RimWorld switches engine from Unity to the devs' own, faster Waylith Engine, all apparently without breaking mods somehow
RimWorld’s developer Ludeon Studios is switching the game from Unity to its in-house Waylith Engine in update 1.7, promising up to 4x faster performance while preserving mods and saves.
Ludeon Studios, the team behind RimWorld, has announced that the sci-fi colony sim will transition from the Unity engine to its own Waylith Engine with the upcoming update 1.7. The studio emphasizes that the visuals and gameplay will remain unchanged, but performance improvements are expected across multiple areas. Ludeon highlights faster startup, reduced load times with large mod lists, quicker map and world generation, and higher ticks-per-second as key benefits of the switch.
The update’s most notable feature is the continued compatibility with community mods despite the engine change. Ludeon acknowledges that some mods may display as 'potentially unsupported' due to version differences, yet they will still function normally. Players can also carry over saves from version 1.6 to 1.7 without losing progress, ensuring a seamless transition for existing users.
The update is currently accessible via Steam’s beta branch for testing by players and modders before its official release. Early feedback from the Reddit announcement thread indicates that performance improvements are being observed, though some users report increased RAM usage. The announcement also cautions that PCs older than 10 years may not support the new version.
This move mirrors a similar transition by Mega Crit, which shifted Slay the Spire 2 from Unity to Godot following Unity’s proposed per-installation fee for developers. The shift underscores a growing trend among indie studios to reduce reliance on commercial engines.