Enough of the fog

[electricblooz]

Oddly enough, I don't think weather effects are quite as bad in the snow biomes...

I've just started mucking about up there (trying to amass enough pelt to make fur armor) and I'm thinking about moving up there because yet another cross-server mega tribe has decided to squat next to me and build a kibble farm (since they maxed out their tames elsewhere).  I know this is going to kill my FPS and ping so I'm thinking about moving to the most god-forsaken part of the island I can find just so I can live play without having to stare at crappy behemoth gates... but i digress....

Anyway, aside from the extreme temp-effects, the weather effects up in the snow biome don't seem to have quite the visibility impact as those around the rest of the island , counter inituitive, really...

[powerstuck]

On 29/07/2017 at 8:11 PM, Ralphy said:

Unfortunately my fps becomes 15 and the game becomes unplayable w/o -sm4 -d3d10.
Maybe this is what the dev means by "optimising" the game.

I get your result without needed to run those commands, so I doubt it changes anything. 

[Xenithar]

Seems like your specs are LOW. I run on an i5 2500, 16GB RAM, GTX 550 Ti, and all I need is "-nomansky" since TrueSky crashes the game. I get around 30fps with medium to high settings.

As for fog, since the latest patch (or two?) fog comes constantly. It was never this bad before. At night if it gets foggy I cannot move due to lack of vision. Bear in mind that I actually use a CRT for the better contrast ratio than LCD/LED and the near-instant response times, so I am not having the washed-out effect LCD tech causes. The fog just blinds me. I have bloom off already because it makes the entire planet bright white during the day. It seems as though we need real weather patterns, not just some random chance it will suddenly go from clear and sunny to foggy as soup.

[SwishPapaSweets]

At least you can move around in fog try a sandstorm....

[BroJob]

5 hours ago, Moonie1 said:

Every time it fogs, I make the same comment on skype... "Fog is the dumbest poop I have ever seen added to a game". It literally forces everyone to stop what they are doing and wait until its gone. Yeah thats fun. Might as well just lock up the screen and flash a big TIME OUT sign across it.

Add night time so the only time you can play is certain weather conditions during the day. I guess its how they are trying to reduce server load.

[jawaking]

Not sure if it's my settings or not, but the fog seems to have gotten worse these days, especially under water.

[LouSpowells]

I'd like to preface my following post: I am not referencing bugged fog (ie: underwater fog) in this post. I am speaking of intended fog.

That being said, I don't see the problem with fog. It adds another layer of complexity to the game. It's another obstacle in a survival game, using dynamic environments to create additional obstacles beyond more static mechanics. Day/Night cycles are another similar obstacle. It's harder to do stuff at night, but the problem with night time is that people just circumvented the obstacle by changing their gamma settings...obstacle removed. Therein lies the crux. 

From what I've seen from many of the fog complaints thus far (again, many, not all), it's not that people are frustrated about the fog in and of itself...people are frustrated because there's an in-game mechanic - one they don't like and can't easily circumvent - that is hindering their ability to play the game. Fog makes things harder. Fog means you have to prepare more. Fog means you might have to change or delay plans. THAT is the most common thread among non-bug related complaints about mechanics, the "But this is way harder!" complaint. 
 

[Ralphy]

1 hour ago, LouSpowells said:

I'd like to preface my following post: I am not referencing bugged fog (ie: underwater fog) in this post. I am speaking of intended fog.

That being said, I don't see the problem with fog. It adds another layer of complexity to the game. It's another obstacle in a survival game, using dynamic environments to create additional obstacles beyond more static mechanics. Day/Night cycles are another similar obstacle. It's harder to do stuff at night, but the problem with night time is that people just circumvented the obstacle by changing their gamma settings...obstacle removed. Therein lies the crux. 

From what I've seen from many of the fog complaints thus far (again, many, not all), it's not that people are frustrated about the fog in and of itself...people are frustrated because there's an in-game mechanic - one they don't like and can't easily circumvent - that is hindering their ability to play the game. Fog makes things harder. Fog means you have to prepare more. Fog means you might have to change or delay plans. THAT is the most common thread among non-bug related complaints about mechanics, the "But this is way harder!" complaint. 
 

Do you see both of my print screen? I see that kind of brightness every day ark cycle. Gamma on that server is disabled. 
I have to look at the ground while walking so that It doesn't hurt my eyes too much.

Occasional weather change is fine by me (including fog) but constant cyan ATMOSPHERIC fog is f u k e n dumb. 

The moderator merged my post into this thread which is dumb knowing that ATMOSPHERIC FOG isn't a normal FOG issue.

[Ulta]

1 hour ago, Ralphy said:

Do you see both of my print screen? I see that kind of brightness every day ark cycle. Gamma on that server is disabled. 
I have to look at the ground while walking so that It doesn't hurt my eyes too much.

Occasional weather change is fine by me (including fog) but constant cyan ATMOSPHERIC fog is f u k e n dumb. 

The moderator merged my post into this thread which is dumb knowing that ATMOSPHERIC FOG isn't a normal FOG issue.

I can tell you right now, it is DEFINITELY either the -sm4 or the -d3d10 or both that's making the sky white, since I had the same issue. But I got that ugly white haze to go away after I removed those two launch options. Here this might help. Watch this vid. I did near everything this guy said to do (but did not use the -sm4 or -d3d10 launch option) and I get about 70fps with all epic. I dunno what your pc specs are though. Share that while you watch the vid and maybe we can tell you why you still get low fps without those two launch options.

 

[Sergey]

Dear devs!!!. Please give administrators the ability to disable the fog on the server at all. Or the ability to adjust the probability and frequency of fog

[Ayy]

Rain with a chance of fog, more like everything with a guarantee of fog. 

[Anarki]

I currently play on the Centre map and I have noticed the change with the fog, but it is one I like. I haven't found that every minute of the game is foggy and as some others have mentioned 'the blizzards' in the snow biome seem a lot worse. 

I do wonder if people haven't set their graphics options up correctly - it maybe worth playing with these first and lowering some of the effects details.

The fog for me isn't right in my face but at a good distance to make me go an explore - or just pop out on a Ptera and have a look about. It doesn't stop us grinding - we all know the maps we play on and where our resources are.

But in my opinion, the fog is good, and should also stay.

[Ralphy]

10 hours ago, Ulta said:

I can tell you right now, it is DEFINITELY either the -sm4 or the -d3d10 or both that's making the sky white, since I had the same issue. But I got that ugly white haze to go away after I removed those two launch options. Here this might help. Watch this vid. I did near everything this guy said to do (but did not use the -sm4 or -d3d10 launch option) and I get about 70fps with all epic. I dunno what your pc specs are though. Share that while you watch the vid and maybe we can tell you why you still get low fps without those two launch options.

 

My pc spec isn't great at all, hence I have to use -sm4 -dx3d10 to play. I was able to play normally BEFORE they added the atmospheric fog patch.
Check reddit there's a lot of complaint about how bright the sky is. I am still surprised none of the developer comment on this. It's obvious they fu*ked up what's not broken to add "realism". immersive cyan blue light my ass.

[powerstuck]

I am going to repeat this. I run the game on i5 - 16gb ram - 1050 card. 

I do not run -sm4 nor -dx3d10 and I get what OP posted as screenshots. 

During day there is now a constant very BRIGHT haze that gets worse with fog. How bright ? I have to command change gamme to 0.8/0.9 because default gamma is way to bring.

I also have turned off lightshafts / bloomquality (unchecked in game options). 

Before the last fog change, the normal sunny weather had nice deep and rich colors, since the current fog (which is fine as mechanism) the clear skies days are ''foggy''. Heck, even during fog its more realistic that without it. 

Best real life description would be....its like a Bejing heavy smog skyline...in permanence. 

[Ulta]

4 hours ago, Ralphy said:

My pc spec isn't great at all, hence I have to use -sm4 -dx3d10 to play. I was able to play normally BEFORE they added the atmospheric fog patch.
Check reddit there's a lot of complaint about how bright the sky is. I am still surprised none of the developer comment on this. It's obvious they fu*ked up what's not broken to add "realism". immersive cyan blue light my ass.

Oh I don't deny that others are getting the fog. I've already acknowledged that.

Did you try following the instructions on that video I linked? It might not cure the fog, but it might help your PC run better FPS in ARK. And if you can cure that, then maybe turning the -sm4 or -d3d10 launch options can be turned back on.

What are your PC specs then? What graphics card do you have? RAM? Processor? And do you have a screenshot of your Options menu so we can see what you currently have the in-game settings set to? Knowing all this can help narrow down what we can try to do to stop the fog AND help the game run better for now. For all we know this isn't a bug that will need fixing...it's probably not an intentional side-affect, but given some of the things people do to try and make it run better (launch commands for example), then maybe something WE did is doing this.

[LameoveR]

Dear Ulta, can you post a screenshot with 70+ fps you get on High/Epic?

To show the FPS in game without third-party software, type "stat fps" in console window.

 

[Vanessa]

I don't really mind the fog occasionally. It adds to the atmosphere of the game and can create some really cool tense moments.

The problem is that right now it's happening waaaay too often. Like multiple times a day. Then it becomes frustrating and annoying instead of an unpredictable event.

I think the problem was introduced when they added the chance of fog to happen everytime it rains. The chance seems way too high, and I noticed that since patch 264 the amount of times it rains was also increased, at least on the Center. It's not rare for us to have 3 foggy rains per day on our server, which seems a bit too much!

My suggestion is to decrease the amount of times it rains per day - the fog would automatically be reduced as it's linked to the rain. Or failing that, provide an ini setting where we can customize the chance of rain/fog per server.

[LouSpowells]

17 hours ago, Ralphy said:

Do you see both of my print screen? I see that kind of brightness every day ark cycle. Gamma on that server is disabled. 
I have to look at the ground while walking so that It doesn't hurt my eyes too much.

Occasional weather change is fine by me (including fog) but constant cyan ATMOSPHERIC fog is
 

I thought I was being as clear and specific as possible in stating that my post was not in reference to those experiencing bugs. Not specific enough it would seem.

I did see your print screen. I didn't address it directly because I've run the game in DX10 mode recently to test it and experienced the same results. This leads me to believe this is an issue that is directly related to those running the game in DX10 mode. That being said, I'm not sure if this is a bug when running Ark DX10 mode, or if it relates to the game is using environment ambiance like fog for technical reasons in DX10 mode. (ie: Fog is something commonly used in games to make up for a lack of view distance on lesser hardware) I'm assuming that it's a little from column A and a little from column B, but I'm really not qualified to say either way, which is why I was trying to stay out of that discussion.

If you had read the preface to my post you'd be aware that I am not interested in debating the merits of game bugs. If it's a bug, I agree that it should be reported and hopefully fixed in a reasonable amount of time. Again though, I thought I made it as clear as humanly possible that I was responding to players making complaints about fog in general...not players who were reporting potential bugs.

 

[onizuka89]

Fog isn't that bad, hate sandstorms mroe, and don't think the fog appear all that often, but maybe that' just the areas I hang out don't have it much in them game. Would imagine not the whole map gets fogged at the same time.

[Varanus8]

I actually like the fog but only on epic settings which consoles and many PCs can't run.

[Ulta]

2 hours ago, LameoveR said:

Dear Ulta, can you post a screenshot with 70+ fps you get on High/Epic?

To show the FPS in game without third-party software, type "stat fps" in console window.

 

Don't know why you specifically wanted one of my screenies, but okay, here you go.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1098612646

And here's the settings to go with it.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1098612717

But do keep in mind, I don't get 70 frames ALL THE TIME. In fact, I average about 50-60 when outside the base and it dips a LOT when you move. Inside a base I get about 40, and I can bump that a bit if I lower the shadows a bit (it doesn't really affect me too much if the shadows are lower quality). I did everything in that vid I linked EXCEPT putting in -d3d10 into the Launch parameters. Cause once I added that back in, I went from...

This during a rainstorm ---> http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1098612986

to THIS all the time ----> http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1098613093

Also I have a GTX 960. It's not even the best card out there by far so I bet with some messing around, people with 1080's or better cards and specs can get more steady frames than me. I don't need to play aRK at 70+ fps with all Epic. I'd rather play a nice looking Ark at about that much. I'm too lazy to go back in and retweak my settings for now, but if people keep poking me, I'll go back and show you what frames I can get with settings that make for a slightly 'uglier' but imo a better running and steadier FPS Ark (and I use ugly loosely since it's still visually fine to me).

[LouSpowells]

Everything I've seen thus far is leading me to believe that this has to do with the -d3d10 launch command. It was very common for quite some time in open-world(ish) video games to make anything past a certain distance render foggy instead of rendering blank. (Superman for the n64 is a great example of this. I'm not saying it is a good comparative example, but for those who recall that garbage pail of a game this should illustrate the concept)

I'm not in a place to say if this is truly the case because I don't have access to that information, but that's what the data indicates. Since I've been seeing comments about the fog I've launched my game with -d3d10 a couple of times to check, and it's only when I have -d3d10 in my launch options that I am able to replicate the issue as described.

I'm curious to know if those who are experiencing this issue continue to experience it with -d3d10 removed from launch options. If we can narrow it down to that specific command being the issue, it might get us closer to a definitive answer.

[Ralphy]

4 hours ago, LouSpowells said:

I thought I was being as clear and specific as possible in stating that my post was not in reference to those experiencing bugs. Not specific enough it would seem.

I did see your print screen. I didn't address it directly because I've run the game in DX10 mode recently to test it and experienced the same results. This leads me to believe this is an issue that is directly related to those running the game in DX10 mode. That being said, I'm not sure if this is a bug when running Ark DX10 mode, or if it relates to the game is using environment ambiance like fog for technical reasons in DX10 mode. (ie: Fog is something commonly used in games to make up for a lack of view distance on lesser hardware) I'm assuming that it's a little from column A and a little from column B, but I'm really not qualified to say either way, which is why I was trying to stay out of that discussion.

If you had read the preface to my post you'd be aware that I am not interested in debating the merits of game bugs. If it's a bug, I agree that it should be reported and hopefully fixed in a reasonable amount of time. Again though, I thought I made it as clear as humanly possible that I was responding to players making complaints about fog in general...not players who were reporting potential bugs.

 

As I mentioned before. I complained about the bright cyan sky and foggy all the time (not weather change), causing me headache.
A moderator merged my thread with yours when what I discussed is clearly something different to yours.

If Fog is used to increase the fps due to view distance, my fps should have gone up but it didnt. Also, what's the point having "view distance" in the option panel then?
When they're adding more fog but at the same time forcing people to remove -sm4 -dx3d10 fps will still drop, yeah?

It is a game bug if they are not intentionally adding it and it happened. but this issue occurs after Atmospheric Fog patch (they intentionally add in into the game).

1 hour ago, LouSpowells said:

Everything I've seen thus far is leading me to believe that this has to do with the -d3d10 launch command. It was very common for quite some time in open-world(ish) video games to make anything past a certain distance render foggy instead of rendering blank. (Superman for the n64 is a great example of this. I'm not saying it is a good comparative example, but for those who recall that garbage pail of a game this should illustrate the concept)

I'm not in a place to say if this is truly the case because I don't have access to that information, but that's what the data indicates. Since I've been seeing comments about the fog I've launched my game with -d3d10 a couple of times to check, and it's only when I have -d3d10 in my launch options that I am able to replicate the issue as described.

I'm curious to know if those who are experiencing this issue continue to experience it with -d3d10 removed from launch options. If we can narrow it down to that specific command being the issue, it might get us closer to a definitive answer.

It's not rocket science to find out a lot of people have complained and test this out. The first link shows a comparison between different launch options. You're welcome
http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/2132869574268871566/
https://www.reddit.com/r/playark/comments/6m3t3t/ark_very_bright_and_foggy_after_v261/
https://www.reddit.com/r/playark/comments/6f1wot/why_the_hell_is_it_so_bright/
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/220860-why-is-everything-so-bright/&page=2

[Rahthos]

21 hours ago, Ulta said:

I can tell you right now, it is DEFINITELY either the -sm4 or the -d3d10 or both that's making the sky white, since I had the same issue. But I got that ugly white haze to go away after I removed those two launch options. Here this might help. Watch this vid. I did near everything this guy said to do (but did not use the -sm4 or -d3d10 launch option) and I get about 70fps with all epic. I dunno what your pc specs are though. Share that while you watch the vid and maybe we can tell you why you still get low fps without those two launch options.

 

This is false. I have been extensively testing the fog issue and have screenshots of three different types of fog: 1) The fog that shows up after a rainfall. 25% chance. 2) Atmospheric fog, such as on the Center that is constant and thick for the most part. 3) The blinding light/white water issue that appears like fog.

This whole fog and blinding light thing is NOT related to SM4 or d3d10. Sorry.

I have never used SM4 or DX10 as they destroy the post processing and detail too much for my liking and I have been experiencing all three of these types of "fog" or lighting issues for well over 4 weeks now since around the time of the black sky issues to the release of that atmospheric fog patch for Center. It's reinstalled 2 times. It's definitely not related to either of those options, even though it may seem coincidental with what you've all tested.

WildCard, please acknowledge this issue! Here are some more shots of how bad it can get on the Island and Center, though the blinding light thing happens to all maps I've tried, Ragnarok and Crystal Isles included. It's clear there was some sort of change to the sky box or lighting in general, on top of the extra fog.

[LouSpowells]

Ralphy, it feels like I've offended you somehow,  and that was never my intent. I'm not sure why or how this thread has turned into what it turned into, but I never created a thread. I was responding to another post in this thread initially. It seems we are in agreement on all fronts here. Bugged fog is bad, regular fog isn't terrible, and it looks like the problem only occurs with the -d3d10 launch option. I'm sorry if I caused problems in this thread, it wasn't my intent...just trying to be helpful. 

With that, I think I'll just bow out of this discussion.