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ARK: Survival Evolved works again on Linux, water still broken on some maps

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Good and bad news here. ARK: Survival Evolved [Steam] once again works on Linux, but the water rendering is still totally broken on some maps, so you need to do the fix we showed before.

It seems the developer was gathering help on the Steam forum yesterday, which resulted in getting a working Linux build of ARK out again. The problem is, it seems like they're still not actually testing their Linux builds. They seemed to have no idea if the water rendering issue would be fixed or not "Would be good to know if the water is sorted out too", to me that says they don't test it.

Water is not fixed, at all, so you still need to do the hacky fix we posted about before. Once you go through that, water will look normal again. From what I've seen, you might need to do the same fix for the new DLC too. They still have issues with the game crashing often, looking nothing like the Windows version and generally performing poorly to deal with too.

I really don't like being negative about any developer or game, but Studio Wildcard repeatedly let Linux gamers down with their game. I will always give credit where it's due, but they've let the Linux version sit in such a poor state for far too long. We're talking about a game that costs normally £49.99. This is not some small-time indie developer, this is a game priced like a AAA title.

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Mohandevir Dec 14, 2017
It's probably been proposed many times already, but why not contact Icculus, Timothee Besset or other porters to help them, if they are unable to do it themselves?!
Leopard Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: MohandevirIt's probably been proposed many times already, but why not contact Icculus, Timothee Besset or other porters to help them, if they are unable to do it themselves?!

Icculus is ( no offense , he is a great guy ) just helping small indie 2d games now.

So when he was saying " I don't need money , i just want to help games come to Linux " , he was obviously talking about small games ; alas people just kept dreaming 3d games and slightly bigger games than End Is Nigh.
Mohandevir Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: MohandevirIt's probably been proposed many times already, but why not contact Icculus, Timothee Besset or other porters to help them, if they are unable to do it themselves?!

Icculus is ( no offense , he is a great guy ) just helping small indie 2d games now.

So when he was saying " I don't need money , i just want to help games come to Linux " , he was obviously talking about small games ; alas people just kept dreaming 3d games and slightly bigger games than End Is Nigh.

Maybe, but still, help is available elsewhere. I'm not going to buy this game until it's fixed. Not at this premium price.
Guest Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: liamdawStudio Wildcard repeatedly let Linux gamers down with their game. I will always give credit where it's due, but they've let the Linux version sit in such a poor state for far too long.They seemed to have no idea if the water rendering issue would be fixed or not "Would be good to know if the water is sorted out too", to me that says they don't test it.


Their kickstarter raised $17,000,000. They have sold hundreds of thousands of units of the game & various paid DLC's. There are currently 52,824 people playing this game according to steam right now. The game costs $50 /£49.99. It has 132,000 reviews on Steam ( a lot are negative ).

My young nephew could install Linux in less than 15 minuets on a PC that costs less than $500 and test if a game has broken water or even launches.


Last edited by on 14 December 2017 at 5:35 pm UTC
Eike Dec 14, 2017
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Please tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm starting to get the impression they're not having great quality management...
Ketil Dec 14, 2017
Personally I hate manual testing, but I think they should have spent a little time setting up an environment for automated testing. They can then write some simple tests to detect differences between the platforms. Water is broken? Setup a scene with the same textures and light settings and render it on all OSes. If it doesn't look the same or at least very similar, then you know it is still broken.
m0nt3 Dec 14, 2017
Has anyone tested this new build on mesa? Last time I tried I would get this red blob that would fill the screen. I have not tried it in a few months.
WJMazepas Dec 14, 2017
Anyone still wants to support this company buying this game? I mean, they sell this as a AAA game, they launched for PS4, Xbox One, Windows, Linux but all versions have problems. They have the money to fix a lot of the issues but if they cant even setup a PC with a linux distribution to test the game, for me it just seems like lazy work that it does not deserve my money.

I wish the game was in a good state so i could play with my friends, but i prefer investing my money on better companies
GustyGhost Dec 14, 2017
Quoting: KetilPersonally I hate manual testing, but I think they should have spent a little time setting up an environment for automated testing. They can then write some simple tests to detect differences between the platforms. Water is broken? Setup a scene with the same textures and light settings and render it on all OSes. If it doesn't look the same or at least very similar, then you know it is still broken.

Their team appears to be primarily, disproportionately artists. Which would also explain a few other issues. Automated testing is the last thing on their minds.
coeseta Dec 15, 2017
[quote=meggerman]
Quoting: liamdawMy young nephew could install Linux in less than 15 minuets on a PC that costs less than $500 and test if a game has broken water or even launches.

500$ is just enough to pay for a GPU that can handle ARC properly. At least if you don't wanna play it with 5 fps or something.

Though I have to agree with you, a developer/ developer team should be more than able to install a Linux distro like Ubuntu.
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