‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Patch 247 Brings 3-Seat Flyer And Big The Center Update

PC players of ARK: Survival Evolved received a new update to the open-world dinosaur survival game early Tuesday morning. The 247.0 patch brings a three-seater flyable tame, another flyer that can be ridden Zelda style, night vision goggles, new areas to explore at The Center, some welcome performance improvements, and more.

As previously covered, the 247 update includes some much needed performance improvements to ARK: Survival Evolved. Studio Wildcard has added a 30 to 40 percent rendering improvement of player-created structures in the game. Players familiar with the title know that these structures are a big performance drain on any of the ARK maps and can kill frame rate, causes freezes, or even cause bases to suddenly appear. This gets worse as players build more and bigger structures across the map.

The structure rendering improvement is joined by an approximately “300 MB memory reduction by dynamically streaming the destruction meshes,” per the 247.0 patch notes. More memory available for other features in the game will help.

Of course, it will take some testing to determine exactly the full impact of these changes. They may not even be felt substantially on the PC, but could have be a huge upgrade for the Xbox One when the same changes are added to the console release in the planned 741 update for Tuesday, September 13.

On the new creature front, ARK: Survival Evolved adds two tamable flyers: the Tapejara and the Archaeopteryx. Both creatures will be available on The Island, The Center, and the new Scorched Earth expansion.

The Tapejara is the first tamable flying dinosaur with a saddle that is designed to hold more than one person. In fact, its saddle is capable of holding three Survivors. It is similar to the Gallimimus (guide) in that the driver sits in the middle while another sits at the front and a third sits in the back.

The Tapejara brings another unique aspect not seen in other ARK creatures. It is able to attach itself to the side of Redwood trees or cliffs and can provide a mounted position for the riders to fire from.

The Archaeopteryx is a smaller bird that players can’t ride. Instead, is a companion bird that Survivors can hang from its legs and glide down from high places. It also has the unique capability of replacing Tree Spas. When left to wander, the Archaeopteryx will fly from Redwood tree to tree and collect sap for players to collect later.

New usable items include Night Vision Goggles. These high-end items allow players to see in the dark a la Sam Fisher from the Splinter Cell franchise. It will be interesting to see how these are ultimately used by larger and smaller tribes alike.

Couple of screenshots of the new areas coming in the next Center update pic.twitter.com/HBZs3ESsAD

— Ben Burkart (@evilmrfrank) August 31, 2016

The last major update to ARK: Survival Evolved with patch 247 brings even more space to the game’s largest official map. The Edge of the World area of The Center gains a gigantic new cavern complete with massive crystals and an ice palace, as previously covered.

Developer Ben Burkart also added a long list of fixes and optimizations to The Center as part of this update.

I have good news and bad news! The good news is I now have a full list of fixes/features coming in the next update! pic.twitter.com/LS3p0OIBNK

— Ben Burkart (@evilmrfrank) August 31, 2016

The ARK: Survival Evolved 247 update also comes with a handful of other tweaks and addition. This includes an in-game option to turn off bloom and light shafts, the ability to name turrets, and more. You can check out the complete patch notes below.

• TheCenter mega-update!
• New Item: Night Vision Goggles!
• New Dino: Tapejara!
• New Dino: Archaeopteryx!
• Added Server Option to disable Dino Mate Boost
• Wind Turbines and Jerboa now function properly on TheCenter and TheIsland
• PvE Greenhouse auto-demolish timers are now 25% more than Stone
• You can now name turrets and the turret name will show up in the Tribe Kill Log/HUD message.
• 30% to 40% rendering performance improvement of Structures
• ~300 MB memory reduction by dynamically streaming the destruction meshes
• NVIDIA Ansel now supports TrueSky at Super Resolutions, and improved Super Resolution SSAO
• Fixed the colorizable regions of the Wood Chair and Bench (4 of them)
• In-Menu Options to disable Bloom and Light Shafts, respectively
• Fixed Korean Langauge setting to use the Steam language value
• Fixed various collision glitch/exploit cases

[Image via Studio Wildcard]

[Edit: Removed references to Dynamic Length Bridges. It was pulled from the release at the last minute.]