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Studio Wildcard have finally released an official fix for the broken water in ARK: Survival Evolved [Steam] on certain maps, sadly though it seems they've broken the Linux version completely.

In the "v275.0" patch that came along with the expansion, the developer noted in their Steam forum patch notes that they finally fixed water rendering, so you no longer need to resort to hacky solutions to fix it yourself. Naturally, I tried to test the it myself, but now it seems ARK doesn't actually work at all. It gives me the main menu music for all of 1-2 seconds, then it just crashes. Yet again, Studio Wildcard clearly aren't putting enough effort into the Linux version. Of course I checked to ensure I'm not the only one and there are plenty of other Linux gamers reporting the same thing.

I don't want to be overly negative about it, but it's really hard not to be when we've been left with so many issues in the Linux version, to end up with a broken game when a major DLC releases. We aren't the only ones though, the Mac version since this update has also been left in a very broken state.

As for the big DLC:

Aberration places survivors on a damaged ARK: its internal atmosphere has leaked away, resulting in a harsh surface with intense radiation, and a plethora of lush biomes underground. With the maintenance systems of this ARK malfunctioning, the many hazards, creatures, and nature of the environment present a thrilling new world to explore and master.

Here's the launch trailer if you're interested:

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micha Dec 13, 2017
Ok, I only did a 10min fresh start with Aberration and I actually had 0 problems. Performance is somewhat lower but it also looks much better.
Phlebiac Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: TheRiddickMS has paid allot of money into developers to do DX12, that is why it often gets support first.

The bribe money is drying up, or it's not a big enough carrot:
http://www.dsogaming.com/editorial/the-state-of-dx12-games-in-2017-is-directx-12-losing-its-steam/
Xpander Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: Ardjehe engine does not really support vulkan yet. Only vulkan on mobile, as they were contracted by Samsung to make this amazing vulkan demo to showcase the new API.
I think that was about it.
The support for DX12 probably is better than vulkan, while with vulkan they can achieve the same and have an enormous amount of targets... Especially if you realise that vulkan works starting from windows 7 and DX12 requires windows 10, and according to steam, windows 7 is the main platform
(Thanks China!).
Snail-Games is also Chinese, so they should push wildcard to support vulkan on windows 7.

How come they don't support Vulkan yet? There is a early access game called The Isle which has working Vulkan version on Linux. No issues last time i tested it (~2 months ago). Using UE4 ofc


Last edited by Xpander on 14 December 2017 at 12:17 am UTC
TapocoL Dec 14, 2017
Latest patch notes says Linux client is fixed now:

Quote275.31
- Fixed Linux client crash

http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/594820656447032287/

EDIT:
Downloaded and could get into game. I didn't try before that fix though.


Last edited by TapocoL on 14 December 2017 at 1:22 am UTC
MaxPower Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: PsychojauHi everyone. May I share another point of view with you ?

I'm working on an UE4 project. Since I've updated to 4.18.1 (I will try with last patch 18.2 but don't have big hopes), I can't even load the Editor with Vulkan (crash) or calculate the Lightmass (swarm agent crashed). okay, that's not perfect either on Windows where you can have nice BSODs when making the lightmass....
The real problem is the bad Linux support from Epic.
Do you know that we can't even use the launcher to download / compile some plugins for the editor under Gnu/Linux ? Oh, and if, as an example, you want to buy some trees or dungeon walls to an artist on the marketplace : too bad ! You can browser with your regular browser but not download ! You need the launcher !
I don't care about compiling (even if it's time consuming) but f**k ! They say they support Linux but it's not entirely true !

I understand your frustration but maybe Ark devs are not the culprit here... (or maybe they are, I don't know of course)

Thanks GamingOnLinux ;-)

Are we surprised here ? Fortnite does not even support Linux when I would have thought they would use it to test their engine on Linux.
dubigrasu Dec 14, 2017
After the latest update I was able to start the game, but I still see that weird water bug.
Ardje Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: XpanderHow come they don't support Vulkan yet? There is a early access game called The Isle which has working Vulkan version on Linux. No issues last time i tested it (~2 months ago). Using UE4 ofc
I see a game called The Isle but it doesn't advertise linux.
Looking in steamdb it actually has a build size equaling the windows build size.
I might buy a copy of that, and I might use the steamdb info to point out at wildcard that it's time to revisit vulkan again. They did a year ago, and it wasn't in a good shape then. If it is in a good shape now, it might be worth their while to upgrade the engine. That would be a big hell I guess as they now have a "very good" working network.
If they just postponed the release for another 2 years, nobody would be able to second guess an engine upgrade 8-D.
Ehvis Dec 14, 2017
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Quoting: XpanderHow come they don't support Vulkan yet? There is a early access game called The Isle which has working Vulkan version on Linux. No issues last time i tested it (~2 months ago). Using UE4 ofc

A few months ago I was reading on the UE4 forums a bit about the state of Vulkan. My interpretation of what was mentioned by those trying it, is that it is terribly slow (which is still the case with DX12 as well as far as I know). It was suggested that the whole engine is simply not suitable to take advantage of these new APIs and needs a lot of rebuilding. This is of course the case for pretty much all engines (I don't think Croteam beat its DX11 scores with Vulkan yet), but I got the impression that UE4 did much worse. If this is correct, it may take years before UE4 is in a state to work well with Vulkan.
Xpander Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: ArdjeI see a game called The Isle but it doesn't advertise linux.
Looking in steamdb it actually has a build size equaling the windows build size.
I might buy a copy of that, and I might use the steamdb info to point out at wildcard that it's time to revisit vulkan again. They did a year ago, and it wasn't in a good shape then. If it is in a good shape now, it might be worth their while to upgrade the engine. That would be a big hell I guess as they now have a "very good" working network.
If they just postponed the release for another 2 years, nobody would be able to second guess an engine upgrade 8-D.

yeah they don't advertise linux version on the store page as its experimental. Well the whole game is.

Quoting: EhvisA few months ago I was reading on the UE4 forums a bit about the state of Vulkan. My interpretation of what was mentioned by those trying it, is that it is terribly slow (which is still the case with DX12 as well as far as I know). It was suggested that the whole engine is simply not suitable to take advantage of these new APIs and needs a lot of rebuilding. This is of course the case for pretty much all engines (I don't think Croteam beat its DX11 scores with Vulkan yet), but I got the impression that UE4 did much worse. If this is correct, it may take years before UE4 is in a state to work well with Vulkan.

While the avg framerates are same with OpenGL rendering, Vulkan one didn't have graphical glitches and it was ovrall smoother with frametimes.

like i said, i tested it around 2 months ago, don't know if it has changed by now
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