RimWorld’s new engine loads 1,500 mods in six minutes
Ludeon’s Waylith-powered 1.7 beta cuts a colossal modpack’s loading time from fourteen minutes and keeps existing colonies moving.
RimWorld’s new engine has survived a fairly RimWorld sort of examination: loading 1,500 mods. Ludeon says its test pack took six minutes on Waylith, down from fourteen on Unity. Eight minutes reclaimed before the first colonist has even had a chance to complain.
Announced October 12, update 1.7 moves the colony sim onto Ludeon’s own Waylith Engine. The studio also measured a 2.2-fold performance improvement in a late-game colony. Startup, map generation and simulation ticks all get faster in its tests. The announcement singles out colonies with 40 people and 200 ducks. The ducks have apparently secured an infrastructure budget.
Ludeon says saves travel both ways between 1.6 and 1.7, and the vast majority of mods work without changes. More than two dozen modders helped test the transition.
The beta is available through RimWorld’s Steam Properties menu: Betas, then the unstable branch. Ludeon is also building another game on Waylith; it has yet to reveal what that game is.