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Enough of the fog


Surraven

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19 hours ago, Rahthos said:

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.

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So you are getting all that ugly white haze, and basically every 'fog' problem there is, and you DON'T have -d3d10 in your launch parameters? (I say only that because I don't get the ugly white haze with -3m4 in the launch now, so I narrowed it down to just -d3d10 ) In fact, do you have any launch paramenters set at all? Do you boot Ark in 'normal' mode? (the first option when you boot ARK. Others are like 4GB low memory, etc.)? What are your settings?

I wouldn't instantly say that vid is completely false, because it DID work for me in getting my ARK to run better AND it removed the ugly white haze FOR ME AT LEAST when I got rid of the -d3d10 launch option. Maybe you just play on a potato, but that's why I'm asking all these questions to find out. I'm not denying there's probably an unintentional bug here, but when I launch ARK with 'vanilla' settings (aka. without launch parameters and all settings turned up), other than getting terrible 20 FPS, the game looks beautiful and has no ugly white haze (not counting legit fog and fog with rain of course).

Also, Ralphy, you still haven't shown us your specs...we are going in circles with you constantly complaining yet you aren't providing anymore info for us to help you pinpoint what's making the ugly white haze for you. Some of us don't get the haze, so if it's a bug as you seem dead set on it being, we need to figure out WHAT'S causing it for your case so WC can do something about it.

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14 minutes ago, Ulta said:

So you are getting all that ugly white haze, and basically every 'fog' problem there is, and you DON'T have -d3d10 in your launch parameters? (I say only that because I don't get the ugly white haze with -3m4 in the launch now, so I narrowed it down to just -d3d10 ) In fact, do you have any launch paramenters set at all? Do you boot Ark in 'normal' mode? (the first option when you boot ARK. Others are like 4GB low memory, etc.)? What are your settings?

I wouldn't instantly say that vid is completely false, because it DID work for me in getting my ARK to run better AND it removed the ugly white haze FOR ME AT LEAST when I got rid of the -d3d10 launch option. Maybe you just play on a potato, but that's why I'm asking all these questions to find out. I'm not denying there's probably an unintentional bug here, but when I launch ARK with 'vanilla' settings (aka. without launch parameters and all settings turned up), other than getting terrible 20 FPS, the game looks beautiful and has no ugly white haze (not counting legit fog and fog with rain of course).

Also, Ralphy, you still haven't shown us your specs...we are going in circles with you constantly complaining yet you aren't providing anymore info for us to help you pinpoint what's making the ugly white haze for you. Some of us don't get the haze, so if it's a bug as you seem dead set on it being, we need to figure out WHAT'S causing it for your case so WC can do something about it.

It's fine, I can answer your questions.

I run in normal launch mode but I have played with running it with -nomansky. Both give me the atmospheric fog issue, especially on the Center, though I can't say for sure with regards to the blinding light problem. Removing nomansky could help that. I have never used used -d3d10 or -sm4 except for when I first installed ages ago, as I don't like the way they make my game look. I've since reinstalled. I run the game on a GTX 970, i5 4690k, 16GB and a HDD. I average 40-45 FPS.

I'll attach my settings to this post.

My cluster has about 30 regulars. At least 10 of them have been complaining of near constant fog. About 4 or 5 have complained of the blinding white light so I don't doubt that it's an odd issue and one that's hard to narrow down. As far as I know, the white haze on the Center is attributed to the recent atmospheric fog changes. I always noticed this atmospheric fog on other servers, but the Center is the most severe. The blinding light issue seems to occur in two different ways: The first where it just gets insanely foggy to the point where it's all white and the second where the water turns a bright white, the sky is dark and everything looks very dull and faded. They both seem to occur at random. Some days I don't get them, other days I do and since I'm playing on average 3-6 hours a day, if it was an issue with the day/night cycle it would likely be more frequent and not so random.

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2 hours ago, Rahthos said:

It's fine, I can answer your questions.

I run in normal launch mode but I have played with running it with -nomansky. Both give me the atmospheric fog issue, especially on the Center, though I can't say for sure with regards to the blinding light problem. Removing nomansky could help that. I have never used used -d3d10 or -sm4 except for when I first installed ages ago, as I don't like the way they make my game look. I've since reinstalled. I run the game on a GTX 970, i5 4690k, 16GB and a HDD. I average 40-45 FPS.

I'll attach my settings to this post.

My cluster has about 30 regulars. At least 10 of them have been complaining of near constant fog. About 4 or 5 have complained of the blinding white light so I don't doubt that it's an odd issue and one that's hard to narrow down. As far as I know, the white haze on the Center is attributed to the recent atmospheric fog changes. I always noticed this atmospheric fog on other servers, but the Center is the most severe. The blinding light issue seems to occur in two different ways: The first where it just gets insanely foggy to the point where it's all white and the second where the water turns a bright white, the sky is dark and everything looks very dull and faded. They both seem to occur at random. Some days I don't get them, other days I do and since I'm playing on average 3-6 hours a day, if it was an issue with the day/night cycle it would likely be more frequent and not so random.

imageedit__4559978835.jpg

Hmmm interesting. Gosh though, the only way I could really figure out what's doing it then for you is to basically start 'vanilla' settings and then gradually start ticking on/off boxes one by one to see if something you unchecked or even checked did it.

Dunno if I myself wanna do that or not. Maybe later since I'm busy today and for the remaining weekend >.< Now I'll agree with Ralphy in that i WOULD be nice if a dev could see this. They know more about what each in-game setting does. Cuz this is puzzling me. as one of my screenshots showed, I didn't have the white haze (on the Center map specifically) when I had nearly EVERYTHING checked in-game. The only thing I see that you have checked that I didn't was Low Quality Level Streaming. But you also have Extra Level Streaming Distance, Simple Distance Character Movement, and Distance field shadowing turned off, while I had those on, and yet I didn't get the haze...

And you supposedly have a better card than me, though I think your processor is a downgrade from mine (not that I think that would make the difference).

I'm not awake enough for this xD

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41 minutes ago, Ulta said:

Hmmm interesting. Gosh though, the only way I could really figure out what's doing it then for you is to basically start 'vanilla' settings and then gradually start ticking on/off boxes one by one to see if something you unchecked or even checked did it.

Dunno if I myself wanna do that or not. Maybe later since I'm busy today and for the remaining weekend >.< Now I'll agree with Ralphy in that i WOULD be nice if a dev could see this. They know more about what each in-game setting does. Cuz this is puzzling me. as one of my screenshots showed, I didn't have the white haze (on the Center map specifically) when I had nearly EVERYTHING checked in-game. The only thing I see that you have checked that I didn't was Low Quality Level Streaming. But you also have Extra Level Streaming Distance, Simple Distance Character Movement, and Distance field shadowing turned off, while I had those on, and yet I didn't get the haze...

And you supposedly have a better card than me, though I think your processor is a downgrade from mine (not that I think that would make the difference).

I'm not awake enough for this xD

I'll try running vanilla settings and working up from those to see if it's related to that.

The only reason why I think it isn't is because too many people are complaining about it, but it would be nice to get some sort confirmation from WC. I'm not usually pushy with them at all but the fog thing makes some maps unenjoyable. There have been some days where the Center seems a lot clearer for me. I remember logging on a week ago and assuming that it was fixed and then within a few hours the fog was more thick again. There seems to be more than one thing going on pertaining to fog. The typical fog that follows a rainfall, the atmospheric fog and the blinding light issue, with maybe periods in between of clarity? 

Crystal Isles has the same sort of issues, too. I guess it's across all maps, just more noticeable on the Center since it has increased atmospheric fog. It's basically a giant waterfall.  But to hear that some people like yourself don't experience that extreme atmospheric fog is very interesting.

I'll post back here if I figure anything out. :(

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35 minutes ago, Rahthos said:

I'll try running vanilla settings and working up from those to see if it's related to that.

The only reason why I think it isn't is because too many people are complaining about it, but it would be nice to get some sort confirmation from WC. I'm not usually pushy with them at all but the fog thing makes some maps unenjoyable. There have been some days where the Center seems a lot clearer for me. I remember logging on a week ago and assuming that it was fixed and then within a few hours the fog was more thick again. There seems to be more than one thing going on pertaining to fog. The typical fog that follows a rainfall, the atmospheric fog and the blinding light issue, with maybe periods in between of clarity? 

Crystal Isles has the same sort of issues, too. I guess it's across all maps, just more noticeable on the Center since it has increased atmospheric fog. It's basically a giant waterfall.  But to hear that some people like yourself don't experience that extreme atmospheric fog is very interesting.

I'll post back here if I figure anything out. :(

A part of me feels like yeah a lot of people are complaining about it, but it's not exactly secret knowledge about the custom launch options. A simple Google search usually yields quite a few youtubes of people showing tips and tricks to get more FPS out of their ARK game if they are willing to sacrifice some of it's visual pleasure. I'm one of those people, so I guess I'm taking a wild guess that many others have spread the word that those custom launch options do help and many people have done it. Unfortunately, many people forget, like myself, that those same options might not work down the road, hence where we are now. I had no idea the -d3d10 option would give me white haze due to the something WC added and it just conflicted with it. I'm not mad, just trying to find a new middle ground of visual pleasure and FPS for my specific rig (and others now thanks to this thread).

Course, I think this whole thing goes out the window if CONSOLE people are having this issue of overbearing white haze on the maps. I have no idea if there's even a way to do custom launch options for a console version of ARK, and if THEY are getting the white haze, THEN there's a problem on WC's end for sure. Unless there is a way, in which case, they are in the same boat as us PC players.

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On 7/29/2017 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.

-sm4 = Shader model 4 ( this option FORCES the GFX card to use Direct x 10.1)

- d3d10 = a switch to tell the GFX card to use direct X 10

If your getting low fps and it is unplayable without it, its a GFX card or driver issue.( you card/driver may not support direct x 11 properly ) I run the game @ 60-75 FPS on a high/ultra custom gfx config. (GTX970)

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On 8/4/2017 at 7:36 AM, Ulta said:

So you are getting all that ugly white haze, and basically every 'fog' problem there is, and you DON'T have -d3d10 in your launch parameters? (I say only that because I don't get the ugly white haze with -3m4 in the launch now, so I narrowed it down to just -d3d10 ) In fact, do you have any launch paramenters set at all? Do you boot Ark in 'normal' mode? (the first option when you boot ARK. Others are like 4GB low memory, etc.)? What are your settings?

I wouldn't instantly say that vid is completely false, because it DID work for me in getting my ARK to run better AND it removed the ugly white haze FOR ME AT LEAST when I got rid of the -d3d10 launch option. Maybe you just play on a potato, but that's why I'm asking all these questions to find out. I'm not denying there's probably an unintentional bug here, but when I launch ARK with 'vanilla' settings (aka. without launch parameters and all settings turned up), other than getting terrible 20 FPS, the game looks beautiful and has no ugly white haze (not counting legit fog and fog with rain of course).

Also, Ralphy, you still haven't shown us your specs...we are going in circles with you constantly complaining yet you aren't providing anymore info for us to help you pinpoint what's making the ugly white haze for you. Some of us don't get the haze, so if it's a bug as you seem dead set on it being, we need to figure out WHAT'S causing it for your case so WC can do something about it.



I've mentioned before that I was able to play just fine before the patch (2.5k hours on ark).

When It suddenly become bright post patch I sure can assume that the problem isn't on my end. Logic.

 

Hence  I don't see the point posting my specs but If you want it badly here it is.
I am running on 560Ti, 8gb ram, 1st gen i7, windows 10. The launch option and in-game settings is as attached.  Would you like my number too? ;) 

a.jpg

b.jpg

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23 minutes ago, Ralphy said:



I've mentioned before that I was able to play just fine before the patch (2.5k hours on ark).

When It suddenly become bright post patch I sure can assume that the problem isn't on my end. Logic.

 

Hence  I don't see the point posting my specs but If you want it badly here it is.
I am running on 560Ti, 8gb ram, 1st gen i7, windows 10. The launch option and in-game settings is as attached.  Would you like my number too? ;) 

a.jpg

b.jpg

We're trying to help you here dude. No need to get smart. Besides that quote you did was for SOMEONE ELSE...take a chill pill.

Your graphics card sucks though. Well...sucks-ish. I'm going to assume that you DID remove the -d3d10 launch option and couldn't run the game very well, probably very low FPS, but the white haze went away?

If the fog went away without the -d3d10 option in it, then it's safe to say that WC did add or changed something that made running with DX10 not as...pretty or handled well. It was made with DX11 or 12 though so I'm not that surprised. If the fog goes away with or without -d3d10 in the launch options then you are out of luck Ralphy. you'll need to upgrade your graphics card to get ARK to both run better and not look like crud. Unless WC does something to fix the white fog. In which case, patience. We'll see what WC does, but it does seem like only people who've done custom launch options are having this issue.

 

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5 hours ago, Ulta said:

We're trying to help you here dude. No need to get smart. Besides that quote you did was for SOMEONE ELSE...take a chill pill.

Your graphics card sucks though. Well...sucks-ish. I'm going to assume that you DID remove the -d3d10 launch option and couldn't run the game very well, probably very low FPS, but the white haze went away?

If the fog went away without the -d3d10 option in it, then it's safe to say that WC did add or changed something that made running with DX10 not as...pretty or handled well. It was made with DX11 or 12 though so I'm not that surprised. If the fog goes away with or without -d3d10 in the launch options then you are out of luck Ralphy. you'll need to upgrade your graphics card to get ARK to both run better and not look like crud. Unless WC does something to fix the white fog. In which case, patience. We'll see what WC does, but it does seem like only people who've done custom launch options are having this issue.

 

Yeah my graphic card isn't great to play ark and run smoothly but I was able to enjoy thousands hour of ark with 30-40fps. No blinding sky. 
I wasn't asking to make the game look prettier on a low-end gpu user.  I am asking a fix so that it's playable LIKE HOW IT USED TO.
None of the WC team comment that they're aware of this issue. I don't even know if they are purposefully trying to cut users with low specs.

I believe I am not the only one complaining about this. 

In my opinion WC is making backward progress (knowing the game is close to full release).
From a user who was able to play just fine till the introduction of atmospheric fog.

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On 3-8-2017 at 1:43 AM, 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)

They way that it was implemented in older games, it means that effectively there is a lower maximum view distance. This is not how the fog works in ARK, so it gives no performance increase. Games like the old Elder Scrolls: Morrowwind. just didn't render the world beyond the fog. The fog was just there to make the border between what was rendered and what was not rendered a bit smoother.

ARK still renders everything , just adds a haze on top of it, so there is no performance gain.

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7 hours ago, Ulta said:

We're trying to help you here dude. No need to get smart. Besides that quote you did was for SOMEONE ELSE...take a chill pill.

Your graphics card sucks though. Well...sucks-ish. I'm going to assume that you DID remove the -d3d10 launch option and couldn't run the game very well, probably very low FPS, but the white haze went away?

If the fog went away without the -d3d10 option in it, then it's safe to say that WC did add or changed something that made running with DX10 not as...pretty or handled well. It was made with DX11 or 12 though so I'm not that surprised. If the fog goes away with or without -d3d10 in the launch options then you are out of luck Ralphy. you'll need to upgrade your graphics card to get ARK to both run better and not look like crud. Unless WC does something to fix the white fog. In which case, patience. We'll see what WC does, but it does seem like only people who've done custom launch options are having this issue.

 

I think the question then is if Wildcard supports those custom launch options. If they just removed the option for -sm4 and d3d10 then it would be clear.

As long as those options are there, I think one could assume WC supports them and then they should work and problems with them are a bug.

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7 hours ago, CCRogerWilco said:

I think the question then is if Wildcard supports those custom launch options. If they just removed the option for -sm4 and d3d10 then it would be clear.

As long as those options are there, I think one could assume WC supports them and then they should work and problems with them are a bug.

Hmmm that's a weighted question then. Really that all depends on if the custom launch options are something WC has shared before, or if those options are more user-wide. I actually think they are Steam-wide knowledge, since you can put custom launch options into pretty much ANY Steam game. And WC doesn't own every Steam game out there obviously.

Was just an educated guess. It's probably not so much the fact WC might not 'support' them...it's more like they are building/adding things to ARK to make the 'vanilla' experience of ARK look it's best (aka. launching ARK in normal mode with no custom launch options and all Epic settings). I'd imagine they are building it off of the intended DX11/future 12 version...not 10, which is the launch option many use to help increase FPS, but now at the cost of that 'fog' which they changed up recently.

I actually didn't see the fog with -sm4 on, so it's not that launch option that's doing it...for me anyway.

8 hours ago, Ralphy said:

Yeah my graphic card isn't great to play ark and run smoothly but I was able to enjoy thousands hour of ark with 30-40fps. No blinding sky. 
I wasn't asking to make the game look prettier on a low-end gpu user.  I am asking a fix so that it's playable LIKE HOW IT USED TO.
None of the WC team comment that they're aware of this issue. I don't even know if they are purposefully trying to cut users with low specs.

I believe I am not the only one complaining about this. 

In my opinion WC is making backward progress (knowing the game is close to full release).
From a user who was able to play just fine till the introduction of atmospheric fog.

We know you aren't the only one complaining about this. Really as far as I can tell, the only reason you can't seem to play it how you USED to is because WC changed up how the atmospheric fog functioned, or SimpleSky as they say. I noticed the white haze began after the patch that added that, so I'm just guessing it was that. I guess this change doesn't really work well with the -d3d10 launch option....maybe DX10 just isn't capable of rendering the new fog properly, cause when -d3d10 isn't used, the haze goes away =\

We'll see what WC does. Obviously something they did made the haze not work well with -d3d10 people, but whether they'll change it or not is up to them. It may not seem like they reading this, but I know they are (I could prove it but people probably won't believe me). They could be working on a fix as we speak.

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16 hours ago, Ulta said:

Hmmm that's a weighted question then. Really that all depends on if the custom launch options are something WC has shared before, or if those options are more user-wide. I actually think they are Steam-wide knowledge, since you can put custom launch options into pretty much ANY Steam game. And WC doesn't own every Steam game out there obviously.

Was just an educated guess. It's probably not so much the fact WC might not 'support' them...it's more like they are building/adding things to ARK to make the 'vanilla' experience of ARK look it's best (aka. launching ARK in normal mode with no custom launch options and all Epic settings). I'd imagine they are building it off of the intended DX11/future 12 version...not 10, which is the launch option many use to help increase FPS, but now at the cost of that 'fog' which they changed up recently.

I actually didn't see the fog with -sm4 on, so it's not that launch option that's doing it...for me anyway.

We know you aren't the only one complaining about this. Really as far as I can tell, the only reason you can't seem to play it how you USED to is because WC changed up how the atmospheric fog functioned, or SimpleSky as they say. I noticed the white haze began after the patch that added that, so I'm just guessing it was that. I guess this change doesn't really work well with the -d3d10 launch option....maybe DX10 just isn't capable of rendering the new fog properly, cause when -d3d10 isn't used, the haze goes away =\

We'll see what WC does. Obviously something they did made the haze not work well with -d3d10 people, but whether they'll change it or not is up to them. It may not seem like they reading this, but I know they are (I could prove it but people probably won't believe me). They could be working on a fix as we speak.

 

The new patch v264.32 fixed the issue with -sm4. Thank you Wildcard!

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Had this problem for the longest time, then i had to wipe my pc for other reasons and did a factory reset.

Now the game looks amazing and i understand the idea of the fog, it looks pretty damn awesome when it's working properly.

But i have no idea what fixed it, right now im playing with no launch options at all, maybe thats it?

I did see Jat responding about this problem on Reddit, it's too bad we never seem to get an answer here on the official forum.

Jat Ark.png

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