Task: Combine Linux (Proton), Ark, and a significant number of mods
Task: Combine Linux (Proton), Ark, and a significant number of mods
Playing Ark without modifications (or only a small amount) is manageable. Just install it, launch it and you’re good – quite simple. But as before, whenever the game supports mods (is that the right term?), my wife pushes the limits. Right now we have 43 mods from Steam Workshop. That’s where the real work begins. On Wind*ws it functions adequately. On Linux I launch, choose our server to join (same with single-player), the mods load and after about 41–43 they stop Ark altogether. Back to the desktop. Maybe I could try removing a couple of mods, but that would be quite difficult. I’d prefer the challenge to be overcome. The mod list (from UserSettings.ini):
ActiveMods: 2357644511,849372965,2480160888,1999447172,1814953878,1428596566,793605978,1967741708,1837445660,924933745,2394240771,543394681,1958714561,1834499556,1931415003,1109261376,1083349027,2605914907,1623250586,821530042,1380777369,931434275,824282273,880808383,1696166357,1501337061,1357417063,1265313758,1696957410,1971006113,730794403,1633079513,2368767748,741203089,2632699523,670764308,880871931,702828089,926567353,816908578,2664227681,1976698613
ActiveMapMod: 1838617463
I’ve tried Lutris, bought CrossOver (a bad choice), latest Proton GE version (7.0rc3-GE-1), and changed the Linux kernel from 5.04 to 5.15 without any adjustment. In Steam I set Start-Paremeters to: nomansky, lowmemory, d3d10 (and even d3d11, d3d12, vulcan). I thought maybe it was related to Proton’s swap/pagefile settings, so I adjusted the config to include a 4096MB pagefile. Using htop confirmed my Linux swap never reached limits (2GB).
My system: Intel i5, 16GB RAM (down to 500GB SSD NVidia GTX 1650 with nvidia-drivers-470) on an Asus Prime H310M-A motherboard.
Current Linux: Ubuntu 21.10 with kernel 5.13.0-22-generic. I’ve noticed no difference between GDM3 and LightDM, even when starting in the old Xorg setup.
If anyone has advice or tips on fixing this issue, I’d really appreciate it – I love Linux but don’t want to switch just for one game.
You provided your system details and asked about desktop performance. The specs indicate you're using Mint with XFCE for gaming. It's a good choice for ARK: Survival Evolved, especially if you want smoother gameplay. Using native might be tricky due to mod compatibility or multiplayer issues. With a 500GB drive, you should have ample space left after installing mods. The XFCE version performs better in your setup.
Hey there, I noticed your wife's PC matches my specs exactly—just Windows and no changes. As a desktop manager, I've tried 5dwm (maximum interactive desktop), Xfce4, GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, and Maui. The low memory setting helped a bit, but I also experimented without it, with everything or a mix of settings. The Linux client for Ark isn't great. Maybe one lucky day you'll run the game smoothly—though it still has texture issues, stuttering, and poor performance unless you skip mods. When people search for Ark on Linux, they often find Proton runs better, which I can confirm. Your drive has 185GB free, so that shouldn't be the issue. Also, increasing Swap to 16GB didn't help much—htop shows it rarely exceeds 800MB. Thanks!
I used lightm gdm3 dtwm from source, SSDM for Maui, SSDM from KDE5, and ran level 4 with XOrg and various Window managers. I even tried SteamOS and still got the same outcome. It seems the issue might not be with my drivers or settings but possibly related to Proton itself. Could you suggest any adjustments or tweaks?