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Cross Play with wife ( pc and Xbox )


Falkoooor

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Hello. I have scoured the Internet watching numerous videos and reading many posts trying to find an exact answer and feel like my head is going to explode. I have a pc and my wife an x box series s. We want to play ark together just us. I downloaded the game with a game pass on both x box and pc with the same game pass account. How can we play together just the two of us? I’m so confused about what a non dedicated server is as I feel like that’s what we need to do but so lost at this point. My brain is mush. Please help! 

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SInce you used the same account, you probalby can't be logged into that account on both devices at the same time.   The good news is, if the account you used sets that xbox as the home xbox, then all purchases by that main account are accessable by any account logged into that xbox.  That way , you can be on the account that you downloaded it onto the pc with , and still play w/ the wife with her logged into her account on the xbox.

 

I don't know about the dedicated server part, that is over my head.   I think we tried to do it but couldn't get it working for some reason at the time.  If there's a version mismatch between the xbox and pc version for a time, that can render all crossplay non-functional, until the matching patch for the other system to hit the store.   Theres at least 2 versions of the game in the xbox store there, so they both have to be certified by the xbox team separately , if I'm not mistaken.

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19 hours ago, Falkoooor said:

Hello. I have scoured the Internet watching numerous videos and reading many posts trying to find an exact answer and feel like my head is going to explode. I have a pc and my wife an x box series s. We want to play ark together just us. I downloaded the game with a game pass on both x box and pc with the same game pass account. How can we play together just the two of us?

It's important to remember that you can download to as many computers and consoles as you want, but a single account can only play the game on one device at at time, and this means that you have to have a copy of the game licenses for each account that you want to have playing together.

As far as I know, a game pass account can only give you access to one copy of the game, which means you would need to have 2 different game pass accounts. and each account would give one person the ability to run the game on one computer at a time.

19 hours ago, Falkoooor said:

I’m so confused about what a non dedicated server is as I feel like that’s what we need to do but so lost at this point. My brain is mush. Please help!

A non-dedicated server is basically just sharing your single-player game with someone that you choose to allow to join you. The reason it's "non-dedicated" is that the moment you exit the game on host account the game shuts down for the other player also. If you were running a dedicated server that's basically a computer that's running a copy of the game 24*7 and anyone who knows the name and password for the dedicated server can log into it at any time. Just for reference, all of the Official servers are dedicated servers, they're running all the time, 24*7.

 

Back to non-dedicated, this is how they work:

Frank owns a copy of ARK and Joe owns a copy of ARK.

Frank starts his copy of the game on his computer/console, at the opening screen he clicks on "Host / Local", then on the next screen chooses a map and clicks on the "Host Non-dedicated Session".

This will pop up a window in which Frank decides what the password and the "Session Name" will be.

Now Joe opens up his copy of ARK, clicks on "Join ARK" and searches the non-dedicated session using the Session Filter for non-dedicated sessions.
image.png.0bd8be3a51ac2436335e22f04868b1db.png

 

Once Joe finds the non-dedicated session that Frank is hosting, Joe can log in to it using the password that Frank gave to him. Joe can log on and log off as many times as he wants to, as long as Frank's copy of the game is running. But the moment that Frank logs out of the game Joe will also get kicked out. Hosting a server is like hosting a party, when the host wants the party to end everyone has to leave.

 

Also, when you play non-dedicated I'm pretty sure that the same person has to host every time. So if the two players reverse things next time, if Joe tries to host and Frank joins Joe's game, then it's going to look completely different even if it's the same map. I have not personally played with someone else using a non-dedicated server so maybe someone else can confirm or refute this, or you can test it easily yourself by having you and your wife take turns hosting to see what happens, but I'm pretty sure it works this way.

 

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21 hours ago, Falkoooor said:

Hello. I have scoured the Internet watching numerous videos and reading many posts trying to find an exact answer and feel like my head is going to explode. I have a pc and my wife an x box series s. We want to play ark together just us. I downloaded the game with a game pass on both x box and pc with the same game pass account. How can we play together just the two of us? I’m so confused about what a non dedicated server is as I feel like that’s what we need to do but so lost at this point. My brain is mush. Please help! 

Ok I will try to keep it simple...

First you need to figure out if you have the ability to play on 2 different profiles that can play on two different devices. If you have gamepass, the xbox should be good to go on the island and the free maps.....Scorched earth, aberation, ect. ect will have a little lock on them meaning they need to be bought before you can play them.
Once you are certain that you with your profile can play on the PC, and your wife "WITH HER OWN PROFILE" can play on her end, you should be good.....I do not know if this means you need to buy another game pass or if you need to make her, her own profile on the xbox, but once both of you are able to play under your own respective game tags, the next part is a little easier or harder.

The first method is for both of you to choose the same official online cross play server. There are quite a few official cross play servers and you can meet up on one of these servers. this should be the easiest way to play with each other.
If your looking for a more private solution, you can rent a server to play on and then you should be able to lock anyone else out using a password. Might try and make a password that includes numbers and capitol letters. Microsoft likes to push Nitrido servers, but there are many other rentable gaming servers to host the game on.
Last but not least is to use a computer you own and turn it into your own server. The specs to run ark is not too punishing, but be warned it is very RAM heavy.....It needs a minimum of 8, however its recommended to use 16, but many people say you need 32gb of RAM for the best experience.

The last two options will require extra steps, but the only other option is to play split screen which really sucks if you have a small tv. I have a 60in vizeo and even with it, I catch myself needing to get up and get close to read some of the tiny numbers

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On 7/31/2022 at 2:19 AM, GrumpyBear said:

SInce you used the same account, you probalby can't be logged into that account on both devices at the same time.   The good news is, if the account you used sets that xbox as the home xbox, then all purchases by that main account are accessable by any account logged into that xbox.  That way , you can be on the account that you downloaded it onto the pc with , and still play w/ the wife with her logged into her account on the xbox.

 

I don't know about the dedicated server part, that is over my head.   I think we tried to do it but couldn't get it working for some reason at the time.  If there's a version mismatch between the xbox and pc version for a time, that can render all crossplay non-functional, until the matching patch for the other system to hit the store.   Theres at least 2 versions of the game in the xbox store there, so they both have to be certified by the xbox team separately , if I'm not mistaken.

Okay this makes sense. That’s what I thought in regards to using the game pass accounts. Thank you for the heads up about the versions matching. Appreciate the info!

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22 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

It's important to remember that you can download to as many computers and consoles as you want, but a single account can only play the game on one device at at time, and this means that you have to have a copy of the game licenses for each account that you want to have playing together.

As far as I know, a game pass account can only give you access to one copy of the game, which means you would need to have 2 different game pass accounts. and each account would give one person the ability to run the game on one computer at a time.

A non-dedicated server is basically just sharing your single-player game with someone that you choose to allow to join you. The reason it's "non-dedicated" is that the moment you exit the game on host account the game shuts down for the other player also. If you were running a dedicated server that's basically a computer that's running a copy of the game 24*7 and anyone who knows the name and password for the dedicated server can log into it at any time. Just for reference, all of the Official servers are dedicated servers, they're running all the time, 24*7.

 

Back to non-dedicated, this is how they work:

Frank owns a copy of ARK and Joe owns a copy of ARK.

Frank starts his copy of the game on his computer/console, at the opening screen he clicks on "Host / Local", then on the next screen chooses a map and clicks on the "Host Non-dedicated Session".

This will pop up a window in which Frank decides what the password and the "Session Name" will be.

Now Joe opens up his copy of ARK, clicks on "Join ARK" and searches the non-dedicated session using the Session Filter for non-dedicated sessions.
image.png.0bd8be3a51ac2436335e22f04868b1db.png

 

Once Joe finds the non-dedicated session that Frank is hosting, Joe can log in to it using the password that Frank gave to him. Joe can log on and log off as many times as he wants to, as long as Frank's copy of the game is running. But the moment that Frank logs out of the game Joe will also get kicked out. Hosting a server is like hosting a party, when the host wants the party to end everyone has to leave.

 

Also, when you play non-dedicated I'm pretty sure that the same person has to host every time. So if the two players reverse things next time, if Joe tries to host and Frank joins Joe's game, then it's going to look completely different even if it's the same map. I have not personally played with someone else using a non-dedicated server so maybe someone else can confirm or refute this, or you can test it easily yourself by having you and your wife take turns hosting to see what happens, but I'm pretty sure it works this way.

 

Ok thank you for spelling out how the servers work. Very helpful. Someone from above mentioned that it might be possible to only need one game pass account and I would be logged into that on my PC and my wife could use her separate account on the Xbox since she has access to all my game pass games on there. I’ll give the non dedicated server a try! Thanks again.

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21 hours ago, wizard03 said:

Ok I will try to keep it simple...

First you need to figure out if you have the ability to play on 2 different profiles that can play on two different devices. If you have gamepass, the xbox should be good to go on the island and the free maps.....Scorched earth, aberation, ect. ect will have a little lock on them meaning they need to be bought before you can play them.
Once you are certain that you with your profile can play on the PC, and your wife "WITH HER OWN PROFILE" can play on her end, you should be good.....I do not know if this means you need to buy another game pass or if you need to make her, her own profile on the xbox, but once both of you are able to play under your own respective game tags, the next part is a little easier or harder.

The first method is for both of you to choose the same official online cross play server. There are quite a few official cross play servers and you can meet up on one of these servers. this should be the easiest way to play with each other.
If your looking for a more private solution, you can rent a server to play on and then you should be able to lock anyone else out using a password. Might try and make a password that includes numbers and capitol letters. Microsoft likes to push Nitrido servers, but there are many other rentable gaming servers to host the game on.
Last but not least is to use a computer you own and turn it into your own server. The specs to run ark is not too punishing, but be warned it is very RAM heavy.....It needs a minimum of 8, however its recommended to use 16, but many people say you need 32gb of RAM for the best experience.

The last two options will require extra steps, but the only other option is to play split screen which really sucks if you have a small tv. I have a 60in vizeo and even with it, I catch myself needing to get up and get close to read some of the tiny numbers

I will give these a try and report back! Thank you! 

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Look into the Xbox family sharing I think it's called. Basically you can link one Xbox account to another and anything you buy on one is available to another. Your wife would need to make her own account and may need Xbox gold as well, but I can't remember. Look up a YouTube video on it causes it's kinda confusing. Also, I know it works with purchased games but I'm not sure about for game pass games. 

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