DF : Ark Survival Evolved on Switch - 360p (docked) / 216p (handheld) goodness!

[DonFerrari]

Johnw1104 said:
lol I should dig up my posts when they announced it for the Switch... pretty much called this as it's one of the least optimized games I've ever played.

Seriously, I have one hell of a PC that I constantly keep upgraded and it still gives me issues. Ark is just a nightmare to run and has zero business on the Switch lol

With so many options in PC I don't know why anyone would buy Ark, or do you love dinos?

curl-6 said:

Darwinianevolution said:

Wait, really? These are on the eShop? Wow, that's shameless. Could this be grounds for a false advertisement lawsuit?

Agreed, they deserve to be sued for this. It's textbook false advertising, it's like if they sold the Gameboy version of Mortal Kombat with footage of the arcade version claiming that's what it would look like on Gameboy.

What atrocity, I played MK and SF on gameboy when I was a kid and didn't remember how bad it looked. But that is a thing with a lot of games we though were great and impreesive as kids and we revisit.

Mr Puggsly said:

curl-6 said:

Wolfenstein II isn't 1080/60fps on Xbox One, it's 810p, yet it was ported to Switch fairly well.

I think what you're missing is Ark is significantly more GPU taxing. That's why Ark is sub-30 fps on X1 while Wolf II sits mostly at 50-60 fps at a similar resolution.

On the Switch, Wolf II reduced the GPU demand simply by reducing the resolution, graphics settings, making tweaks to the levels and cutting the frame cap in half. Even if the game was a solid 480p on Switch that be massive decrease in pixel count versus the X1 pixel count at its lowest.

 Ark could do many of the same tweaks, but they couldn't cut the frame rate in half to reduce GPU load.

Frankly, I'm not sure what direction they go with Ark on Switch. Even if they improve the resolution via optimization, its still hideous due to the low quality effects. Like DF suggest they need to get rid of some effects entirely, like maybe shadows, reflections, lighting, etc. Essentially it needs a more simplistic and cartoonish presentation because this ain't working.

Not sure how much more or less work would be they choosing these suggestions instead of what they done.

Ark could certainly look much better than this if they really bothered.

Also sure some games that are lower than 1080p60fps on X1 will be harder to port and uglier looking than ones that are 1080p60fps (even more that some could have been more than 1080p but not significantly to justify it, but then less cut down would be needed as some of these games don't use X1 full capability).

But that often isn't the case of AAA, so there is where we see the issues on porting being possible.