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This is great news for RimWorld players. Developer Ludeon Studios has announced that the game will now run on its own in-house engine, replacing the Unity engine. This new engine is calledWaylith Engine, and this changeUpdate 1.7Coming with.
(Image credit: Ludeon Studios)
What is the full news?
According to the studio, the game’s look and gameplay will remain the same. The only difference is the speed. Performance in their own tests2 to 4 timesIt looked better by 2020. This is no small improvement, especially for a game whose large colonies often bring PCs to their knees in the late game.
Ludeon performed a stress test on a late-game colony, finding version 1.7 closer to version 1.62.2 timesRuns better. Also, loading times for a massive modpack with 1,500 mods.Reduced from 14 minutes to 6 minutesThe studio also clarified that these are their own results, and actual results may vary depending on your PC and mods.
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What will happen to old saves and mods?
The first question any veteran RimWorld player might have is, “What will happen to my colony, the colony I’ve worked so hard to build over the years?” Here’s a relief. According to the studio, your 1.6 saves will load in 1.7, and your 1.7 saves will still work if you revert to 1.6. This means you can seamlessly switch between the two versions.
PC Gamer reports that most mods are working the same way on both versions. RimWorld’s true strength lies in its modding community, so this news is significant. Keep in mind that “most” doesn’t mean “all,” so some mods may be problematic.
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What does the players’ experience say?
If you want to try it out now, the 1.7 Unstable Beta branch is available. Players trying it out on Reddit seem quite impressed. One user reported that their game ran at a stable 120 FPS and their tick speed was around 900, compared to 60 FPS and around 700 at max speed previously.
Another player repeated Ludeon’s modpack test and loaded approximately 1,477 mods. According to them, loading times decreased from “at least 30 minutes” to “at least 30 minutes.”6 minutes 17 secondsThis means the results aren’t limited to just the studio’s claims.
There’s a price, too: RAM hunger.
With every good thing, there are trade-offs. One player complained that the new build was quite RAM-hungry, using 12 to 13 GB of RAM upon launch. This is something to keep in mind if your PC has limited RAM. However, this is a beta build, so improvements are expected in the future.
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Hint: Something new is coming too
The most interesting part of the news comes at the end. Ludeon has stated that RimWorld won’t be the only game running on Waylith. Studio OneBrand new projectsis working on it. No details have been provided yet, and more details may take some time to emerge, but this hint is enough to pique fans’ curiosity.
Nowadays, major studios are abandoning their in-house engines and moving to ready-made engines like Unreal. In such a time, for an indie-level studio to go the opposite direction and build its own engine, while still maintaining old saves and mods, is truly a matter of courage and hard work. If these beta results hold up until the final release, RimWorld’s heavily modded colonies will truly “run” for the first time.
If you play RimWorld, be sure to back up your saves before trying the beta. Let us know how your results are on PC in the comments.
Source: PC Gamer, Joshua Wolens, 13 October 2026
