BG Gaming

← All news

ARK Survival Ascended Console Commands for Better FPS (PC, PS5 & Xbox) — 2026 Guide

Posted 20 September 2026

Short answer: open the console and paste these 10 commands. They turn off the most expensive Unreal Engine 5 effects — volumetric clouds and fog, Lumen lighting, shadows, water reflections and dense grass — and typically add a large FPS boost on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S without touching your resolution.

r.Streaming.PoolSize 0
gamma 2
r.VolumetricCloud 0
r.VolumetricFog 0
r.ShadowQuality 0
grass.sizeScale 0
r.Water.SingleLayer.Reflection 0
r.BloomQuality 0
r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod 0
r.Nanite.MaxPixelsPerEdge 4

This is the list our admin team hands to every player who reports stutter or low FPS on the BG Gaming cluster, and it's the same on console as on PC. Everything below explains it.

Does this work on PS5 and Xbox?

Yes. ARK: Survival Ascended has a working command console on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, not just PC — most FPS guides skip this because they're written by PC players. The commands are identical on every platform; only the way you open the console differs (next section).

Console players get the biggest win from r.VolumetricCloud 0, r.VolumetricFog 0 and r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod 0 — those three are what make the game chug in busy bases and on maps like Aberration.

How to open the console on each platform

  • PC: press Tab. Press it again to enlarge the box. Type or paste a command and hit Enter. To paste the whole list at once, put each command on its own line.
  • Xbox Series X|S: go to Options → Advanced and turn on Console Access. Then in-game press LB + RB + X + Y together to open the command bar.
  • PS5: same setting — enable Console Access in Options → Advanced — then press L1 + R1 + Square + Triangle together in-game. Shortcut: you only need the four-button combo the first time. After that, press Options and then the big PlayStation button in the middle of the pad and the console opens straight away (thanks to Psycho from our Discord for that one).

Commands are typed one at a time on console. There's no paste, so keep this page open on your phone and work down the list.

What each command does

Command What it turns off / changes FPS impact
r.VolumetricCloud 0 Volumetric clouds and their shadows. Sky goes flatter. Biggest single win
r.VolumetricFog 0 Volumetric fog / god rays. High
r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod 0 Disables Lumen dynamic lighting. Interiors look flatter but run far better. High
r.ShadowQuality 0 Removes dynamic shadows. High
r.Nanite.MaxPixelsPerEdge 4 Lowers Nanite geometry detail. 2 is a milder version; 4 is the performance setting. Medium–High
grass.sizeScale 0 Shrinks ground grass to nothing. Also makes drops and bodies much easier to find. Medium
r.Water.SingleLayer.Reflection 0 Turns off reflections on water surfaces. Medium
r.BloomQuality 0 Disables bloom glow. Low–Medium
r.Streaming.PoolSize 0 Lets the game use your full VRAM for texture streaming instead of a capped pool. Helps most PCs — see note below
gamma 2 Brightens the image. Not a performance command — it just compensates for losing fog and bloom so caves and night aren't pitch black. Use gamma 2.2 if 2 is too bright. None

A note on r.Streaming.PoolSize 0: this is great on cards with plenty of VRAM. On a low-VRAM GPU (4 GB and under) it can actually cause stutter — if that's you, leave this one out.

The commands reset when you restart the game

That's the catch: console commands only last for the current session. When you relaunch ARK they're gone.

  • On console (PS5 / Xbox) there's no way around it — you re-enter them each session. Most players just keep the list saved and type the four big ones (VolumetricCloud, VolumetricFog, DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod, ShadowQuality).
  • On PC you can make them permanent. Create a text file called ARKCommands.txt in ...\ARK Survival Ascended\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\ with one command per line, then in the console run exec ARKCommands.txt each session. Or add them as launch options in Steam so they apply at startup.

Best ARK Ascended graphics settings to pair with these commands

The console commands do the heavy lifting, but a few in-game settings stack on top of them. In Options → Video, these are the ones that actually move the needle:

  • Global Illumination Quality → Low. Same effect as r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod 0 for people who'd rather not use the console, and it survives a restart.
  • Shadow Quality → Low. Softer version of r.ShadowQuality 0.
  • Clouds → Low and Fog → Low. Cuts most of the volumetric cost even before the commands.
  • Foliage Quality → Low. Fewer, simpler plants and trees. Biggest visual change, biggest CPU relief in forests.
  • Resolution Scale. Leave at 100 if you can; dropping to 80–85 is the last resort for a steady 60 on console.
  • Motion Blur → Off and Film Grain → Off. No FPS gain, but they make a lower-detail image look cleaner.

On PS5 and Xbox these in-game settings are the part that persists between sessions — set them once, then add the three or four console commands each time you play.

Lag or low FPS? They're different problems

Worth knowing before you blame your hardware. Low FPS is your machine struggling to draw the game — that's what these commands fix. Lag / rubber-banding — you walk forward and snap back, tames stop responding — is the server struggling, and no client command fixes that.

On the BG Gaming cluster we monitor every map's server performance and restart on a schedule to keep it clean. If you're rubber-banding on one of our maps, tell us in Discord rather than tweaking your graphics — it's a server-side thing and we'd rather know.

How does this affect BG Gaming's cluster?

Not at all in terms of rules — these are all client-side graphics settings, so they're completely allowed on our servers and give you no gameplay advantage. grass.sizeScale 0 is popular with our players purely because it makes finding your own dropped bag a lot less painful.

We run a crossplay PC + Xbox + PS5 PVE cluster across 11 maps, so this exact list gets shared in our Discord several times a week. If you're new to ARK ASA or looking for a server that isn't a wipe-fest, come and join us — 50,000 free coins for every new player.

FAQ

Will these commands get me banned? No. They're standard Unreal Engine 5 rendering variables, allowed on official and unofficial servers alike. They change what your game draws, nothing about the server.

Why does the game look worse? Because it is — you're trading clouds, fog, Lumen lighting and shadows for frames. Add back the ones you miss: r.ShadowQuality 2 and r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod 1 restore the two biggest visual hits at a moderate FPS cost.

Do I need all ten? No. Start with r.VolumetricCloud 0, r.VolumetricFog 0 and r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod 0. That's roughly two thirds of the total gain in three commands.

Does gamma 2 do anything for FPS? No — it's there so the game isn't too dark once fog and bloom are off. Skip it if your screen is already bright enough.

Looking for cheats and admin commands instead? That's a different list — see our ARK Survival Ascended admin commands & cheats guide for spawning dinos, giving items, god mode and teleporting.

Sources