How to turn off clouds in Ark Survival Ascended

Ark Survival Ascended is notorious, unfortunately, for its poor optimisation and graphical issues. The last thing you need is your PC struggling due to some damn clouds.

In the options menu, there doesn’t seem to be an option to get rid of them. But there is a way.

How to get rid of clouds in Ark Survival Ascended

In the options menu of most games, there is an option to turn the clouds off, as they can be quite demanding on lower-end PCs, and are purely there for the looks. However, Ark Survival Ascended doesn’t have this, another example of the poor optimisation and regard for the graphical demands of the game.

However, whatever you can’t do through the options, you can do through console commands.

Access the console and type in the following command:

r.volumetriccloud 0

Run the command. You’ll notice that the clouds will have disappeared!

As you can see, not only will removing the clouds improve performance, but it can also make the game look so much better! It’s up to you to decide which you like the look of best.

Now I must add that you will see some clouds when you remove all the clouds, but they technically aren’t clouds. They’re just added into the backdrop and function the same as the sky. No extra PC power needed.

Related: How is Ark Survival Ascended different compared to Ark Survival Evolved?

How to welcome the clouds back in Ark Survival Ascended

If ever you want to revert back to having clouds in Ark Survival Ascended, no worries! You just need a slight tweak in the previous command.

Run the following command into the console to add the clouds back:

r.volumetriccloud 1

You can do this again and again without any impact to the game, which is the beauty of console commands. They should really just add this as a setting to enable or disable, however, as not everyone will be comfortable using console commands, knows that they can.

Accessing the command console in Ark Survival Ascended

To access the command console in Ark Survival Ascended, press the following button depending on your device:

For PC players, hit the key to the left of ‘1’, called the Tilde, or the Squiggle.

For Xbox players, press LB, RB, X, and Y together.

For PlayStation players, press L1, R1, Square, and Triangle together.

I hope this is helpful, fellow survivor, and that your poor PC doesn’t have to stress about the clouds anymore.

For more Ark Survival Ascended help, make sure to check out PC Invasion.