Ludeon Studios is moving RimWorld off Unity and onto Waylith, a new engine the studio built itself. The switch arrives with update 1.7, which is in testing on Steam’s unstable beta branch for now. The main branch that most players use is still on version 1.6, so nothing changes unless you opt in.
In its announcement on the Ludeon blog, posted October 12, the studio says the game “looks and plays exactly the same,” while performance in its tests improved by 2 to 4 times.
What Ludeon measured
Ludeon says 1.7 is faster than 1.6 at startup, at loading saves with big mod lists, at map and world generation, and in general ticks per second. A stress-tested late-game colony ran 2.2 times better on 1.7. A modpack with 1,500 mods went from 14 minutes to 6 minutes to load. The studio stresses that these are its own results and that gains may vary depending on your PC and your mods.
Saves and mods carry over
According to Ludeon, players don’t need to do anything to switch. Saves from 1.6 load on 1.7, and 1.7 saves still work if you go back to 1.6. The studio says the vast majority of mods run on 1.7 without changes from their authors. Some may be flagged in yellow as “potentially unsupported,” but Ludeon says that’s only because the version number changed. Modders are asked to test their work and publish a version marked 1.7-compatible so the warning goes away.
Waylith also gives modders more room, according to the post. They can use the latest C# language features, write complex mods with less impact on performance, and more easily make big visual changes and custom effects. Ludeon thanked more than two dozen modders who tested ahead of launch, and credited RocketWerkz, whose Brutal framework helped make Waylith possible.
There is one catch. If your PC is more than 10 years old, 1.7 may not run on it. Ludeon asks affected players to report it on the official RimWorld development Discord, saying it may be able to make changes to help.
How to try the beta
To opt in, right-click RimWorld in your Steam library, open Properties, go to the Betas tab and pick the “unstable” branch. Ludeon says to restart Steam if the game doesn’t update on its own. The studio hasn’t given a date for 1.7 to reach the main branch.
A new game on Waylith
RimWorld won’t be Waylith’s only game. Ludeon says it is working on something new on the engine, though it may be a while before the studio shares details.
