70 hours in game and now unplayable

[Finch]

Admittedly my gpu is below specs for this game.
Listed Specs = GTX 1070
Mine = GTX 1050
Launch Option -dx11
This is more of an FYI post for the dev as I think the info might be useful. Prior to a windows 10 update, I was able to play this game on low to medium settings. The land had no dynamic foliage, was barren and uninteresting with only static plants around resource nodes but it was playable at decent fps with no stuttering and I progressed as far as nearly finishing building the ARK.

After the update:
Now when I load the game, the dynamic foliage is present even on low settings, FPS is 7-9 with long periods of screen freeze every few minutes making the game totally unplayable.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the game up to this point following the tutorial, exploring and discovering new things (without having to watch several videos to learn how to play the game) and the few questions I have asked (on steam) have been quickly answered by the developer. This is a sad moment for me and I hope to return after I afford to update my rig.

If there was an option to turn off the grass, the landscape would be crap but the game would be playable.

[-Midas-]

:( sad to hear that.

what settings do you have in the GameUserSettings file ?
its in the
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ArkCraft\ArkCraft\Saved\Config\Windows" folder

can you please share or send me an email ?

[e-mail]

[Finch]

Email sent.
Thank you, I really did not expect this.

[Finch]

Thank you for going above and beyond :) Shows you really care about your players.
Unfortunately there is no way that this card will run the game again in it's current state if at all. I tweaked the file you sent even further, turning off foliage completely and lowering some other settings which unfortunately didn't do much for the performance as it was still very choppy although less so but not up to playable standards.

On a good note, my rig exceeds recommended specs so it's only the gpu (which is below spec) that requires an update so I will be back to enjoy Arkcraft at a later date.

[Darek871]

I also have visual issues with trees / ground textures in checkerboards in some places on the 2nd map but it doesn't really bother me, as long as the game remains playable.

However, my ideas to improve performance mister Dev ?
Many things need to be grown and are not on the map, so why not remove the carrots : there are everywhere and therefore many on the 1st map. Same, for your recent solution on flax : I think it is not optimized : rather than having an item with several strands and increasing their number on the map, why not something even more visible but unique at the start and less numerous on the map, you just need a plant to give more resources, but we can also grow some so... And on the 2nd map, same on mushrooms: we find enough on cut trees, why not remove them from the ground ?

These are just thoughts on optimization which makes me say that the game would be a little less heavy perhaps, and not really advice, I don't really know anything about it lol

[-Midas-]

Foliage such as mushrooms, flax or carrots has no effect on performance. Trees do..
we should not have performance issues in 2nd map. i have 70 FPS there ?

[Darek871]

Originally posted by -Midas-:

Foliage such as mushrooms, flax or carrots has no effect on performance. Trees do..
we should not have performance issues in 2nd map. i have 70 FPS there ?

ok,
désolé je ne compte pas les FPS ni ne vérifie combien j'ai, ni ne fais de comparaisons,
comme j'ai dit le jeu est relativement fluide et jouable et ça me suffit amplement,
j'ai faisais juste remarquer les damiers sur le sol de la 2e map qui sont apparu au bout d'un temps lorsqu'on vole ( après une mise à jour ? ) alors qu'à ma 1ere visite de l'île il n'y en avait pas, mais ça ne me dérange pas, je reste concentré sur mon jeu et ma partie plutôt que sur des aspects visuels, mais je conçois que pour certains c'est essentiel, pas pour moi.

[-Midas-]

do you have a screenshot of that? would like to know what you mean

[Darek871]

Originally posted by -Midas-:

do you have a screenshot of that? would like to know what you mean

For the grid / checkerboard on ground texture ?

[-Midas-]

yes.

[Darek871]

Originally posted by -Midas-:

yes.

https://ibb.co/dMn3Dwh

[-Midas-]

oh ok. those are virtual texture errors. i dont have them. I'm working on that map anyway. I guess they should be gone in the next update.

[SilverSpeedy]

As I found also keep animal count in pens low, if too many the drop frame rates.

[Finch]

To Clarify...
The foliage I am talking about is the grass which covers the land and waves in the breeze. This was not present in my 70 hours of play and only appeared after a win 10 update.
I had no issue with trees and resources and only minor drops in frame rate due the insane rate of animal spawns. After the win 10 update, this grass covered the land and the rest is history so to speak.