If there's one thing gamers love, it's dinosaur-focused games. From the high-octane action of Exoprimal to the gorgeous yet eerie vistas of Turok, there are plenty of options to choose from. If you're looking for a survival game where you can ride these magnificent beasts, ARK: Survival Ascended is the one for you.

ARK: Survival Ascended is an Unreal Engine 5 remaster of the already successful ARK: Survival Evolved. While a fresh coat of paint may be everything it needed, not all players have been satisfied. Many prefer the original release, one reason being the remaster's performance issues. If you are one such player, then the guide below is for you. Explore the graphics settings and learn about the additional improvements you can make to enhance your ARK experience.

Split image of a fasolasuchus in the ground and a tamed fasolasuchus in Ark Survival Ascended
ARK: Survival Ascended - How to Tame a Fasolasuchus

The method for taming a Fasolasuchus in ARK: Survival Ascended is unlike any other. Follow these steps to tame one of your own.

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ARK: Survival Ascended offers a plethora of graphical options that allow players to achieve decent performance. While the game may not look as impressive after applying the settings below, many PC players still prefer a higher framerate, especially when trying to reach the coveted 60 FPS mark.

Graphical Option

Recommended Settings

Resolution

Native

Window Mode

Fullscreen

Graphics Preset

Custom

Resolution Scale

100

Advanced Graphics

Medium

Anti-Aliasing

Low

View Distance

Low

Textures

High

Post Processing

Medium

General Shadows

High

Global Illumination Quality

High

Effects Quality

Medium

Foliage Quality

Medium

Max Frame Rate

Off

Motion Blur

Off

Light Bloom

On

Light Shafts

On

Low-Light Enhancement

Off

Enable Foliage & Fluid Interaction

Off

Foilage Interaction Distance Multiplier

0.01

Foilage Interaction Distance Limit

0.5

Foilage Interaction Quality Limit

0.5

Enable Footsteps Particles

Off

Enable Footsteps Decals

Off

Disable HLOD

Off

GUI 3D Widget Quality

0.6

Some graphical options are exclusive to Nvidia GPUs, meaning Intel Arc and AMD Radeon GPU owners will miss out on these features.

Graphical Option

Recommended Settings

Nvidia DLSS

On

Frame Generation

On

Super Resolution

Quality

Nvidia Reflex Low Latency

On

DLSS can only be used by RTX 2000 series or above, and Frame Generation by the RTX 4000 series.

If you can't select the Frame Generation option, even if you meet the GPU requirement, follow these steps to enable the feature:

  1. Close the game and return to the desktop.
  2. Click on the search icon in the taskbar.
  3. Enter "Graphics Options" and click on it.
  4. Turn on "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling."
  5. Restart your computer.

Now open the game again, and you should be able to turn on Frame Generation.

Split image of the oasisaur and the dunes in Scorched Earth in Ark Survival Ascended
How to Tame an Oasisaur in ARK: Survival Ascended

Wondering how you can easily tame an Oasisaur in ARK: Survival Ascended? Here is how you can pull it off.

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Additional Improvements for ARK: Survival Ascended

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If you want to improve your gaming experience further, there are additional changes you can make.

Use All Cores When Playing The Game

ARK: Survival Ascended isn't very well optimized; one of the reasons for this is its inefficient use of CPU cores. Thankfully, there's a solution. You can command the game to use all available cores on the CPU, which should provide a significant performance boost, especially when your game is being CPU-limited. Here's how you can do it:

  1. Head to your Steam Library.
  2. Right-click on ARK: Survival Ascended and select "Properties."
  3. In the Launch Options section, write "-USEALLAVAILABLECORES."

Improve Performance With Command Lines

When in the game, press the "~" button (the button below the Escape key) to open the console at the bottom of your screen. Enter the following commands to get a performance boost not available via the normal graphics settings menu:

  • r.VolumetricCloud 0 - This command disables most of the clouds. The impact on the visual presentation of the game is significant, but so is the performance boost. You usually won't be looking at the sky anyway.
  • R.VolumetricFog 0 - This command disables the fog effect in the game. Removing it offers a slight FPS boost and also makes the game look clearer. You should consider turning it back on by replacing "0" with "1" whenever you reach the snow biome, as the fog enhances the chilly environment and helps with the presentation of the game.

You'll need to enter these commands every time you play the game.

ARK Survival Ascended: dinosaurs
How to Increase Max Dino Level in ARK: Survival Ascended

To help you achieve the most comfortable gameplay, here's a step-by-step guide on how to increase max dino level in ARK: Survival Ascended.

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Improve Performance by tweaking the INI File

You can further improve performance by tweaking the Engine.ini file, which should be located in \ShooterGame\Saved\Config\Windows. Open the file and paste the following commands either at the absolute top or the absolute bottom. Do not change anything written under the [Core.System] line.

[SystemSettings]
r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=0
r.Lumen.Reflections.Allow=0
r.Nanite.MaxPixelsPerEdge=2
r.ContactShadows=1
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=0
r.Water.SingleLayer.Reflection=1
r.MaterialQualityLevel=0

Save the file and make sure it's set to read-only. Now open the game, and you should see a significant performance boost.

The above commands disable the Lumen lighting technology, which is extremely taxing on the hardware. You should instantly notice a major boost in performance, even more so than when you disabled clouds. Shadows-related commands don't disable shadows entirely, but they do reduce their quality and range. Water-related commands offer a small performance boost by degrading the quality of water. There's also a command that can completely disable water rendering, but that step might be a bit too extreme.

Skip Intro Videos

There's hardly a gamer out there who enjoys sitting through the intro logo screens. All players want to dive into the action as quickly as possible. Fortunately, you can achieve this in ARK: Survival Ascended with a mod. Head over to NexusMods and download the "No-Intro Videos Fix" mod created by Gametism. Extract the zip file and copy the folder. Then, paste it into your game's directory.

If you're unsure where that is, head to your Steam Library, right-click on the game, click on properties, select the Installed Files tab, and click on Browse. The folder that opens up is your game directory.

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Ark: Survival Ascended Tag Page Cover Art

Ark: Survival Ascended
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Survival
Open-World
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Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Released
October 26, 2023
ESRB
T For Teen Due To Blood, Crude Humor, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Use of Alcohol, Violence
Developer(s)
Studio Wildcard
Publisher(s)
Studio Wildcard
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Inside a Player Constructed Building in Ark: Survival Ascended
5 Images
Inside a Player Constructed Building in Ark: Survival Ascended
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Ark Survival Ascended DLC delay xbox
The Ark: Survival Ascended character is attempting to mutate their raptors to get a specific color.
The Ark: Survival Ascended character found a low level T-rex to help with the mutations of the undesirable stats.
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
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Genre(s)
Survival, Open-World