Survival construction simulation RimWorld has announced a brand new update, and the main course here is a complete engine swap.

Ludeon Studios announced Update 1.7 on October 13, revealing that they are ditching the Unity engine in favour of their very own custom-built Waylith Engine. The developers claim that testing shows a performance boost of anywhere between two and four times, with late-game stress tests proving to be 2.2 times smoother than Version 1.6.

RimWorld is famous for its thriving modding scene, fueled by endless DLC and expansion potential. From simple quality-of-life tweaks to total overhauls, there are over 30,000 mods registered on the Workshop for Version 1.6 alone. However, running a massive stack of mods simultaneously usually results in dreadful lag, bloated loading times, and stability issues. By moving to the new engine, the team has managed to slash waiting times for loading, map generation, and world generation—bringing the loading time for a modpack containing over 1,500 mods crashing down from 14 minutes to a mere 6.

You can try out Version 1.7 right now by opting into the beta tab. Save files are fully cross-compatible with Version 1.6, and most mods will work without requiring any extra tinkering, though a few exceptions apply. Do keep in mind that older rigs might struggle to boot it up. Ludeon Studios also noted that this custom engine will power not just RimWorld moving forward, but their upcoming unannounced projects as well.

Meanwhile, over on the global Steam top sellers chart, Planet Zoo 2 has claimed the number one spot ahead of its 11 PM launch, beating out ARC Raiders, Star Wars: Episode I Racer, and EA Sports FC 27. Phantom Blade Zero, slated for release on October 29, also made a cheeky entrance into the charts at number nine.

In the top 20 peak concurrent players chart, Deadlock is holding strong in the 200,000 range for two weeks straight following its latest content drop, pulling in 214,517 players and breathing down Apex Legends' neck.