Ludeon Studios has announced RimWorld version 1.7, migrating the game's underlying engine from Unity to the studio's self-developed Waylith engine. The developers stated that visuals and gameplay feel will remain unchanged; in internal testing, performance improvements of approximately 2 to 4 times were observed in scenarios such as startup, loading saves with numerous mods installed, map and world generation, and in-game calculations.
In specific tests, when stress-testing with large late-game colonies, version 1.7 achieved 2.2 times the performance of version 1.6; loading a modpack containing 1,500 mods saw load times drop from 14 minutes to 6 minutes. These figures are based on developer testing, and actual results may vary depending on PC specifications and mod combinations.
Regarding compatibility, saves from version 1.6 can be loaded in version 1.7, and even after saving in 1.7, players can return to version 1.6 to continue playing. The developers stated that most mods will run without requiring additional work from their authors, though some mods may display a yellow compatibility warning due to the version number change; computers over ten years old may also be unable to run version 1.7. The new engine also allows mod authors to utilize newer C# language features to create more complex mods, larger-scale visual changes, and custom effects.
Players can currently experience version 1.7 via Steam's unstable branch, with no release date announced for the stable version yet. Ludeon Studios also mentioned that Waylith is being used in another title currently under development by the studio; the name, genre, and specific details of this project have not been disclosed.