ARK: Aberration [Steam], the next DLC from Studio Wildcard for their expensive survival game has been announced.
I will get the trailer and info out of the way before I give my thoughts on this:
Direct Link
Gee, that sure does look nice! Quite beautiful even. It's a damned shame the Linux version looks nothing close to the Windows version in terms of graphical features.
It's a new derelict, malfunctioning ARK (haaah) which has an elaborate underground biome system.
Here's where it gets more interesting: there is extremely radioactive sunlight and environmental hazards, ziplines, wingsuits, climbing gear, cave dwellings, charge-batteries, and far more. There's plenty of new creatures, including some humanoids as well.
My thoughts
You might by wondering about my little "haaah" up there. Well, a malfunctioning ARK for a game that is traditionally very buggy is quite amusing. Amusing in the sad way, that is.
What isn't amusing is what Studio Wildcard have done. They released a paid DLC while the game was unfinished and in Early Access, then they bumped the price up by around double. Here we are only a few days after "release" and another paid DLC has been announced for release in October.
The Linux version is still in bad shape too. As mentioned, the Linux version really does look nothing like the Windows version. Not only that, but the water rendering is still broken on Linux, which results in a murky plain brown texture everywhere instead of water. You also still get bad graphical glitches when you leave the water too.
Sure, the cave graphical glitches are now fixed, great! The problem with that, is that it's probably due to the newer NVIDIA drivers. The ARK developers have never commented on the graphical problems the Linux version has, anywhere. So I highly doubt they actually fixed it themselves.
Will I be buying a DLC for ARK? Probably never. I don't think you should either, until they pay more attention to the issues encountered by Linux gamers.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last time I tried to fire it up a week ago, under Linux, myself, it just crashed to desktop trying to play a new Single Player world. I gave up trying again right then and there.
slaapliedje 1 Sep 2017
Wish we could get Conan Exiles ported. I'd rather play that myself. Plus boobs and physx for junk if you're into that sort of thing.
But no physx for boobs? Count me out! :P
slaapliedje 1 Sep 2017
@laimdawe have you attempted to reach out to the developer for a response? I really want to play this game again, but all I get are big black blocks around models or my screen fills with big red blobs.Yes, by all available methods, multiple times. They have never once replied to me.
@laimdawe have you attempted to reach out to the developer for a response? I really want to play this game again, but all I get are big black blocks around models or my screen fills with big red blobs.Yes, by all available methods, multiple times. They have never once replied to me.
That is sad to hear. Thank for trying to reach out. I do miss me some Ark.
Anders1232 1 Sep 2017
Last edited by Anders1232 on 1 Sep 2017 at 10:21 pm UTC
Wish we could get Conan Exiles ported. I'd rather play that myself. Plus boobs and physx for junk if you're into that sort of thing.Dong physics are the next evolution of video gaming. On a serious note, I would love Conan Exiles on Linux. It's one of the very few survival games that has me interested.
Sure, the cave graphical glitches are now fixed, great! The problem with that, is that it's probably due to the newer NVIDIA drivers. The ARK developers have never commented on the graphical problems the Linux version has, anywhere. So I highly doubt they actually fixed it themselves.It is the combination of the new nvidia drivers and an ark update that fixed the issue, neither was enough on its own. Probably they got the fix free when they merged the renderer code from UE4 though. The same ark update regressed the state of ark on free radeon drivers too, according to two different persons. I don't know if that has been addressed, but I will consider it not fixed until I hear someone with both ark and radeon tell me otherwise.
That being said, I do think ARK on my computer with nvidia at the moment are among the best looking linux games, but only when I don't look at the water. Looking at the water I have still seen worse graphics, but the water graphics looks more like something they would do late 90s than 2017. Additionally I don't really trust that they won't break the renderer again in the near future.
I want the DLC, and I am generally willing to buy DLCs so I get a better game, but because it doesn't affect servers with DLC content disabled I probably won't. I don't really want to play on servers where I don't know anyone. I bought Scorched Earth, but never really played it because I didn't have any friends playing it. I started SE single player, but it wasn't fun to play alone.
Last edited by Ketil on 2 Sep 2017 at 12:56 am UTC
lucifertdark 2 Sep 2017
Crazy Penguin 2 Sep 2017
The 5 minute menu freeze on startup that I've had since day one has finally vanished, that was the main thing that stopped me playing, now I can actually get into the game & start playing straight away instead of going off & making a cup of coffee while I wait for the menu to wake itself up again.
I still have this issue, also that I have to start the game at least 3 times before I can play it. But then it looks like <censored> and I'm quitting it. It is still no fun to play it on Linux :(
Was there anything in the changelog about that? Could just be a coincidence.
"Sure, the cave graphical glitches are now fixed, great!"This is the closest to mentioning it in changelog, they don't say anything about linux or caves though. (256.0): "Huge perf gains, may vary based on system configuration due to upgrading to the latest Unreal Rendering code. After changing your in game settings, be sure to restart your clients!".
Was there anything in the changelog about that? Could just be a coincidence.
lucifertdark 2 Sep 2017
I still have this issue, also that I have to start the game at least 3 times before I can play it. But then it looks like <censored> and I'm quitting it. It is still no fun to play it on Linux :(I had that as well for a while, but that went away for me about 70 updates back, they release so many patches it's hard to keep up with what's in them or even know they've released another one.
expensive survival gameDid you mean expansive? Although both are probably appropriate.
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