RimWorld 1.7更新换用自研Waylith引擎，性能最高提升400%

Despite launching in early access in 2013, RimWorld's developer, Ludeon Studios has just started a switch away from the Unity game engine to its own in-house Waylith engine with update 1.7. In a new blog post, the developer notes that the switch away from Unity could result in performance improvements of "2-4×," while claiming an identical gameplay experience.

In the studio's in-house testing, game load time, startup time, world and map generation, and general tick-per-second performance all saw significant performance improvements. A stress test with a "late game colony" saw a performance improvement of 2.2×, although the studio didn't exactly share test parameters beyond that. Load times of a mod pack with 1,500 mods also improved from 14 minutes to 6 minutes. The studio notes that individual performance improvements on the new engine will depend on PC specs, but those are promising improvements if scaling holds up.

The Waylith Engine is currently available for testing in the RimWorld 1.7 beta branch, and Ludeon adds that the new game engine not only plays the same, but it should also require minimal intervention from modders and players. Save games from 1.6 should load without problems, and "the vast majority of mods" will work without changes. The new engine also promises additional C# language features for mod developers and should make it easier to write complex mods without affecting game performance.

The only catch that Ludeon points out is that older PCs may not support the new game engine, but it encourages players to reach out via Discord for assistance, as "we may be able to make some changes to help."

This is only the latest instance that highlights the importance of custom game engines in an industry in which we are seeing more and more game studios move away from custom engine development in favor of the likes of Unity and Unreal Engine.