ARK Ascended vs Evolved - Every Creature Comparison (100+)

[@freynlives]

I wasn't intending to do this originally as I didn't feel there was enough change between the two to warrant it, especially given how time consuming it was to make.... but requests were made, so here it is! If you haven't already, I hope you'll consider subscribing, All support really helps the channel grow www.youtube.com/@freynlives?sub_confirmation=1

[@michelm1988]

You did a helluva job here, honestly the best ASE vs ASA dino comparison, you were capable of maintaining the same viewpoint and location throughout the video. Indeed very time consuming for little to almost no changes, however, objectively speaking is a great source for players to know what to demand/expect more in the near future.

[@Bitt3rh0lz]

I think these changes are overall fantastic. Hair and feathers especially look a lot better. Scales on skin "pop" a lot more. Skin in generall has more depth to it thanks to the better subsurface scattering in UE5. The eyes not being flat textures anymore is a HUGE improvement, they actually have depth and personality to them now. IMO the most impressive is that they used the Opal framework to make the carapace/eyes of the insects iridescent. Looks friggin amazing!

[@beamstalkbeamerson4043]

As always, fantastic work. While I do love what they've done with the textures, some of these still look a little bland in either animation or just general asthetic, I'm really hoping we can still get a tlc for some creatures. I remember reading something about a dev saying a possible tlc vote after all the creature votes. I'm really hoping they still do this as bronto, meg, archeops, and terror bird are in desperate need for one, to name a few. They look better, but could still get a visual update as well as new animations(and hopefully an upscale for the meg) but they all definitely need a new ability or use.

[@MrBam-gq2su]

For me quetz bronto and meg are the most important ones at the moment. Arguably the Mosa as well. Especially the first to since you can do so much with them

[@beamstalkbeamerson4043]

@MrBam-gq2su completely forgot about the quetz, but you're 100% correct. Those are definitely the main 3 that should be focused on. The main reason I brought up archeops is cause the sino overshadows it so much(which tbf we won't have for about a year). And the terror bird is more of a personal choice. They just dont say "terror" to me. When I think of terror birds, I think of the actual terrifying ones from the movie 10,000 bc. I just wish arks terror birds were more akin to that. Put them in jungles or heavy forested areas instead of redwoods and stop having them spawn in groups. Also, give them some buffs, including a kick/claw attack. And giving them a slight ability to run up trees, not fully, but maybe with a running start, they can get about halfway up. Also, get rid of the gliding mechanic. It's derpy and doesn't exactly make any sense. Also, and this may already be a thing( I haven't seen how tames handle turning), give them a turning like mechanic similar to how survivors now lean when turning in asa.

[@taroncapala541]

parasaur and carno are up there on that list for visual tlcs, and i agree with you and mrbam too

[@beamstalkbeamerson4043]

@taroncapala541 They both got visual updates. Parasaur got a full on tlc. Carno could use it though. It got the bleed but other than that

[@taroncapala541]

@beamstalkbeamerson4043 neither got a visual tlc, like the megalodon, they just got ability tlcs However there was a carno tlc mod for visual

[@Lucyzs]

Great job on this :) it does look like all the love went into the terrain and nothing was left for the dinos in ASA, which is a shame.

[@freynlives]

The creatures do look a little better with the new lighting and fur and such, but yeah the terrain definitely got the love here. Perhaps in future...

[@crumbledor3]

The underwater improvement is phenomenal. It actually looks creepy down there now!

[@LuzNoceda4162]

Until someone make a mod to clear out all the fog of the ocean

[@drakebrothers9757]

Especially cause they hyped it up

[@kamekazi1123]

Yeh pay 70 AUD for some creepy water. Nice

[@FoxVll]

There’s a console command in Game for that lol

[@BestieAK]

​@@LuzNoceda4162 already a thing, but its not a mod. Just write in the console: r.volumetricfog 0 Although it will kinda remove the fun and imersion of the ocean, so id not do it and also remember that console can be turned off on servers. So ye only in singleplayer for now if you really want it for whatever reason :p

[@TDogsYard]

The issue isn’t that Dino models didn’t receive a texture enhancement; it is the severe gap in realism between the environment and those models. The developers outdid themselves on the landscape and the world 🤷 I hope they plan to tlc some models

[@freynlives]

Agreed, the models weren't (in most cases) awful, and many do look better with the new lighting and so on, but they're just far behind the world around them.

[@Life_Is_Science]

It seems to be one of the best comparison videos of Ark creatures I've watched. Thanks for the great video.

[@FishDocGrl]

They do look a bit better but I was hoping a few of the models would get bigger updates

[@syntaxzero1677]

i dont think they made any changes to any models at all lol, mostly looks like a texture upscale and recolor for all of them. Kinda sad when the creatures are the center of the game, not the trees or the plants :D

[@demolicious1]

a bit better are the key words. Its actually not that great

[@yagirlsimoneoof2831]

Do you guys think they’ll add tlc’s later?

[@Forest762]

@@syntaxzero1677 How could they improve them else? They look as realistic as they were back then i think.

[@THELIONMAN7]

​@@Forest762cry the models looks like ps2

[@dustinmiser377]

the big foot guy looks 100x better in the 1st ark

[@FishDocGrl]

It does seem like ASA recoded colors to increase the chances of colorful/contrasting Dinos which I do like

[@xkelbix93]

Is it just me or do most of the furred creatures look worse? To me it looks like the fur doesn't blend as well with the body as it did on the older models. Still, fantastic video Freyn. Nice to see the changes up close without being torn apart.

[@justanuff]

to me they look way better

[@xkelbix93]

@@justanuffFair enough. To me some of them do but others not so much. Maybe it was just the lighting making it shinier.

[@basilmemories]

no, i agree with you, sometimes the new short fur looks nice and soft, but sometimes it looks like plastic and doesn't blend well. like the small monkey actually looks worse on the fur texture because they applied the same longfur texture that they used on most of the other creatures.

[@Forest762]

The new ones look like real life, idk what you are expecting

[@zeraxen]

They are fine imo, most ark models were already good but some outdated ones like paracer/giga/anky/saber needed a remodel and reanimation update

[@freynlives]

Some need more love than others yea, the Bronto looks like they've fixed the seams at least (thankfully)

[@user-cq6be8rx7e]

​@@freynlivesBronto still need a update for it's goofy ahhh walking animation tho.

[@freynlives]

@@user-cq6be8rx7e Not a fan of the old Sauropod shuffle? ;)

[@lucaspiano76]

Biggest improvement to me are the eyes and feathers

[@ArkKnight-ue3yr]

Tbh I wasn’t expecting much but new textures but lord the insects look more intimidating and the animals look beautiful despite there being no changes in the models

[@endxfmarch2573]

I see so many people mad that the dinos don't look brand new but I like it. They kept the original style which means they really only changed textures to be more detailed and kept original models and designs. I like that it's still ark and isn't a brand new game.

[@KiwiZD]

Wow, impressive! That is a ludicrous amount of editing! Well done, amazing!

[@MuledogGaming]

This is a good time for a lot of these creatures to get TLC’s

[@scotty_boi192]

As if Ark's oceans weren't scary enough..They will fr be the most beautiful yet terrifying thing ever ;-;

[@88GhostWriter88]

Everything is just brighter, my tv has contrast and brightness settings too 😂

[@adoptedmoth]

I hope ASA will have a few creature tlc passes for the ones that really need one

[@BlackBackLioness]

Is it bad that I couldn’t tell which is which? They just looked like bloom vs no bloom.

[@Just_Moon2004]

Some creatures in my opinion a degrade from ASE, like ASA have better graphics but i don’t know, the new sharper feathers and arthropleura...not my cup of tea. That’s just my opinion though.

[@freynlives]

There's a few I definitely prefer in ASE aye

[@datscrazy4095]

The Allos look sick man... damn I miss that music

[@Komodo9104]

An incredible difference on the creatures! Great job Fryen for cataloging all the comparisons 👏

[@freynlives]

I'm actually a bit disappointed on them, I was hoping for more model updates :( Thank you though

[@Komodo9104]

@@freynlives Your welcome 😊

[@Jarmen__Kell]

Hard too see texture detail with that overpowering Bloom ASA has.. And those seem to be same exact models and animations right?

[@STartist.]

I just hope they really take their time with aberration thats what im most excited for

[@icy_californian]

All the insects look really good

[@the-hellix]

Thank you for calling them 'creatures', and not (erroneously) 'dinos' as half of the ARK community does. 😅

[@freynlives]

Haha, I'm guilty of doing that quite often to be fair, not even sure there's any consistency behind when I do it either :D

[@MrBam-gq2su]

Quetz needs a tlc

[@premrajput5436]

What's tlc?

[@user-kj8go2wo8f]

Wow! I didn’t even know you had a KZbin channel! I thought you were just a captain fat-dog fan lol 😂😂 ❤❤❤❤

[@freynlives]

I can be both!!! Think I discovered his channel roughly around the time I started this up :)

[@BradyDearden]

Thx bro appreciate it

[@Im-Never-Lucky]

I feel like anything with scales or an exoskeleton received a small but noticeable improvement in some areas and have more fine detail. But any creatures with feathers or fur look fairly washed out and lack any substance to them. For example, the penguins look like the first time you paint warhammer as a kid, smooth plastic that's all one colour with no depth. It's a bit of a shame really.

[@freynlives]

I know exactly what you mean, pretty sure I've still got some of those blob-guardsmen somewhere too...

[@Im-Never-Lucky]

@@freynlives Just hope they run another pass over them when they get on top of console release and the performance issues. Thanks a lot for taking the time to put this video together though, I am having the constant UI crashing when exiting my inventory or crafting, so haven't had the chance to check out many of the updates in game :)

[@freynlives]

@DJkwTHC I've had two crashes so far - both when changing a graphics option during gameplay - and one very weird bit of warping when I had frame generation enabled. For the UI, have you tried turning off the UI animations (I forget the name of the actual option), makes them instantly appear instead of phasing/fading in but may make a difference.

[@Im-Never-Lucky]

@freynlives yeah game ran perfectly for me for about an hour and then after crashing once, it started crashing every 2 minutes or so and always when I closed my inventory. I tried disabling the menu transitions and also steam&amd overlays as someone suggested that too but nothing worked. I also tried validating the game files too incase something corrupted. Although as I write this, I'm wondering if it was my save file that's corrupted... I'll try again tomorrow, I uninstalled and re-installed the other day but haven't tried to play since launch day now as I was just gonna wait out a few patches and then try again. Thanks for trying to help though.

[@Jomygunz]

The game look good but I thought it would look a tiny bit more better for some textures because the ground in some spots still look weird compared to other thing other those spots

[@SuperSundaeTV]

Is it just me or the red Trex in the start screen looks cooler than the one with tek armor on :O

[@spacecrash]

Ngl most creatures just look really de-saturated and shrink wrapped

[@spacecrash]

The rainbow oil slick centipede just looks datamashed now

[@MesazoicCreators]

I love the render updates! it makes the dinosaurs look 100 times better!

[@viraghakos9966]

This is the most disappointing thing about ASA

[@freynlives]

I agree that I was hoping for more :/

[@hoshikun6605]

​​@@freynlivesI think it's confirmed that the retexturing is just temporal and they will slowly change into Ark 2 dinos. TLDR: All dinos are recieving TLCs

[@adamwatai]

THATS what you’re complaining about? I can’t run the damn game

[@QuaSosaTv]

@@adamwataiI know that sucks took me about 4 hours to setup my pc to run at 30-45fps

[@kaidenking9994]

​@adamwatai I found if you lower every setting make ur character load in thennn adjust the settings after 5 min to normal it runs

[@tiag78]

Some of them are pretty much a downgrade. Example: Gigantophitecus: 11:07 - 11:12 Hyaenodon: 11:55 - 12:00 Ichthyornis: 12:10 - 12:15 Megaloceros: 14:58 - 15:03

[@freynlives]

Mmm, things with a lot of fur feathers. They're *technically* better, but the shadows (or lack thereof) makes it all merge into one a bit. Mixed bag really, bare skin has had a bit of a texture upgrade but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for more.

[@macon8638]

I mean yeah the gigantophitecus looks awful and the hyena dons a mild downgrade but don’t you reckon the ichthyornis and the megaloceros look better???

[@tiag78]

@@freynlives That and the brightness, the skin looks too much bright, almost neon.

[@tiag78]

@@macon8638 I don't think so, the feathers on Ichtyornis are very weird and the brightness on both is exaggerated, looks like neon.

[@jonathanhorton4607]

So it seems that the environment has gotten an amazing face lift...however the dinos..not so much, some look better ..most look barely improved or worse...Still the game is fun. It is Ark after all

[@aggebagge2754]

they made the sarco bigger tho right?

[@freynlives]

It's either a bit bigger, or it's had it's center of mass moved, as they're both placed in the exact same spot and with the same camera locations, but the head is further up the beach in ASA. The majority look a touch smaller in ASA due to the FOV differences, but judging by the distance between the legs the Sarco looks a shade bigger instead.

[@sonnymursal]

thank you so much

[@guardiandevil0556]

They are the same but with different colors

[@Godofnothingness6]

What the heck happened to gigantopithecus? Bro went down to 480p from 4k in ase

[@jessehutchens2263]

Anything with hair or feathers seems to have been a downgrade, however things such as eyes, scales, and exoskeletons were hugely improved on

[@Aquilasdev]

Looking at the anglerfish and I really wish they would have done some softer fins with transparency like what you see on real fish. They still feel kinda plasticy

[@James-mu8rp]

I was really hoping for some new animations or something.

[@Dany-LG]

Gracias por el video

[@l3g3ndaryxgamer49]

Brown and white you can’t see very well the brown you can but white makes it seem like no detail

[@TheXAllosaurus]

Is it me, or is Sarco becomes bigger in ASA

[@zombieBoredBastard]

Bro the animals with skin (moose, chalico, penguin, etc) looks like fucking burn victims with skin grafts

[@thomaskerei1651]

A copy and paste from the originals, with very minor changes

[@freynlives]

I admit I'm a little disappointed there wasn't more tbh, perhaps with time, we can hope.

[@kokorochin01]

@@freynlives The only hope we should have, is mods/modders.

[@THELIONMAN7]

​​​@@kokorochin01you mean wildcard is selling this game 40 dollars to us, and not going to change the models ? Wtf

[@Laughs985]

I mean if planned to remaster ark they could atleast update the models or animations

[@fragmania6026]

Which one is which. I haven’t played much Ark but was looking to come back and I cannot tell which is evolved and which is ascended

[@freynlives]

The first clip each time is Evolved, the second Ascended :)

[@empmagde4999]

New textures , details! Same issues nothing new lol

[@diddykong7354]

For anyone wondering. yes they are the ue4 models exactly. they were simply upscaled in the texture resolution. the animations are the same as well which yeah the first ark has weird animal animations.

[@everlast6128]

No some animations changed eg: trike running. Also many models were improved and changed eg:, deod, defense unit, and majority of bugs

[@everlast6128]

This is false

[@diddykong7354]

bruh how re tarded are you? they are literally all the ark 1 models because they ran out of time. please p iss off if you are a wildcard fanboy. it is literally a fact that they ran out of time to make each dino so they ported over the old ones and upped the texture res.@@everlast6128

[@timmystickman7880]

everything looks great, but the quetzal pretzal mohawk looks worse now.

[@CreamyFacial]

There's basically nothing new to these design's apart from a slight change in how the fair looks on some creatures. This did not warrant a second game, could have been done in a patch. Guess money is all they wanted, not a happy player base.

[@IsoSobek]

Was hoping for Alphas in this video because they do have many differences from their regular counterparts.

[@freynlives]

I considered Alphas while putting it together, but figured there wasn't really any point - "they're just bigger, color restricted versions with a glow" - then today someone on discord posted a picture of the Alpha Rex with it's warped face (I've not seen one yet in game) and I kicked myself for not doing it :(

[@IsoSobek]

@@freynlives just tested the other alphas. Looks like Carno, Raptor, and Rex are the only ones with altered models.

[@Your_Grandpa_Has_Joined]

they look more baggy?

[@freynlives]

The main differences I've noticed are the feathers are less defined and there's more folds in the skin yeah.

[@PauloSilva19000]

i feel like they did some pretty good changes for dinos like, raptor, rex and all those "famous" dinos and then they just added brighter colors to dinos we dont usually tame lmao. thats fucked up but overall the game looks way nicer than ASE.

[@xoelcolon6259]

is your gamma high on ASA or that’s how it looks by default?

[@freynlives]

I've not turned any gamma up no, I have seen that some others don't seem to be as bright but I'm unsure if it's a setting or simply the time of day. For these comparison videos I set both games to High preset and left the rest alone, in order to keep them as close as possible.

[@russobrasileiro2266]

Conclusion: 0.2% changes

[@spartan9963]

Every dino is now yellow.

[@fightingfortruth9806]

Many of these creatures use lighter brown colors which makes them camoflauge into the brown terrain. Terrible design decision. I can barely see them anymore.

[@cynicalguy3839]

Whole new game to change colours of the Dinos 😂

[@jonathanhorton4607]

You missed the Carcharodontosaurus...?

[@freynlives]

04:07 :)

[@Dominic1354]

It's all way too bright for my taste. I preferred the original in each of these examples. It feels like a fake 'high quality' setting in ASA

[@scottishtitan3501]

Some look great others look a tad cartoony

[@OcelotZero]

ARK 1

[@Hunter-bi7qe]

Wow you can see were they try to fake fur looks really bad on the new texture next to the new fur

[@bartligtvoet]

They just made them yellow/orange/white....

[@arturmagomedov02]

Why are they all so yellowish though? In ASA I mean

[@freynlives]

Good question, not only do the colours seem to have a new hue to them but the regions have swapped around as well, (the Quetz is a very good example, went from dark body to white due to region switch)

[@lazarus7657]

Maybe they’re saving all the remodels for ark 2?

[@freynlives]

We've certainly seen some concepts for remodels, I didn't expect full new models in ASA but some tweaks would've been nice.

[@ripperrex7883]

Honestly I don’t even expect Ark 2 to come out.

[@kokorochin01]

@@ripperrex7883 The company might not even survive, looking at how the launch went, and especially the Nitrado server exclusivity... Ark 2 is supposedly a different game though (more emphasis on weapons etc, less on survival) ; meh who cares.

[@caites_mods]

thank you, but why changing palette to those yellowish colors? it makes it so much harder to figure out actual changes.

[@freynlives]

If you mean me - The color ID is the same in both games, for some reason ASA just gave it a different hue. I wanted to stay as consistent as possible and had to choose whether to go for the same visual colour or the same game colour, I decided on the latter (as the change is still relevant) If you mean the game - I'm not sure, but I prefer the older colour tbh.

[@titanosaurdy9493]

Where....wheres the carchara?

[@fawkurface46]

some do look better but mass majority is just brighter and washed out same model. definitely not what was advertised

[@johnoliveira1028]

What are your video settings. When you switch to the Asa creature they get all blurry and shit.

[@LuzNoceda4162]

To me Ark Survival Evolve Still Has The Best Dinosaur Model then the new one

[@kadecooke9963]

Did you show off the right side of the turtle on purpose because it doesn't even have a left eye 😂 5+ dlc and ghillie still sticks through the hand map and turtles don't have 2 eyes....

[@fightingfortruth9806]

Honestly, the only difference I see is that everything is now in a blinding ultra-bloom effect which burns my eyes out when I look at it. How the F anyone can think this is an upgrade is beyond me.

[@nickkrontz8373]

Ik it’s so bright

[@demolicious1]

tiny improvement, no work on the animations ay?

[@syntaxzero1677]

some of these look way worse than in Evolved... Hopefully they are gonna update them at some point

[@pennyholt9464]

I don't like the way they made the dinos look now

[@SystemsEnemy]

Direwolf got downgraded... lol

[@kokorochin01]

Creatures are more or less exactly the same, no need to do comparisons tbh. Respect for your time though.

[@freynlives]

Aye, I wasn't originally intending to make one for exactly that reason, but there was a few requests to see what they look like with the new engine regardless of model difference (or lack there of), and if you're going to do something, do it right ;)

[@alakashi]

Pintaram os animais de outra cor e venderam como se fosse um jogo novo!

[@IGOR.gbs.14]

Alpha creatures?

[@WildafricaCz]

ASE is better for me. Dinos are better. world is better in ASA.

[@mcjoelio-gb]

mesopithecus looks worse

[@careypatmore2576]

This sucks. Use your pc as a heater for this at 50 fps

[@spacecrash]

Snail looks worse

[@l3g3ndaryxgamer49]

The colors are terrible should’ve used I between black and white

[@deanm375]

Hater all the white/yellow skins on the ASA models. Washed out and bland.

[@freynlives]

Yeah in retrospect it wasn't the best colour choice :/ I recorded all the ASE ones first and that color selection was a sort of mid-tone, not so dark it obscured detail but not painfully bright either.... then I went to ASA and it was so... random. Both the hue and the regions have changed, for instance the Rex looks fine but the Pachy or Quetz look awful.

[@deanm375]

@@freynlives oh wow , I didn't realize you chose those colors.. Sorry about that. I do appreciate the work you did for the video!

[@freynlives]

Haha no problem, I listed the colours chosen at the start :) I wanted to be consistent between the two games, so tried to pick some neutral colours of various tones, while differing enough to identify regions. I never expected ASA to change them so much, almost considered going back and redoing it but by that stage I was kind of exhausted of the whole process. Something to consider for next time though!

[@matthewbumgarner9928]

What an utter letdown

[@erick1fpb]

I love how they complain they didn't improve 😂 those people wanted them to come out of the screen and make u bleed like if that was possible 😂😂😂😂