Ludeon Studios has announced RimWorld Update 1.7, replacing Unity with its new Waylith engine. The studio reports performance improvements of up to four times, faster loading for heavily modded games and continued save compatibility. The engine is also powering another unannounced Ludeon project.
If your RimWorld colony has ever slowed to a crawl under the weight of dozens of colonists, hundreds of animals and an increasingly questionable number of mods, Ludeon Studios has some very good news.
The developer has announced Update 1.7, which moves RimWorld away from Unity and onto Waylith, a new in-house engine designed to significantly improve performance.
And according to Ludeon's testing, the results are impressive.
In its official announcement, Ludeon claims the new engine delivers performance improvements of between two and four times compared with Update 1.6.
The improvements extend beyond general gameplay, with faster startup times, map generation, world generation and loading times for heavily modded games.
In one stress test involving a late-game colony, Ludeon recorded a 2.2x performance improvement.
Meanwhile, a particularly ambitious modpack containing 1,500 mods saw its loading time drop from 14 minutes to just six.
Of course, individual results will vary depending on hardware and installed mods.
Switching engines might sound like a nightmare for players with hundreds of hours invested in their colonies, but Ludeon says existing saves will remain compatible.
Update 1.6 saves can be loaded in 1.7, and players can even return to 1.6 with their newer saves.
The vast majority of mods should also continue working without changes, although some may initially display compatibility warnings.
For modders, Waylith introduces additional possibilities, including support for newer C# features, more complex modifications and expanded visual effects.
There's one potential downside: PCs more than ten years old may encounter compatibility issues with the new engine.
Perhaps the most intriguing detail arrived at the end of the announcement.
RimWorld isn't the only game using Waylith.
Ludeon confirmed that it's working on another project powered by the engine, although the studio isn't ready to share further details.
For now, Update 1.7 is available through RimWorld's unstable beta branch on Steam, while the main version remains on 1.6.
Whether you're running a modest settlement or a sprawling colony with an alarming duck population, Waylith could make surviving the Rim considerably smoother.
And now there's another Ludeon project to look forward to.
Keep Calm and waka waka...
