MAJOR FPS Boost - Grass/Foliage Removal Script

[Coopy]

Heya Folks,
I found out if you rename the Grass Meshes/Textures the Game will simply not load it.
So I searched for all Grass/Seaweed Assets in the folders and created a little Batch-Script to rename them.

You can get it here in my german FPS-Guide for ARK:
http://www.coopy.tv/forum/board8-gaming-zone/guides-und-tipps/1628-ark-survival-evolved-mehr-fps-tipps-tricks-tuning/
(Point 5 is the Script)

Simply download it, put it in your ARK Folder (\Steam\steamapps\common\ARK) and execute it.
In the "menu" press 1 and enter to disable nearly all grass ingame (maybe I forgot some ;)).
NOTHING WILL BE DELETED, just renamed.

If you don't like the changes you can enable all grass again, if you start the script and press 2. The script will then rename all files back and your game will be like before.

Try it and post you results here - I got nearly 10 - 15 FPS from it.

Disclaimer: I will take absolutely NO RESPONSIBILITY if this script damages your PC (kind of unlikely ;))
Virus-Total-Scan:
https://www.virustotal.com/de/file/14226fb8ebba6cde5d10e2140ffe781d70338d2447f18b4f5805022595eca1c4/analysis/1434797018/

Kind regards to the amazing ARK Community :)

CoopY
twitch.tv/coopmine


Changelog of the Script:

V0.18 - Deactivated the removal of "Cattail" due to it being harvestable in the latest patch.

V0.17 - Added a "Background Mode" to the script. Simply press 3 at the start and let the script window open while you're playing and close it after you're done. This should prevent any hassle after an ARK-Update. Thanks again to hazens1 for the useful feedback and the initial idea ;)

V0.16 - Added a remaining "-bak" files check and deleting those before renaming. Thanks to hazens1 once again for putting me in the right direction ;)

ATTENTION V0.16: IF you are updating from a previous version of this script, please verify
your ARK files once through Steam (Right click on ARK in Steam -> Properties -> Local Files -> Verify files) so the script can be sure you got the new and original foliage files.
Then you can use it normally like before (DON'T USE POINT 1 "SET FOLIAGE OFF" twice in a row - always set it off OR on)

V0.15 - Removed the material-files from the removal script / probably a fix for some crashes

ATTENTION V0.15: If you update to this version pls ACTIVATE Foliage with version 0.14(or older) BEFORE updating. Then DEACTIVATE it again with this version (0.15). Otherwise the script wont find the files and you have to manually find the material files and remove the "-bak" behind it.

V0.14 - Added 2 more Plants to the deactivation (Knapweed, Elephant Grass) - Thanks to hazens1
V0.13 - Added even more foliage deactivations (palm leafes, corals, etc) - Thanks to hazens1
V0.12 - Fixed a Problem with spaces in the directory structure
V0.11 - Release Version which remove nearly all foliage

Dev reply from TheRightHand:

TheRightHand の投稿を引用：

We'll talk about this internally this weekend.

- The Right Hand.

Seems like this script had an impact on development :)

Upcoming Week Patch Notes:
- Client side GPU perf improvements: foliage batching rewrite

[Ketsa]

People do it in DayZ, Warthunder, World of Tanks, Arma, M&B etc...

[A-Space-Turkey]

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

That made no sense at all. Really, how does any of that have any bearing on this thread?

I mean come on. You remove stuff from the game. I like sneaking up to people in the gras while they are taming or smthing. Now remove the grass and i look like an idiot trying to be a snake or smthing on a clear land lol. Be reasonable, removing grass like this is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ glitch and people doing this are no better then people who use wallhacks and other stupid s*it to gain advantage. You should be ashamed!

1. No. Wallhacks enable a player to clip through walls.
Not loading foliage allows me to get better FPS.

The first is a cheat, the second is an FPS fix.

2. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

3. It's not a glitch. It's a way of stopping the loading of unnecessary items in order to get better FPS. The plants are still there, but the grass is gone.

[unjoyer]

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

I mean come on. You remove stuff from the game. I like sneaking up to people in the gras while they are taming or smthing. Now remove the grass and i look like an idiot trying to be a snake or smthing on a clear land lol. Be reasonable, removing grass like this is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ glitch and people doing this are no better then people who use wallhacks and other stupid s*it to gain advantage. You should be ashamed!

1. No. Wallhacks enable a player to clip through walls.
Not loading foliage allows me to get better FPS.

The first is a cheat, the second is an FPS fix.

2. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

3. It's not a glitch. It's a way of stopping the loading of unnecessary items in order to get better FPS. The plants are still there, but the grass is gone.

So...lets remove trees too i hear they render a lot and rendering is bad...n stuff. Also personally I'd remove water too...again cus rendering u know...would get fps. U know what, lets move fkin everything from the game, wonder how the FPS would be then? I recon pretty good! I hope all of you here get banned for fiddling around with game files, removing the grass thus getting advantage over me sneaking up to you.

No further comment is neccessary, you've embarrassed yourself enough.

[kotawolf]

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

1. No. Wallhacks enable a player to clip through walls.
Not loading foliage allows me to get better FPS.

The first is a cheat, the second is an FPS fix.

2. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

3. It's not a glitch. It's a way of stopping the loading of unnecessary items in order to get better FPS. The plants are still there, but the grass is gone.

So...lets remove trees too i hear they render a lot and rendering is bad...n stuff. Also personally I'd remove water too...again cus rendering u know...would get fps. U know what, lets move fkin everything from the game, wonder how the FPS would be then? I recon pretty good! I hope all of you here get banned for fiddling around with game files, removing the grass thus getting advantage over me sneaking up to you.

No further comment is neccessary, you've embarrassed yourself enough.

Wow really... Someone suggested that they be able to remove grass, which does cause a lot of FPS issues... and you come back with this extreme view... you are making a fool of yourself.

[Ebrim]

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

I mean come on. You remove stuff from the game. I like sneaking up to people in the gras while they are taming or smthing. Now remove the grass and i look like an idiot trying to be a snake or smthing on a clear land lol. Be reasonable, removing grass like this is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ glitch and people doing this are no better then people who use wallhacks and other stupid s*it to gain advantage. You should be ashamed!

1. No. Wallhacks enable a player to clip through walls.
Not loading foliage allows me to get better FPS.

The first is a cheat, the second is an FPS fix.

2. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

3. It's not a glitch. It's a way of stopping the loading of unnecessary items in order to get better FPS. The plants are still there, but the grass is gone.

Did you ever for a moment consider that the devs didn't include an option to turn off grass for a reason? That's like saying you made a fix to give people will the engram points needed to unlock everything. You're going against a design decision in the game the same way not being able to run infinitely is a design decision.

[A-Space-Turkey]

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

1. No. Wallhacks enable a player to clip through walls.
Not loading foliage allows me to get better FPS.

The first is a cheat, the second is an FPS fix.

2. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

3. It's not a glitch. It's a way of stopping the loading of unnecessary items in order to get better FPS. The plants are still there, but the grass is gone.

So...lets remove trees too i hear they render a lot and rendering is bad...n stuff. Also personally I'd remove water too...again cus rendering u know...would get fps. U know what, lets move fkin everything from the game, wonder how the FPS would be then? I recon pretty good! I hope all of you here get banned for fiddling around with game files, removing the grass thus getting advantage over me sneaking up to you.

No further comment is neccessary, you've embarrassed yourself enough.

That last line, haha. "I win, don't comment. I win." ^.^

I see what you're getting at. Where would this stop?
Directly at grass, actually.
The reason grass was found to lower FPS was because it moves with the wind change.
If you have your view distance any higher than low, it becomes a lot of grass to animate.
A lot of FPS lost.

Don't comment, I win. I win at everything. ^.^ Hahaha.

[unjoyer]

altairwolf の投稿を引用：

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

So...lets remove trees too i hear they render a lot and rendering is bad...n stuff. Also personally I'd remove water too...again cus rendering u know...would get fps. U know what, lets move fkin everything from the game, wonder how the FPS would be then? I recon pretty good! I hope all of you here get banned for fiddling around with game files, removing the grass thus getting advantage over me sneaking up to you.

No further comment is neccessary, you've embarrassed yourself enough.

Wow really... Someone suggested that they be able to remove grass, which does cause a lot of FPS issues... and you come back with this extreme view... you are making a fool of yourself.

I promise you if this gets more hype, in a few days we see posts like "DEV FIX GAME, HACKERS GOING THRU WALLS" as every second one. Wonder how many people have thought by now "Hmm, what else could i fiddle around here with?". Oh wait, this is an MMO. People usually don't do these things in MMO's :D I really hope to hear from a dev about this. If they wanted to get FPS from removing entities I think they wouldve added an option to the settings by now. Just me though...

[Rach199]

can i request a batch to remove only coral?? see.. in my game the coral is well.. stretched and strangely its the only graphical problem i have with this game and everytime i walk into the water my game will freeze for few moment..usually enough time for me to drown..and im guessing its due too loading of the coral
soo if could remove coral would appreciate it

[A-Space-Turkey]

Ebrim の投稿を引用：

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

1. No. Wallhacks enable a player to clip through walls.
Not loading foliage allows me to get better FPS.

The first is a cheat, the second is an FPS fix.

2. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

3. It's not a glitch. It's a way of stopping the loading of unnecessary items in order to get better FPS. The plants are still there, but the grass is gone.

Did you ever for a moment consider that the devs didn't include an option to turn off grass for a reason? That's like saying you made a fix to give people will the engram points needed to unlock everything. You're going against a design decision in the game the same way not being able to run infinitely is a design decision.

No, I didn't. Being able to toggle grass is a common element in games because it takes a lot to render them properly. Especially if they move with wind-change. :)

Also, that analogy doesn't make sense.

[unjoyer]

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

Ebrim の投稿を引用：

Did you ever for a moment consider that the devs didn't include an option to turn off grass for a reason? That's like saying you made a fix to give people will the engram points needed to unlock everything. You're going against a design decision in the game the same way not being able to run infinitely is a design decision.

No, I didn't. Being able to toggle grass is a common element in games because it takes a lot to render them properly. Especially if they move with wind-change. :)

Also, that analogy doesn't make sense.

In which game can you remove grass without scripting? I'm sorry. In which MMO game in particular?

[A-Space-Turkey]

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

altairwolf の投稿を引用：

Wow really... Someone suggested that they be able to remove grass, which does cause a lot of FPS issues... and you come back with this extreme view... you are making a fool of yourself.

I promise you if this gets more hype, in a few days we see posts like "DEV FIX GAME, HACKERS GOING THRU WALLS" as every second one. Wonder how many people have thought by now "Hmm, what else could i fiddle around here with?". Oh wait, this is an MMO. People usually don't do these things in MMO's :D I really hope to hear from a dev about this. If they wanted to get FPS from removing entities I think they wouldve added an option to the settings by now. Just me though...

You sound like a mix of a petulent child and an over-bearing parent, haha.

"Think of the children! First it's this, then they'll take over the world and everything will explode!"

[A-Space-Turkey]

hazens1 の投稿を引用：

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

I mean come on. You remove stuff from the game. I like sneaking up to people in the grass while they are taming or smthing. Now remove the grass and i look like an idiot trying to be a snake or smthing on a clear land lol. Be reasonable, removing grass like this is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ glitch and people doing this are no better then people who use wallhacks and other stupid s*it to gain advantage. You should be ashamed!

That's the thing. If someone plays on low settings, you cannot sneak up on them. The grass and rocks only render about 25 feet around the player and even then the grass and other foliage is pretty darn see through at this point.

It is still possible to hide in bushes and plants that give berries as this script does not remove those. They provide slightly better coverage anyways, but still a player on low settings can see another player prone in a thick bundle of berry bushes anyways.

Another note is that 95% of PvP combat uses dinosaurs anyways and those cannot be hidden in grass and foliage due to their size. Also, dinosaurs make random noises and the larger ones shake the ground so sneaking with dinosaurs is out of the question..

Let us also talk about the fact that other players use the Gamma control on their video card or monitor to see you at night from a mile away as well.

Lets just get off of the PvP advantage train because technically this does not give any advantage that WAS NOT ALREADY THERE. You can still stroll right up to a player that isn't playing attention and mess them up. Any illusions of being hidden in the grass or behind a boulder was all in your mind before or you were playing against a player with High or Ultra settings..

What this does do is allow me to play with a High View Distance rather that a Low View Distance which gives me a DISADVANTAGE due to the fact that now Trees and Rocks render much further for me making it harder for me to see other player with or without dinosaurs.

So in conclusion, this script giving me the ability to play with higher View Distance and Mesh LoD gives other players the advantage, not me ;-)

There's a difference though, between the Script which fixes a design flaw, and seeing farther with a low view distance, which is a design flaw. :P

That will be fixed at some point. Having a low view distance should mean just that, things don't render until you're a certain distance from them.

[Irie]

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

altairwolf の投稿を引用：

Wow really... Someone suggested that they be able to remove grass, which does cause a lot of FPS issues... and you come back with this extreme view... you are making a fool of yourself.

I promise you if this gets more hype, in a few days we see posts like "DEV FIX GAME, HACKERS GOING THRU WALLS" as every second one. Wonder how many people have thought by now "Hmm, what else could i fiddle around here with?". Oh wait, this is an MMO. People usually don't do these things in MMO's :D I really hope to hear from a dev about this. If they wanted to get FPS from removing entities I think they wouldve added an option to the settings by now. Just me though...

You're an idiot.

This removes a texture. So if some dumb ass did the same thing and renamed the texture for a wall, they would indeed be able to see through a wall, but physically the wall would still be there you twirp. So it' would just be an invisible boundry they could not see, cold not go through, could not do anything about.

[A-Space-Turkey]

Unemployer の投稿を引用：

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

No, I didn't. Being able to toggle grass is a common element in games because it takes a lot to render them properly. Especially if they move with wind-change. :)

Also, that analogy doesn't make sense.

In which game can you remove grass without scripting? I'm sorry. In which MMO game in particular?

Doesn't matter what type of game it is.
RPG, MMO, FPS, MMORPG.
If the grass is rendered to be realistic, there's often an option to turn them off. :)

Company of Heroes was one, for example.

[Generic-Raider]

A-Space-Turkey の投稿を引用：

Earthiness の投稿を引用：

1. How dose it not
2. I never Said it did not

1. Your broken English confused me at first.
You're talking about a low graphics exploit?

2. "LOL so many silly ppl in this post thinking this is giving ppl advantages lol "

LOL now Low settings is a exploit ... and not my problem you got poor problem solving skills