Autodesk has released RV 2025.0.0, the latest version of its playback and review tool, used widely in VFX and animation pipelines. The update was published on 5 September 2025 and is available for download now.
The new build introduces a Live Review workflow, currently in Beta, extending RV’s integration with the Creative Review web app. Artists can now join sessions hosted in Creative Review. The presenter gains the ability to mute all participants, while individuals can mute their own audio on entry. Automatic timeline annotation markers are always enabled when Creative Review runs the session, making collaborative feedback more consistent.
ARM Macs, onion skins, and high DPI
RV 2025 now runs natively on Apple Silicon ARM64 Macs and is compatible with macOS Sequoia 15.5. Hardware decoding for ProRes on ARM64 is also included, which should improve playback performance for studios handling Apple-native media.
Annotation tools have gained Hold and Ghost functions, also known as onion skinning, which allow users to compare drawings across frames. The annotation menu also includes a new option to clear all notes from the timeline in one action.
High DPI display support has been introduced for both macOS and Linux. However, Windows remains restricted due to instability with Qt 6.5.3. Autodesk notes that users can manually enable high DPI support on Windows via an environment variable, although the company does not guarantee stable results. If issues arise, a second variable is available to disable high DPI support entirely.
Playback, codecs, and pipelines
RV 2025 extends playback features by adding support for multiple media representations when loading OpenTimelineIO files. The Screening Room can now extend or override the list of available media representations, making it more flexible for studios that manage multiple deliverables.
For hardware outputs, Autodesk has added 120 Hz SDI output timing for devices from Blackmagic Design. Codec handling has also been improved, with ProRes hardware decode now supported on Apple Silicon. A new Diagnostic Tool is included for Live Review sessions, designed to assist in troubleshooting connection or synchronisation issues.
SDK and API housecleaning
RV’s underlying libraries have received significant updates. OpenEXR has been bumped to version 3.2.4, while OpenColorIO now runs on version 2.3.2. Python support has moved to version 3.11.9, and the Boost library has been upgraded to 1.82.0. FFmpeg has been updated to 6.1.2, and OpenSSL is now at version 3.0.
Pipeline-specific integrations have also advanced. The ARRI RAW SDK is now supported at version 0.21.1, the Blackmagic Design SDK has moved to 14.3, and the NDI SDK is at version 6.2.0. Qt 6.5.3 is now supported across all platforms. The Flow Production Tracking toolkit inside RV has been aligned with tk-core version 0.22.3.
Bug fixes
Autodesk reports a long list of resolved issues in RV 2025. The update fixes the broken presentation mode on Apple M1 machines and removes compatibility problems with Nuke versions 13, 14 and 15. A crash that occurred when loading incomplete PNG image sequences has been corrected, along with another that was triggered by AV1 movie files.
Playback synchronisation has been improved by fixing intermittent audio delays in presentation mode. Annotation drawing in Live Review has been sped up by removing delays, and the incorrect handling of source frame values in clips has been resolved. Proxy environment variables, which had previously failed, are now supported properly. Linux users running Rocky 8 with the Plasma X11 desktop should also find that errors on startup no longer occur.
Known limitations
Despite the introduction of high DPI support on macOS and Linux, Windows remains a problem area. Autodesk warns that high DPI on Windows is disabled by default due to instabilities in QtWebEngine, which is required by Flow Production Tracking packages. Users who want to test it can manually enable it by setting the “RV_QT_HDPI_SUPPORT” environment variable, but Autodesk does not recommend this for production.
Bottom line
RV 2025 is a substantial release, particularly for artists and studios relying on Apple Silicon hardware, annotation-heavy workflows, or participation in Creative Review sessions. As always, production teams should test the new version thoroughly within their own pipelines before rolling it out in active shows.
