RimWorld moves to Ludeon’s Waylith engine, with tests showing up to four times faster performance
Ludeon Studios says RimWorld’s update 1.7 moves the game from Unity to its own Waylith engine, while keeping its look and play unchanged. In the studio’s tests, performance improved by 2–4 times; the update is available on Steam’s unstable beta branch, and Ludeon says saves and most mods still work.
Bottom line — Ludeon’s test cut a 1,500-mod load from 14 minutes to six, though results may vary by PC and mods.
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Ludeon reported a 2.2-times performance improvement in a late-game colony test.
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Ludeon says saves can move between versions 1.6 and 1.7 in either direction.
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Some mods may show a yellow “potentially unsupported” warning until their authors mark them as compatible with 1.7, Ludeon says.
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Ludeon warns that 1.7 may not run on PCs more than 10 years old.
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Rock Paper Shotgun cited early player reports of improved performance and working mods, alongside concerns about higher RAM use.
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Ludeon says more than two dozen modders helped test Waylith before its debut.
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The studio says it is working on another game using Waylith, but has not shared details.