ARK: Survival Evolved updated with the latest 'Unreal Rendering code', still terrible on Linux

Quoting: KetilI think this article should have waited until we had done a bit more research, because as it is now, it is misleading.

If they fix the water, and manage to make it work out of the box, then it is release quality for sure.

Very correct, I feel significant improvements in response and frame rate. The water is not a render issue I think but simply a missing texture or wrong spelled filename (Linux is case sensitive). I mean, on The Center map the water looks just fine.


Last edited by CyberRat on 16 August 2017 at 10:39 pm UTC

Quoting: KetilI think this article should have waited until we had done a bit more research because as it is now, it is misleading.

No, it's the exact experience for me, it's not misleading in any way. I've tested all settings, tried resetting them and cleared out any cache as well. I did plenty of tests, all resulting in the same thing.

Quoting: KetilArticles like this might discourage further fixes because we don't compliment them for what they actually have done, and claim they are not fixing anything. We should complain about what is wrong, but not claim what they have fixed is still broken.

What have they done exactly? Ignore bugs for many months, pull in some Unreal Engine code which gave some people an FPS boost. I won't compliment them, since they're still obviously not putting any effort into the Linux version. This is very clear.

It's a shame to see so many problems with the Unreal Engine on Linux, I have yet to see a single UE4 game working well on Linux. Hopefully more Vulkan support in the future and the devs could use it right off the bat for better cross-platform support, it would surely make their work a bit easier too.

I tend to pit this game in the same vein as Rust, they're both survival games and despite Rust being a bit better, they're both a hot topic when it comes to performance on Linux.

Going by the comments, it seems the devs are either not allocating any resources to the Linux version or simply don't have the manpower to tackle the issues.


Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 16 August 2017 at 11:11 pm UTC

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: KetilI think this article should have waited until we had done a bit more research because as it is now, it is misleading.

No, it's the exact experience for me, it's not misleading in any way. I've tested all settings, tried resetting them and cleared out any cache as well. I did plenty of tests, all resulting in the same thing.

I'm sorry, I meant the title, and the overall tone in the article was misleading for the state of ark on linux in general. Not that your experience was misleading. The experience is an important part of the state, but it is not the full picture, and I thought your article was meant to show the whole picture. I cannot tell if I read it wrong, or if it is written in a way that is easy to misread.

I don't agree that the state of ark on linux is terrible. It is graphically not too great and was terrible before this fix, but the cave issue seems to be fixed in the renderer, if it doesn't use files generated by old version. At this point the water bug is an inconvenience, but it can mostly be worked around by swimming under water when you do water stuff. It is still not good, but it is more an inconvenience that shouldn't be there than a game breaking bug. The cave issue was more game breaking, but I think the new render is able to do it well, if it doesn't use old data that confuses it. I think a clean install would work, e.g. delete all configs and restore the default ones via steam, but I don't have enough data to say for sure.

I am sorry for all the heat in my comments.

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: KetilArticles like this might discourage further fixes because we don't compliment them for what they actually have done, and claim they are not fixing anything. We should complain about what is wrong, but not claim what they have fixed is still broken.

What have they done exactly? Ignore bugs for many months, pull in some Unreal Engine code which gave some people an FPS boost. I won't compliment them, since they're still obviously not putting any effort into the Linux version. This is very clear.

If we want ark to be fixed, I think we must give ark the victories they get intended or not. That way they are less likely to see us as a mistake, too much support for too few buyers. Maybe it is too late, or maybe not. I hope it is not, because I believe this game can be fixed, and if it gets fixed, then it will be quite awesome.

Since this update my Ark got(even more) broken visually on my desktop(R7 360, amdgpu(xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu v1.3.0-1), Debian testing)

There's a video of my gameplay:
https://youtu.be/OnceJYyMiL8

Did the latest UE4 engine update have Vulkan API option? seems unifying to that could really save this game rather then them attempting to make the OpenGL renderer work (which they clearly can't)

It is better to have a fix that touches the right direction, but isn't good enough than no fix at all, because it indicates rendering logic has recently been worked on. Something recently worked on is more likely they still actively work on than some part of the code we haven't seen changes in months.

I think we have far more reason to be optimistic today than we had two weeks ago. That being said, we didn't have much reason for optimism two weeks ago, so having more reason doesn't necessarily mean we have to be optimistic.

Quoting: TheRiddickDid the latest UE4 engine update have Vulkan API option?

Yes, latest UE4 has Vulkan.

This is just a situation of hard-love. If we allow our standards to be so low that we accept being treated as sub-equal to Windows, Mac and Consoles -- developers will be conditioned to treat us as so.

There's a time to call a developer out for product defects and a time to say please and thank you, -- they're all part of the same balance -- everything in its right proportion -- I'm glad to see this article in my feed today.

the developer will probably use this to show that linux sales are poor and not worth the trouble. That seems to happen all to often, never mind the fact people can't play their game.

Quoting: KetilIf we want ark to be fixed, I think we must give ark the victories they get intended or not. That way they are less likely to see us as a mistake, too much support for too few buyers. Maybe it is too late, or maybe not. I hope it is not, because I believe this game can be fixed, and if it gets fixed, then it will be quite awesome.

Victories? ok here's a victory they'll love, I'm getting none of the problems Liam is getting, there's your victory, of course the damn game doesn't run anymore on my machine, but at least I'm not getting any of the problems Liam is getting.

eit: further on in this thread I found out the game is working, mostly, but the performance is still way off what it should be by now.


Last edited by lucifertdark on 18 August 2017 at 9:59 am UTC