Summary
There’s more than one massive change coming toArk: Survival Evolvedthis September. Most players are already familiar with theupcomingAberrationDLC forASA, which features a variety of new creatures and survival features on a ruined, irradiated map. Like most maps released forASA,Aberrationwas originally released forArk: Survival Evolvedas a free DLC, but is finally coming back to the remaster on September 4. It’s one of the biggest and most unique maps available, so the excitement for it is understandable.
However,all theAberrationhype might have overshadowed another important update coming toArksoon. It might not be quite as flashy, but it has the potential to bring scores of new players to the game. But for all the talk about it, there’s still some uncertainty about its actual release date.
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The Aberration DLC for Ark: Survival Ascended adds a plethora of amazing gameplay features, but one mechanic comes with its fair share of weirdness.
Ark: Survival Evolved Might Be Getting A Performance Upgrade On September 4
Unreal Engine 5.4 & FSR 3.1
A Tweet from Studio Wildcard co-founder and lead programmerJeremy Stieglitzsuggests thatArk: Survival Ascendedmight be getting a major boost to its performance on September 4to coincide with the release ofAberration. The performance improvements come in two forms: an upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.4, and the incorporation of FSR 3.1. While the actual impact of these changes isn’t clear, they’re expected (or maybe more accurately, hoped) to solve some persistent issues with the game’s performance.
Both iterations ofArkhave used versions of the Unreal Engine to render their graphics; the leap from Unreal Engine 4 to 5 was one of thebiggest differences betweenArk: Survival EvolvedandAscended, and a major selling point of the latter. And indeed,ASA’s graphics do show a marked improvement overASE’s. However, the 5.4 update is, at the time of writing, the most current stable version of the Unreal Engine. Released in April 2024, it contains a number of new features for devs, but also promises several changes toimprove rendering performance across the board.
Besides that,ASAis also expected to upgrade to FSR 3.1 on September 4. FSR stands for FidelityFX Super Resolution, an AMD-developed technology that handles upscaling without compromising on frame rates. In theory, that means high-resolution rendering happens more quickly, so big, complex environments don’t cause games to dip in performance. According to Stieglitz,ASAis planning on integrating the latest version of FSR: 3.1. While all versions of FSR address performance to some extent, this latest update offers some of the greatest frame rate stability yet.
Although it’s an AMD-developed technology, FSR works on Nvidia GPUs as well.
Ark: Survival Ascended Has A Performance Problem
How Unreal 5.4 & FSR Could Solve It
The dual Unreal Engine-FSR upgrades could address the major performance problems with the current version ofASA, which runs pretty poorly, even on higher-end hardware more than capable of runningASEat similar settings. A frequent player complaint is that the game is “poorly optimized,” which seems to have become a catch-all buzzword for all poorly-performing games. Whatever the cause, though,ASA’s poor performance can’t be denied. Its frame rates frequently skirt the single digits, especially onArk’s biggest and most complicated maps.
This is a huge barrier to entry for players who can’t meet its high system requirements. And withSurvival Evolvedstripped of its multiplayer features, players who want the fullArkexperience are forced either to spend exorbitant amounts of money to upgrade their systems, or simply learn to live withAscended’s poor performance. That could all change with these updates, however. If they really have as much of an impact on performance as they’re claimed to, the result could be a much more accessibleASA. This could mean new and returning players flocking to the game in droves, potentially filling out stagnating servers and breathing new life intoASA.
Recent Ark: Survival Ascended Creature Controversy Points To A Much Bigger Problem With ASA
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Ark: Survival Ascended Could Also See More Mod Storage This September
Xbox & PS5 Have Limited Space For Mods
Besides the performance upgrades, another Tweet fromJeremy Stieglitzhas sparked a rumor thatASA’s limited mod storage space on consoles will be expanded, although there’s even less of a concrete release date for this one.Ark: Survival Ascendedis known for its huge mods, which may introduce hundreds of new creatures, massive new maps, or innovative new gameplay features. In fact, most of the maps currently released asASADLC started as unofficial mods forSurvival Evolved.ASAadded an internal mod engine which allows players to download mods in-game, including on consoles. But it comes with certain limitations for console players.
The problem is thatplayers on PS5 and Xbox have a limited amount of disk space allocated for mods(20 GB). That fills up quickly, and there’s no way to expand it from the player’s side - once it’s full, they’ll have to delete one mod to make room for another, even if they have ample space remaining on console storage. Calls for increased mod storage have been near-ubiquitous since launch, and the situation has improved. Even the current 20 GB is more than what was available at launch.
But again, Stieglitz’s Tweet is intentionally, even playfully, vague.There’s no concrete release date for the mod storage updates, although September would make sense. Previous updates have come out alongside major DLC maps, so history could repeat itself there. Even if not, it probably won’t be far behind. This could be a great incentive for more console players to return to the game, as they’d be able to download multiple modded maps without losing their progress each time they wanted to make space for a new one.
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This expansive mod for Ark: Survival Ascended introduces a range of mutated creatures that can fundamentally change how players survive on The Island.
However, it’s important to note that the September 4 release date is just an estimate from one person at Wildcard, even if it is one of the studio’s founders. And the mod storagee expansion doesn’t have an official release date at all. While Unreal 5.4 and FSR 3.1 are expected to come toASAeventually, there’s never been any official confirmation that they’ll be released on September 4. Much ofASA’s DLC has been delayed, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if these performance updates soon followed suit. Still, these changes are much needed, and could go a long way toward solving some ofArk: Survival Ascended’s biggest issues.
Ark: Survival Ascended
ARK: Survival Ascended is a reimagined version of the 2017 action-adventure survival MMORPG by the developers at Studio Wildcard and Grove Street Games. Built in Unreal Engine 5, players will return to ARK to build tribes, fight and tame dinosaurs, and brave the elements as they battle to survive in a unique sandbox where crafting and resource management is essential.
