Low quality mesh / model / texture issue.

[Max]

About 5 days ago everything was fine then I get this issue constantly.
Dino and sometimes vegetation load in with what seem to be low quality (low polygon) meshes or models and therefore textures too.

Before:
Here is an example of a wolf http://prntscr.com/esvtey.
A Trex (battle scarred but model looks like plastic or wax) http://prntscr.com/esvzl3
A low quality raptor model. http://prntscr.com/esw331
Titanosau: http://prntscr.com/esw7j1

After:
Wolf: http://prntscr.com/esw4sz
Trex: http://prntscr.com/esw67z
Titanosaur: http://prntscr.com/esw866

My specs are Win10, i7-4790k, 24GB Ram, AMD 390x 8GB VRAM, latest drivers as of yesterday. Ark video settings are all on high.
Settings which I would believe are responsible for this type of things are textures and mesh LOD all of which are on max.

Like I mentioned, never had this issue before, have been playing on and off for about a year now.
This also seems to happen on different map and mod combinations so I have not narrowed it down to the fault of a single map/mod yet.

After quite some time sometimes the models update to the correct high res/polygon version but it can take some time, in the order of 10 minutes or in some cases much longer.
Also happens in single or multiplayer.

Has anyone had this kind of problem before, if so, is there a resolution at all?

[Mick Lagger]

I am having this issue too. i thought ive read something about this and we need to reset the resolution in a file or something. i am not sure but im searching

[Max]

Hmm, ok, I know how and where to reset resolution but that doesn't help.
Its almost like the game is failing to load in the high quality models and keeping the long distance ones instead.
I have tried switching texture and mesh LOD many times but it doesn't seem to help.

[θάνατος]

textures have to be set to high, wold tile buffer effect how long and far away high res textures are loaded and can cause pop in's when set to low

[Max]

Everything is on high or epic. Issue persists.
http://prntscr.com/esywzx

[θάνατος]

Originally posted by Max:

Everything is on high or epic. Issue persists.
http://prntscr.com/esywzx

hmmm this is caused most of time by med or lower textures, if you look at the wolf for a while or go to another instance does it change?

[Max]

As I mentioned above in most cases it rectifies itself after a short while, sometimes longer.
One one play session though the Paracer and Titanboa models never changed, staying in their ugly super low polygon mesh / model state for over an hour of play.
We need to be clear here, its not just textures we are talking about, those are the skin overlay over the underlying mesh or model below, its the actual models/meshes that are actually the low polygon version.
Games usually have varying levels of detail aka LOD models depending on your distance to them, this is for performance reasons. The farther away you are the lower quality version it loads as you can't see the detail from far away anyway, as you get closer ther higher quality LOD version is loaded.
It almost seems that the game is failing to load the high quality LOD meshes and keeping the really low LOD ones even though I am standing right there.
Again, this only happened recently, no settings were changed on my end.
Its just super ugly and am wondering what on earth could be the reason.

[θάνατος]

Originally posted by Max:

As I mentioned above in most cases it rectifies itself after a short while, sometimes longer.
One one play session though the Paracer and Titanboa models never changed, staying in their ugly super low polygon mesh / model state for over an hour of play.
We need to be clear here, its not just textures we are talking about, those are the skin overlay over the underlying mesh or model below, its the actual models/meshes that are actually the low polygon version.
Games usually have varying levels of detail aka LOD models depending on your distance to them, this is for performance reasons. The farther away you are the lower quality version it loads as you can't see the detail from far away anyway, as you get closer ther higher quality LOD version is loaded.
It almost seems that the game is failing to load the high quality LOD meshes and keeping the really low LOD ones even though I am standing right there.
Again, this only happened recently, no settings were changed on my end.
Its just super ugly and am wondering what on earth could be the reason.

the game is failing to load the high quality LOD meshes and keeping the really low LOD ones even though I am standing right there.


yup

if you turn down some settings it will help it not pop in so bad, unless you want to get all do dads and shineys

[Mick Lagger]

Originally posted by Max:

Hmm, ok, I know how and where to reset resolution but that doesn't help.
Its almost like the game is failing to load in the high quality models and keeping the long distance ones instead.
I have tried switching texture and mesh LOD many times but it doesn't seem to help.

yea my bad its not that. its super annoying though.

[NGCaliber]

right click game > select "play with reset resolution" > back out of game > perform game file integrity check > download whatever... > start game and change options to your liking.

[Max]

Thanks for tip NGCaliber, tried that, doesn't help.

Its not a resolution issue and if the files I had were "bad" they would never load not just take longer to load.

I can only guess its something to do with the latest stream of patches and that its affecting some of us and not all.

Will continue to investigate and post a fix here if I can find one.
Other than that I guess I will have to wait to see if WildCard find and fixes the issue themselves.

[θάνατος]

Originally posted by Max:

Thanks for tip NGCaliber, tried that, doesn't help.

Its not a resolution issue and if the files I had were "bad" they would never load not just take longer to load.

I can only guess its something to do with the latest stream of patches and that its affecting some of us and not all.

Will continue to investigate and post a fix here if I can find one.
Other than that I guess I will have to wait to see if WildCard find and fixes the issue themselves.

No its your hardware. Lod take time and res from system. The game is not prolioritizing the texutres near you first. I see this happen alot when i play on epic view.

[Naughty Tinkerbell]

I get that plastic look too lately... Like my kids toy dinos, after a day in the sun, and pool look.

[Artemis]

the lods that show at a distance for me (as in, textures lower than the "low" setting) show up in close quarters if i load in and they stay that way until i close the game. settiout ofng textures to high or epic or medium or low changes NOTHING, not even frame loss/gain. this persists upon returning to the main menu and choosing a new server/game/save.


setting them to high or epic and then restarting the whole game fixes this issue. i have to make sure i set it to high or epic on my way out of the game the night before. upon loading in, the lod takes the usual length of time and then shows high setting textures all around, and changing them in game works as well:i can actually set it to low or medium with expected results. no "distance" textures on EVERYTHING.

curiously, the only map this does not occur on is scorched earth. any texture setting previously and the map loads in as expected.

[Rustybear]

There are thousands of people trying to troubleshoot this problem right now (even tho this has been around for a very long time, but now more prevalent than ever):
So far, here is the only workaround: Turn ALL of your graphics settings to low-lowest. High settings will cause the unreal engine 4 d3d to crash (it may prevent server login or it may happen after several hours of gameplay, completely random). It doesnt matter how much fruit you have on your computer, a $3000 computer will have the same result as a $300 computer.
Until Wildcard address the issue, the only way to have a stable game is to turn graphics down to the lowest there is. Theres even a theory that its the render setting alone, I have tried all setting combinations. The lower all of your settings, the longer the Unreal Engine 4 will allow you to stay in game. Its that simple.
Secondly, every time there is a small patch, you will need to verify file integrity, under Library/local files. as there are 2 files which repeatedly corrupt (directly linked to UE4).

With all of this done, you are still likely to crash, only much MUCH less.

[crystian]

"I fixed it" try it:
1) I changed all to low
2) I changed the resolution
3) Shutdown the game
4) I unsubscribed of all my mods of ark
5) I removed folder: Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\346110
6) I removed the file: Steam\steamapps\workshop\appworkshop_346110.acf
7) I play the game
8) Change the detail to high
Works for me
So strange I'm not sure about which step to fixing it, but works