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RimWorld is moving from Unity to Waylith, Ludeon Studios’ in-house engine, in Update 1.7. Ludeon says its tests show performance gains of 2–4× over Update 1.6, including a 2.2× improvement in a late-game colony test. Those are developer-reported results, not independent benchmarks, and the studio says actual gains vary by PC and mods.

What is Waylith, and what is changing in RimWorld?

Waylith is an engine built in-house by Ludeon Studios. The studio announced on October 12, 2026, that RimWorld Update 1.7 moves the game from Unity to Waylith. Ludeon says the game looks and plays the same after the switch; the intended change is in how the game runs and how it can be developed and extended.

The comparison in the announcement is between RimWorld 1.7 and 1.6—not a general test of Waylith against Unity across different games. Ludeon also says it is developing another, as-yet-undetailed game on Waylith. It has not announced that game’s name or release timing.

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How much faster does Ludeon say Update 1.7 is?

Ludeon reports a 2–4× performance improvement over Update 1.6 in its tests. It names faster startup, loading with large mod lists, map and world generation, and general ticks per second as areas of improvement. The 2–4× figure is the studio’s overall claim, not a guaranteed result for every player or a single universal benchmark.

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6 minutes instead of 14 minutes Loading a 1,500-mod pack A single comparison reported by Ludeon Studios in 2026.

The figures come from Ludeon’s own tests. The studio cautions that individual improvements may vary with a player’s PC and mods, so a particular setup may see a smaller gain—or a different result—than the examples above.

Can you try Update 1.7, and what happens to saves?

At the time of the October 12, 2026 announcement, Update 1.7 was available on Steam’s unstable beta branch, while the main branch remained on 1.6. Branch availability can change, so check RimWorld’s Steam page for the current status before switching.

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Ludeon says saves work in both directions: a 1.6 save loads in 1.7, and a 1.7 save also works when returning to 1.6. If you plan to switch branches, keeping a separate copy of an important save is a sensible precaution.

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Will your mods and PC work with the new engine?

Ludeon says the vast majority of mods work without changes from their authors. A yellow “potentially unsupported” warning may appear simply because the game version number changed; it does not by itself establish that a mod is broken. Mod authors have been asked to test their mods and mark them compatible.

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The studio also warns that a PC more than 10 years old may not run Update 1.7. That is a possibility, not a blanket statement that every older computer is unsupported. Players with older hardware should check whether the update runs on their own system before relying on it.

What does Waylith mean for modders?

Ludeon says Waylith supports the latest C# language features and makes it more accessible to create performance-conscious complex mods and larger visual changes. More than two dozen modders helped test the engine and provide feedback before its debut. These are statements from the studio; the announcement does not establish how every existing or future mod will perform.

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What the performance announcement does—and does not—show

The numbers make Update 1.7 sound promising for players who run large mod lists or late-game colonies, but they should be read as Ludeon’s comparison of two RimWorld versions. The announcement does not supply independent benchmark results or establish that Waylith is universally faster than Unity. For an individual player, PC age, hardware and mod configuration remain important variables.

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