Random chunks of maps causing FPS loss?

[Xenithar]

For the past patch or two I have had an odd issue. While roaming around on maps, even The Island, I randomly enter a cell/chunk/whatever and my FPS drops from my cap of 60fps down to 10-20fps. Leaving the cell/chunk fixes the issue. There are no structures in the parts of the map where this occurs. If I look towards the cell/shunk everything looks normal but my framerate plummets. Looking away returns it to 60. Is this something I can work on? Files have been verified, clean install performed, filesystem was checked, hardware is fine. It just randomly loads an area and slaughters my framerate despite the are looking fine. Details are maxed on my end. Specs below.

• i9-11900K
• 64GB DDR4-3200 (Corsair)
• RTX 3080 Ti
• Razer Tiamat 7.1 v2 (headset)
• Razer Death Adder v2 20k optical
• Razer Black Widow v3
• 2TB PCIE 4 M.2 2280 NVME (WD Black) (Ark lives here)
• 3 x 1TB PCIE 3 M.2 2280 NVME (WD Black) in RAID5 (other games)
• 4 x 1TB SATA WD Black in BTRFS RAID10 (older games)
• 2TB SATA WD  Blue (OS, music, pictures, etc)

I had no issues until a patch a while back, before the Summer Bash started, but not too far back. Now certain cells/chunks kill my framerate. Sometimes leaving the area and flying far away and returning fixes the issue, but most times it does not. Exiting the game and reloading does not fix it either.

[Xenithar]

I had a thought after posting this. Shaders. Steam introduced something that speeds the first startup of a game by sending you shaders from another system similar to yours. I deleted the DirectX shaders and the Steam shaders, started the game, and no difference. I then found the option to turn off the shader download in Steam and disabled it, then deleted the Steam (not DirectX) shader cache again. Started the game. Three of the five areas known to give bad drops in FPS stayed pegged out at max FPS now. Two areas still produce issues so they may be problems unrelated to shaders or I need to wipe the DX shader cache again. Either way, disabling the Steam shader mess and allowing my unique system to generate the shaders fixed a majority of the problem.

[Xenithar]

 It was Steam, not Ark. Steam downloaded some shaders to save me 0.00001ms loading time (Ark is on a PCIE4 NVME that reads over 40Gbps) and then DirectX made its cache off of those bad shaders and I had issues. I disabled Steam giving me shaders, wiped both caches, and my framerate stays solid. My theory is that not many players have rigs like mine, so I got some bum shaders.

[Xenithar]

Just an update for others. Ark has an issue with pre-generated shaders. Ark and only Ark. I have many other UE4 titles that do not do this, but even after disabling the Steam download of shaders and erasing the DX shader cache, the problem crops up again on the third or fourth load of the game. Clearing the cache again fixes the problem, for a few sessions. Cyberpunk doesn't do this (not UE4). Tiny Tina's Wonderlands doesn't do this (UE4). Borderlands 3 doesn't do this (UE4). The Vanishing of Ethan Carter doesn't do this (UE3 and UE4). No Unity games do this. This is unique to Ark. If you are having issues where you're running along and suddenly your framerate drops even without structures nearby, here is what I do.

1. Exit Ark
2. Go to Steam settings, shader caching, disable it (if not disabled already)
3. Go to Steam/steamapps and delete the "shadercache" folder (or go into this folder and delete the 346110 folder to only delete Ark shaders)
4. Right-click the C drive on your computer and choose properties
5. Click the disk cleanup button
6. Make SURE the DirectX shader cache option is checked
7. Click "Clean up system files"
8. Close out of everything and enjoy Ark until the shader cache and Ark want to fight again

Hope this helps.