What resolution and framerate are you targeting for the base PS4 version of Ark: Survival Evolved?
30-45 FPS for the regular PS4 (which renders ARK’s environment at either at 680p or 720p depending on whether you have “Detailed Graphics” selected)
On the PS4 Pro, 60 FPS at 720p,or 30-60 FPS at 1080p, depending on “Detailed Graphics” setting.
Many PlayStation gamers would be willing to play Ark: Survival Evolved via PlayStation VR. Back in June, you told us that you still planned to do it – is there any update on this front?
We’re currently evaluating whether we can do it as an exclusive feature to PlayStation 4 Pro. If we can, then it will be straightforward. The performance requirements of VR are intense!
What do you think of Sony’s PS4 Pro performance as a developer? Were you impressed by the hardware or not?
Very impressed with its performance, at a very reasonable price. We estimate it would cost at least $900 to build a similarly powerful PC, and that’s if you were custom-building it with extreme cost control. We estimate its raw GPU performance is similar to an NVIDIA 970, and along with CPU improvements and overall more memory, it’s a really high benchmark for console performance. Hats off to Sony for “crossing the Rubicon” of console hardware updates (bonus that it tends to improve performance in just about every existing title in the PlayStation 4 library)!
During the recent live stream, you mentioned that PS4 Pro performance in the game would get certain improvements. Could you go into finer detail and let us know the specifics of this enhanced version?
An impending update (which might hit tomorrow!) includes an Optional 1080p mode which runs 30-60 FPS, while defaulting to 60 FPS 720p mode. Also, we’ll be bumping up the Texture Resolution on the PS4 Pro in a subsequent update, since after all it has 500+ MB additional title-usable memory we want to make use of!
Have you evaluated adding HDR support on both Xbox One S and PlayStation 4? If not, why?
We haven’t evaluated HDR support yet, as I still need to get my HDR TV to work really well… once I have, then I can better determine how much we can do with it in ARK. The good news is, ARK is very HDR-centric under the hood, for example there are massive real-world light value difference between jungle areas and the bright outdoor sun. ARK uses tone mapping and auto exposure adjustment to squash those values into Low Dynamic Range for regular monitors, but in theory with an HDR-ready display we could make more effective use of those extreme light intensity value differences.
