While the clouds in Ark: Survival Ascended look absolutely stunning, players have realized turning them off will grant a sizable fps increase. But it’s not exactly obvious how to turn them off. I’ll show you exactly how to do that below.
Ark: Survival Ascended: How to turn clouds off
Turning off clouds in ASA is as simple as opening the console with “~” and entering “r.VolumetricCloud 0”. This will remove all clouds from the sky and will come with a nice performance increase.
As you can see in the image above, ASA still looks great with no clouds, though you are certainly sacrificing some looks for performance.
You can add the clouds back by entering “r.VolumetricCloud 1” in the command console.
Turning off clouds instantly gives me a consistent 5-10 fps boost, which can make a large difference if you are struggling to run Ark: Survival Ascended.
How to turn fog off in Ark: Survival Ascended
You can also remove fog in ASA, which can give you a nice fps bump after removing the clouds. Entering “r.VolumetricFog 0” will remove the fog from your game, further increasing your performance.
However, turning off clouds is definitely going provide a more significant performance increase than turning off fog.
Even with both fog and clouds removed, Ark: Survival Ascended still looks pretty darn good. If you’re in a pinch, this technique may add just enough performance to make the game playable, which is a big deal!
After applying both of these fixes to my game got me from a consistent 30 fps to a consistent 40 fps. I’m fine with sacrificing that performance to keep the beautiful clouds, but some players aren’t even reaching 30 fps, so that might not be the best option for you.
Now that you know how to turn off clouds in Ark: Survival Ascended, try it out and see if it helps you at all.
