Ark Survival Ascended is finally out for PC. Released as a remake of the original Ark Survival Evolved, it is something many fans have had mixed opinions about. Most of the hate towards this game is because it is just a graphical upgrade that is sold at the same price as the base game when it first came out. Despite this, the game’s reception has been quite decent, as the developers have actually made some rather nice changes to it, compared to its predecessor. However, similar to ASE, Ark Survival Ascended is not without its fair share of issues. Recently, players have reported encountering the shadow flickering issue in the game. So, if you too are struggling with a similar situation, consider reading this guide for more details.
Studio Wildcard has put in significant efforts to make ASA a better experience than ASE. Their main focus has been on the graphics or visual department, but a few minor gameplay-related changes have also been implemented. These changes are in the form of the inclusion of baby dinosaurs and changed resource spawn locations. Other than that, taming seems to be the same. We have already shared guides on taming the Triceratops and the Pteranodon, and it seems the taming process is more or less the same. And similar to ASE, the remake is also filled with bugs.
Ark Survival Ascended (ASA) Shadow Flickering Issue: Is there any fix yet?
Shadows, although they don’t play a significant role, are often quite important to provide an overall immersive experience. Due to the feature’s nature, it is usually very demanding, and a lot of systems struggle to render high-quality shadows in-game. Despite this, modern technology has introduced more intricate and detailed shadows into their games. This is true of ASA as well. However, due to an unknown bug, the shadow flickering issue is currently encountered by many. So, we intend to help you fix this issue through this guide.
What does this issue do?
The framerate of the shadows is lower than the actual in-game FPS. This sometimes causes the shadows to stutter or render late. When playing at low FPS or very high FPS, this change in framerate tends to be noticeable. The shadows in these conditions flicker and stutter. This is what the issue is primarily about. There are not too many solutions to this issue since it is a game engine limitation, and the developers have to work on it to fix it. So, until an official fix is released, you can try the given workarounds.
How to fix it?
While there has been no concrete solution offered to us just yet, players in the ARK community are gravitating towards tweaking their graphical settings for a solution. The issue seems to originate from foliage interaction/ graphical demand of the game from your hardware. If you have a modest GPU (basically not a 4090), you might want to tune the graphics settings to better suit your device. Here are some helpful tips;
1). Reduce Foliage interaction
Reducing the distance of Foliage interaction may make this easier since there is less the game has to render and predict. Shadows, like most background visuals, are rendered near the subject (you). Reducing foliage interaction means the game can reduce the range around you it has to animate and interact with, making it easier for your GPU to increase frames and also solve this issue. This setting can be found under the Video tab in the game’s Settings menu.
2). DLSS or FSR
Nvidia and AMD’s solution to most issues is to use DLSS and FSR. While these two settings do help, they reduce the overall quality of the game since objects have to be rerendered and upscaled. This makes it a little rougher to look at than if DLSS and FSR were off. If you don’t mind the texture sometimes looking grainy or patchy, enabling DLSS or FSR options can help with this issue too. But if you had these options enabled from the beginning, consider turning them off, and then check if the shadow flickering still occurs.
3). Disable Low Light Enhancement & Global Illumination Quality
One of the methods to solve this issue is to turn off low-light enhancements. Light effects usually drain your GPU, and reducing any form of light effect will make the game more playable and the flickering less. Doing this might help with your issue. So, head over to the in-game Settings menu and go to the Video tab. Here, find the Low Light Enhancement and Global Illumination Quality settings. Make sure to toggle them Off. You can also set the Advanced Graphics option to Low and then check whether the shadows still flicker.
4). Close background apps
Make sure your GPU is allowed to focus fully on ASA. This can be done by closing other background apps that might be GPU heavy giving you more VRAM to work with in ASA.
5). Relaunch the game
If the flickering is caused by bugs, you may want to relaunch the game to solve this issue. After a fresh restart, the issue shouldn’t occur. If it persists, consider restarting your PC.
6). Lower overall graphics
If you don’t want to tweak individual graphics settings, there is always the option to lower the in-game graphics preset setting. Not only might this solve your issue with shadow flicker, but it will also improve your FPS and gaming experience.
7). Edit the .ini file
If the issue persists, you can add a bunch of commands to the engine.ini file found in the following directory: C:(or the drive where Ark is stored)\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Ark Survival Ascended\ShooterGame\Saved\Config\Windows. Once found, open the Engine.ini file using Notepad, and then add the given commands at the end:
[/script/engine.renderersettings]
r.Streaming.PoolSize = 0
r.Nanite.MaxPixelsPerEdge = 2
r.Shadow.Virtual.Enable = 0[/script/engine.systemsettings]
r.VolumetricCloud.ViewRaySampleMaxCount = 64
r.VolumetricRenderTarget.Mode = 3
After this, save the changes, and then launch the game. The shadow flickering issue should no longer exist.
Well, these are the workarounds you can try to fix the shadow flickering issue in Ark Survival Ascended. If you find this guide informative, make sure to visit Android Gram daily. Also read: Ark Survival Ascended (ASA): How to Increase Tether Distance
