RimWorld players facing long waits and stuttering performance in late-game sessions now have a path to significantly faster gameplay. Ludeon Studios released update 1.7, which swaps the game's underlying Unity engine for a proprietary tool called Waylith. This shift targets the specific bottlenecks that have frustrated veteran colony simmers, promising up to four times better performance in internal tests. If the developer's numbers hold up, players with heavy mod setups or massive colonies will see immediate relief from hardware strain.
New engine cuts loading times and boosts late-game speed for colony sim players
The core change involves moving the colony simulation game from Unity to the newly developed Waylith Engine. Ludeon Studios stated, "Ludeon Studios has announced update 1.7, which moves its colony simulation game from Unity to the company's newly developed Waylith Engine." This architectural shift aims to optimize how the game handles complex simulations and large numbers of entities. The studio is already using this new foundation for a second, unannounced title in development.
Internal testing shows performance improvements of between two and four times compared with version 1.6. In one stress test, a demanding late-game colony ran 2.2 times faster than before. Another test involving 1,500 mods saw loading times fall from 14 minutes to just six. These metrics highlight the potential for smoother gameplay, though the studio notes these figures are developer-reported rather than independently verified. Players should expect faster frame rates and quicker load times, especially on systems with many active modifications.
Save files remain compatible in both directions between versions 1.6 and 1.7, allowing players to switch back if needed. Update 1.7 is available now through RimWorld's unstable beta branch on Steam. The studio warns that PCs more than 10 years old might not be able to run the new engine. This hardware note suggests that while performance gains are substantial, older systems may face compatibility issues with the new Waylith Engine.
The update delivers concrete speed improvements for late-game scenarios and mod-heavy configurations. Players can access the changes immediately via the Steam beta branch. Save compatibility ensures no progress is lost during the transition. The move to Waylith marks a significant technical step for the studio, which is also applying the engine to a new project.
Source: NotebookCheck
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