Rive File, or if you need to load the file from an external source like a CDN.

The Rive.File class also provides several methods to load Rive content into Unity:

If the file is already in memory, a cached version will be returned to improve performance and avoid redundant loading.

1. From a Rive Asset (.riv file)

You can load a Rive.File from an imported .riv asset in the inspector:

public Rive.Asset asset; // pass in .riv asset in the inspector
private Rive.File m_file;

...

private void Start()
{
    if (asset != null)
    {
        m_file = Rive.File.Load(asset);
    }
}

2. From a Unity TextAsset

You can load a Rive.File from a Unity TextAsset. This is useful if you have the bytes bundled as a TextAsset in the Unity project.

public TextAsset riveTextAsset; // assign in the inspector
private Rive.File m_file;

...

private void Start()
{
    if (riveTextAsset != null)
    {
        m_file = Rive.File.Load(riveTextAsset);
    }
}

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3. From a Byte Array

If you have the raw bytes of a .riv file, you can load it directly from a byte array. This method provides flexibility if you’re loading the file data from a custom source or dynamically (e.g. from a CDN-stored file):

private byte[] riveFileBytes; // Your byte array, loaded from remote storage, for example.
private Rive.File m_file;

...

private void Start()
{
    if (riveFileBytes != null)
    {
        m_file = Rive.File.Load(riveFileBytes, "myRiveFileName");

    }
}

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Artboards

Artboards contain State Machines and Animations.

Using a Rive Widget component, you can select from a list of available artboards within a given Rive File.

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State Machines

A StateMachine contains Inputs and Events, for more information see Unity State Machines and Rive Events.

Using a Rive Widget component, you can select from a list of available state machines within a given Artboard.

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Rendering

In Unity, Rive renders to a RenderTexture that you can display in your Scene by attaching to a Material or anywhere else you would use a Render Texture within your project.

The Rive Panel automatically renders its Rive Widgets to a Render Texture.

Using the Rive Canvas Renderer, you can display a Rive Panel within a uGUI Canvas.

To display a Rive Panel on a GameObject’s mesh, use the Rive Texture Renderer.

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