ARK: Survival Evolved Frame Rate Drops on Xbox One
By John Jacques 26 January 2016
It appears that ARK: Survival Evolved is having massive framerate issues on the Xbox One, where the early access game is dipping to as low as 14 frames per second.
Dinosaurs, guns, and crafting are a combination of gameplay elements that should make most gamers sit up straight, and that’s exactly why ARK: Survival Evolved has grown into an early access hit months before the final game is due to launch. ARK has become more popular on Xbox One than it has been on Steam, but the game – which was originally poised as just a PC release – is having some frame rate issues on the former platform.
The game itself includes over sixty dinosaurs, plenty of craftable items, and for the time being, some massive frame rate drops on Microsoft’s console. To be fair, the title is still in early access, which means players are paying to try out the game far before it has a chance to be polished. On the other hand, any kind of game experience that rings in at $34.99 shouldn’t leave gamers frustrated as the game dips below 14 FPS in some areas, especially when considering it’s a current generation title that caps out at less than a 720P resolution.
From our own experiences, we’ve certainly seem some less than stellar performance from ARK: Survival Evolved on the Xbox One. We routinely run into framerate drops as we traverse the land, and that’s before anything beyond regular forest enters the equation. The game often stops for one or two seconds near these junctions, making it feel like we’re experiencing one of those old loading bridges from Grand Theft Auto.
Take a look at Digital Foundry’s own evidence of the framerate drops below, which certainly shouldn’t be an issue for a hit title on the current console generation:
It’s clear to see that ARK: Survival Evolved is having some technical difficulties with its development, but the sheer idea of crafting, dinosaurs, and guns being in the same game is evidently enough to garner plenty of sales ahead of the game’s full release. The developers clearly have their hands full simply managing the massive response the game has seen on consoles, and are actively adding new dinosaurs and features to the game ahead of its release.
With all of the above happening at once, we hope they don’t lose sight of the fact that any game needs to be technically sound to be truly enjoyable. The developers still have several months to address any and all technical difficulties, and we can only hope it’s coded well enough that the Xbox One will be able to handle the stress that ARK: Survival Evolved brings to the table.
How do you think the dino-based game will fair when all is said and done, Ranters?
ARK: Survival Evolved is currently in early access for PC, Mac, Linux, and Xbox One. The full version is expected to be released in June 2016 for all of the previous platforms, and PS4.
Source: Digital Foundry
