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A lot of ARK: Survival Evolved can be configured through its in-game Options menu. In order to access this menu, you can either click the "Options" button on the main-menu or hit your ESC key in-game and select the "Options" button.
a slider that changes the render quality; maxing will display 100% same resolution as your output/set display resolution, any less may improve performance at the cost of quality
slider
World Tile Buffers
the amount of graphics memory used to render areas of the map that you aren't in; areas, textures, models are stored in buffer for quicker loading while transitioning between areas (tiles) of the map; increased may lead to better load times between tiles
Low, Medium, High, Epic
View Distance
the maximum distance Ark will load tiles; lowering may increase performance
Low, Medium, High, Epic
Anti-Aliasing
smooth edges of objects at a slight cost in performance
Low, Medium, High, Epic
Post Processing
controls visual quality such as bloom, depth blurring, portal distortion, character lines, light rays, and selective scene tinting
Low, Medium, High, Epic
General Shadows
adjust quality/intensity/abundance of most shadows
Low, Medium, High, Epic
Terrain Shadows
adjust quality/intensity/abundance of terrain specific shadows
Low, Medium, High, Epic
Texture
controls texture quality. lower settings use less GPU RAM (VRAM) higher settings use more.
Low, Medium, High, Epic
Sky Quality
self-explanatory
slider
Ground Clutter Density
This controls the quantity of non interactable ground decoration.
slider
Ground Clutter Distance
This controls the view distance of non interactable ground decoration.
slider
Motion Blur
streaking of rapidly moving objects. effectively adding bluring during motion.
Checked, Unchecked
Film Grain
added grain filter to visuals, reminiscent of film artifacts
Checked, Unchecked
Distance Field Ambient Occlusion
shading and rendering setting for how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting
Checked, Unchecked
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
shading and rendering setting for how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting
Checked, Unchecked
Dynamic Tessellation (Restart Required)
allows the breakdown of polygons to create finer, higher quality graphics
Checked, Unchecked
Distance Field Shadowing
Checked, Unchecked
High Quality Materials (Restart Required)
Checked, Unchecked
Sub Surface Scattering (Requires Restart)
Typically used for skin surfaces, allows lighting to partially penetrate the surface and reflect off of various layers, depths, and colors to provide more realistic looking skins for characters and various monsters.
Checked, Unchecked
High Quality VFX (Requires Restart)
Allows higher quality visual effects at the cost of performance
Checked, Unchecked
Simple Distance Character Movement
When checked lowers the quality of the movement animations for distant creatures, this significantly reduces CPU usage
Checked, Unchecked
Mesh Level of Detail
Controls the quality of trees and similar at a distance
Slider
Sound[]
Setting
Description
Options
Master Volume
adjusts all volume levels at once
slider
Music Volume
self-explanatory
slider
SFX Volume
SFX = sound effects aka all sounds besides background music (bgm)
slider
Ambient Volume
beehives and water
slider
NPC volume
adjusts the volume of NPC's like HLNA
slider
Camera Controls[]
Setting
Description
Options
Camera Shake Scale
how much the camera shakes when you do something or something's happening to you
slider
Camera FOV
adjusts first-person field of view
slider
Invert Y
inverts/reverses/flips the control of the camera on the Y-axis (looking up and down)
Checked, Unchecked
Look Left/Right Sensitivity
self-explanatory
slider
Look Up/Down Sensitivity
self-explanatory
slider
Camera View Bob
view bob when moving
Checked, Unchecked
First Person Riding
forces player into first person view when mounted
Checked, Unchecked
HUD[]
Setting
Description
Options
Floating Names
turns name plates on and off
Checked, Unchecked
Join Notifications
notifications when a player joins or leaves the server
Checked, Unchecked
Chat Bubbles
displays in-game chat bubbles when a player sends a message
Checked, Unchecked
Status Notification Messages
a message is displayed at the top of the screen whenever your status changes
Checked, Unchecked
Auto Chatbox
the chatbox is displayed whenever you receive a message (global, local and tribe)
Checked, Unchecked
Hide Server Info
hides the server info that is displayed on the ESC menu; useful for streamers protecting privacy
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