How To Install Ark Dev Kit

TO PLAY A MOD OR CUSTOM MAP

To download mods or maps, simply go to ARK'due south Steam Workshop page and click "Subscribe" on the item you'd like to get.

And so in-game while playing ARK, you'll automatically see the name of that map or mod appear in the "Host / Local Play" bill of fare, potentially later a brief delay while the content downloads in the background. If the modernistic has been updated, you can also manually refresh all your installed mods via the "Update Mods" button.

Y'all tin can then either play locally or host an online game with it. Alternatively, you can simply join an online server that is playing a custom Workshop map (indicated by the "Custom ARK / Map Name" fields on the Session List), and it will automatically download before y'all connect to the game -- in this example, y'all'll see an on-screen progress indication of how the download is progressing.

CREATING A Modernistic OR CUSTOM MAP

To create your own maps or mods, outset you'll need to sign-up (or sign-in) and download the Epic Games Launcher.

After downloading and installing the Ballsy Games Launcher, get to the ARK tab, Create, and click Install.

The download can have awhile because there is a lot of game media and a content cache to reduce load times. Even so, the editor can take a long time to starting time upward the beginning time and y'all may be looking at waiting times upward to thirty minutes for the first run.

When the editor is loaded, yous will be in a examination map and you can click the "Play" button on the editor toolbar to start playing, or open "Maps\TheIslandSubmaps\TheIsland.umap" to explore the full ARK Island. Alternatively you lot tin open "Mods\DinoArena\DinoArena.umap" to see how a simple cookable modern is put together.

Full documentation for the Unreal Engine 4 Editor used in ARK can exist found here: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/index.html

COOK & UPLOAD TO STEAM WORKSHOP

When you're set to create & deploy your own map to Steam Workshop, here's the basic process:

Make sure your map and ANY new content that it utilizes (blueprints, art avails, whatsoever new assets) are located in "\Content\Mods\YourModName\".

Then click the "Cook & Upload to Steam" button on the Editor Toolbar:

In the dialog which appears appears, you'll come across your Mod listed, if it's in the "\Content\Mods\YourModName\" folder (otherwise it won't show up -- it has to be in a Mods subfolder!). Choose your Modern, and and so click "Cook". The first fourth dimension you lot cook your Modernistic, the Editor needs to compile a lot of shaders, so information technology might take a long time (i.e. 30 minutes or more). However, subsequent cooks will exist much faster as the compiled shaders are buried to deejay.

(Annotation: Cooking your Mod will really melt it for both Windows and Mac/Linux platforms, for cantankerous-platform online compatibility!)

After cooking is finished, enter a Championship and Description for your Mod, choose a preview epitome and initial Workshop Visibility state, and so click "Upload" to Steam Workshop. You'll be asked for your Steam Credentials (don't worry, we don't store them), and and then the process will connect to Steam and attempt to upload your content to the Workshop. Y'all'll get a basic progress indicator and then you know how things are going during the upload process.

After the upload is finished, y'all can click the "View Item on Steam Workshop" button to suit your particular's presentation on the website.

To update your content in the future, only Cook and Upload again!

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We'll have more tutorials about how the specific features of ARK level design are put together, only for now, feel free to explore and alter "TheIsland" map to poke around at how things work, including the stream sublevels and the zone area spawners. Retrieve, when designing levels you lot may wish to kickoff small and unproblematic, and then gradually scale up.

If you lot accept whatsoever questions about the Mod Tools, feel gratuitous to post on the Unreal Engine forum for ARK modding. Nosotros encourage intrepid mod makers to help each other out here, the more the customs can collaborate to build exciting new content, the amend it'southward going to be. Stay tuned to our Steam folio, Twitter feed, and here for more data on upcoming ARK modding news!

Have fun and happy modding!

- The Studio Wildcard Team