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ARK: Survival Evolved [Steam] has a big update, this time finally updating their Unreal Engine code, but the Linux version is still quite broken graphically.

I decided to test it out, since their patch notes sounded promising and nope. Same issues as before, graphical glitches and completely broken water rendering. See for yourself:
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You don't want to drink that water...
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Coming out of the water also results in visual issues, with particles flying around everywhere. It's really not in a good state and considering the price £49.99 it's a damned joke.

The developers of ARK have been told about these issues, many times and over quite a while now. They never respond, not even to acknowledge these issues exist.

You can see their full patch notes here.

What a shame. This could have been one of the best survival games on Linux, but they've let the Linux version continue to rot. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Ardje Aug 18, 2017
Quoting: TheRiddickthe 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.
Indeed, I think porting is done mostly because most of us are very enthousiast and happy. A developer works for money *and* pride. Trust me, you can have the most honorable profession, but if people start to shit on you, you either go for the money (we don't have that, we are a minority), or stop altogether. (And trust me on this: you usually get a lot more respect and money in less honorable professions).
lucifertdark Aug 18, 2017
Have we learnt nothing from when the magazines were PAID to say a game was the best thing ever when in reality it was turd sandwich?

If a game is great I want to know about it & if it's not worth my money I want to know that too, sugar coating a turd sandwich isn't going to make it taste better.

I really want this game to work well because I want to play it, it has the potential to be a great game for Linux, IF they sort it out instead of sticking their fingers in their ears & shouting lalala at the top of their voices.
Ehvis Aug 18, 2017
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Quoting: Ardje
Quoting: TheRiddickthe 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.
Indeed, I think porting is done mostly because most of us are very enthousiast and happy. A developer works for money *and* pride. Trust me, you can have the most honorable profession, but if people start to shit on you, you either go for the money (we don't have that, we are a minority), or stop altogether. (And trust me on this: you usually get a lot more respect and money in less honorable professions).

So what? Linux gaming does not get better from games that are left in a bad state for years.
rkfg Aug 18, 2017
Quoting: Ketil
Quoting: poisondinput for non-US keyboards: broken, never got fixed
This is true. I run us keyboard layout, and ark was actually the software that made me switch. This is not a fix, it is a workaround, so we should continue complaining about this. Even on us keyboard layout the numpad doesn't work, so if we want shortcut for taming groups(quick select of e.g. all rexes), we have to edit the ini files manually to reassign them to some other keybinding.
Huh, that seems to be a fundamental problem in modern Linux gaming. A few days ago I played Dota 2 and noticed that hotkeys don't work, maybe only Space worked. I switched the layouts back and forht but no luck. Long story short, the most popular and iconic Valve game suffers from the good old "started in wrong layout" bug! In my case it was Russian layout which has been active for the Steam window when I started Dota and since the new windows inherit the parent's active layout it was also started with Russian layout. After that hotkeys stay broken (i.e. they simply don't work at all) until I restarted the game in the US/GB layout.

It's ridiculous how many games have this and other keyboard input or Unicode issues, even those with a long Linux support history.
Ardje Aug 18, 2017
Quoting: evergreenYesterday I played about 3 hours with my son on Ark. We have both (me on pc and my son on his laptop, both latest Nvidia 384.59 drivers) no problems, except the annoying grey water and me some red light shadows on the right screen side.
But I have to say the graphic has been improved, not so much as on windows, but I saw a nicer Sky and better textures on long distances. It's worth to try it.
Ok, I can try because I have 381.22 (official steamos ;-) ).
I just want to know where I can find the cache...
Ardje Aug 18, 2017
Quoting: rkfgIt's ridiculous how many games have this and other keyboard input or Unicode issues, even those with a long Linux support history.
Keyboard input issues started the moment USB was meant to have a keycode database inside the device, and nobody used it.
These days keyboard input is a mess on any OS.
Ever tried french or belgian keyboard layouts on whatever os? Especially if you are used to en_US. And what about dead keys? Repeated keys?
Now add to that, that on linux it's the same, only you have different layers to choose from.
Raw key codes? Decoded key codes? where are you going to get them? Which code table are you goint to use?
So yes, keyboard input is a mess.
On linux it might be even more of a mess though.
rkfg Aug 18, 2017
Add asian languages to the mix, please, and remember that Chinese market is strong and constantly growing. Meh. Poor developers. But the unicode mess aside, could we at least have plain US-ASCII keybinds working regardless of the active layout? Pretty please? They can easily be matched with the scancodes which, I assume, are permanent for the most part of the existing keyboards. I'm yet to see a game where "regional" binds are essential. The pure ASCII ones is totally what everyone needs for the time being.

Spoiler, click me
If only they hired a guy with other-than-US keyboard layout (in the name of diversity and inclusiveness!), there would be no such problems at all! Hellooooo, you're part of the problem, guys! /s


Last edited by rkfg on 18 August 2017 at 11:30 am UTC
Scoopta Aug 18, 2017
To be honest other than the water pretty much none of this is new. The rainbow/black stretchy weirdness that happens has happened since I bought the game and I bought it when it first came out on launch day or shortly after. It's never really performed well either. I just honestly expect it from ark at this point.
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