Hacker News
Fact-Checking Lottie Comparisons in Rive vs. Lottie
I happened to come across the following page recently: https://rive.app/blog/rive-as-a-lottie-alternative I found it interesting that Rive officially compared itself to Lottie based on fairly recent information. However, I was quite surprised by the many vague or inaccurate statements made about Lottie. As a developer familiar with Lottie, I'd like to offer a different perspective on a few key points.
1. Responsiveness
The claim that Lottie "regenerate animations" to scale for different screen sizes is puzzling. In most GUI environments, responsiveness is handled by standard layout and scrolling systems. Since Lottie animations are vector-based, they naturally scale according to their aspect ratio within the assigned layout. There is no need to regenerate the animation—rendering scalable vector graphics in real time is already built into the design.
2. Dynamic Data Integration
It’s inaccurate to describe Lottie as strictly static. Event Lottie supports scripting and allows runtime updates of animation properties, enabling dynamic behavior driven by external data or user interaction.
3. Blurs and Shadows
Lottie fully supports vector-based effects such as Gaussian blur and drop shadows. These are rendered as scalable vector effects— How this specifically increases file size. Doesn't make sense.
4. Masking
Lottie has multiple types of masking, including at least four distinct modes. One of the most powerful is the Matte feature, which goes well beyond basic alpha masking and allows for advanced compositing techniques.
5. File Size and Rendering
Relying solely on a binary format for production use can be limiting in terms of flexibility. Lottie's text-based JSON format is easily readable, editable, and compressible during the build or packaging process. It allows for streamlined workflows where designers and developers can collaborate effectively before optionally converting to a binary format for optimization.
6. GPU-Accelerated Rendering
GPU acceleration is available in many Lottie runtimes, moreover, Lottie's lightweight and flexible architecture enables it to run on a wide range of devices, including low-power IoT hardware. This level of adaptability is a key strength, not a weakness.
7. Asset Management
Whether to embed assets or link to them externally is entirely up to the developer. Lottie offers flexibility in this regard—it is not restricted to embedded assets only.
8. Platform Support
Lottie already supports a broad range of platforms. There are 3rd-party user plugins integrated into major engines like Unity and even Godot has upcoming support for Lottie integration officially. Even Lottie is is capable on on MCU-based chipsets, IoT, or RTOS devices.
IMHO, Publishing incorrect or false information as if it were true on an official company page is something that should be approached with caution.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577809
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Show HN: I built a social media for sport players
I built this platform for sport players to share their highlights and be seen by other players and coaches. Its free check it out!
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577797
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Secretive Russian military satellites release mystery object into orbit
Republicans Debate Hiking Top Tax Rate to 40% for Millionaires
Article URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-03/republicans-debate-hiking-top-tax-rate-to-40-for-millionaires
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577786
Points: 4
# Comments: 1
Cybersecurity professor targeted by FBI has not been detained, lawyer says
In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea
Article URL: https://rethinkingsoftware.substack.com/p/in-retrospect-devops-was-a-bad-idea
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577745
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Epsilon, Phi: The Tariffs Have Some Math
Article URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-04-03/the-tariffs-have-some-math
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577734
Points: 2
# Comments: 1
The American Yawp: A Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook
Article URL: https://www.americanyawp.com
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577733
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
My Model of Language Models
Article URL: https://tomlee.wtf/2025/04/03/a-model-of-language-models/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577610
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Making OCaml Safe for Performance Engineering [video]
Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3qd4zpm1LA
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577579
Points: 2
# Comments: 0
Elephant Skin" Fungi Tiles Provide Better Cooling for Buildings
Show HN: Jetelina v3.0 Has Arrived
Yay, Jetelna v3.0 has been released.Jetelina has quite unique functions, the primary is handling multi database at once in using webapis, the secondly is perfectly controlling with key typing, and of course more. The v3.0 has been impremented in using MongoDB; then it can use Postgre/Mysql/redis and mongo at once, some stats functions, and improved the usage. Visit the site.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577546
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
A dumb way to close your laptop's browser from your phone
Article URL: https://abenezer.org/blog/close-your-laptop-browser-from-your-phone
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577507
Points: 2
# Comments: 0
Generate llms.txt files for AI-friendly websites
Article URL: https://llms-txt.io/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577500
Points: 2
# Comments: 0
The Great Compression
Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Compression
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577497
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Show HN: Tiny Python+Preact tool for debugging agents
Hello HN,
I wanted to share a project I have been working on recently called "plomp". It is intended to be a drop-in way to gain visibility into python programs which are prompting LLMs many times or using complicated contexts while remaining unopinionated on how you are doing the prompting.
Basically you add some instrumentation to your program via decorators or small function calls and it produces a visualization of the program execution.
Personally, I am not particularly interested in using a heavy-duty orchestration or chaining framework for managing context, chaining prompts (Langchain etc.) and I typically just interact directly with the LLM providers via their clients or standard HTTPS. I had noticed that having this layer for debugging would be useful for some of my other side projects so I decided to pull it out into something standalone.
https://github.com/michaelgiba/plomp
Let me know what you think
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577494
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Google unveils end-to-end messages for Gmail. Only thing is: It's not true E2EE
Article URL: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/04/are-new-google-e2ee-emails-really-end-to-end-encrypted-kinda-but-not-really/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577492
Points: 3
# Comments: 0
Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI
Article URL: https://www.kapwing.com/blog/what-its-like-to-interview-a-software-engineer-preparing-with-ai/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577490
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
First 95% AI-Created Anime Releases to Positive Reception
Article URL: https://www.animesenpai.net/worlds-first-95-ai-created-anime-twins-hinahima-releases-to-positive-reception/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577482
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
The NBA is as talented and skilled as it's ever been. So why all the negativity?
Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6019886/2025/04/01/nba-media-negativity-charles-barkley-shaq/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43577478
Points: 2
# Comments: 5