Is there tethering on ARK PC?

As an avid ARK player with over 1000 hours logged surviving dinosaurs and crafting bases with friends, one limitation has frustrated me endlessly – tethering. Nothing kills epic dino hunts and far-flung exploration faster than hitting invisible tether walls a few hundred meters from the server host anchoring everyone in place.

But fear not fellow survivors! With the right dedicated server or hardware upgrades, you can break free from ARK‘s tether forever. This definitive guide covers everything you need to know diminish, optimize or eliminate tethering for richer open-world gameplay on PC…

What is Tethering in ARK?

When hosting or playing on a non-dedicated ARK server on PC, a "tether" restricts how far players can roam away from the host PC or console running the server.

This limitation exists because the host hardware has to actively simulate everything occurring within a certain radius. Travelling too far could overwhelm CPU and memory resources, crashing the server.

*Actual max distance depends on host PC specs and current building density.

So if your friend is hosting a non-dedicated session and you enjoy scouting the map bounds or getting lost in a faraway valley – tough luck! The tether will quickly yank you back towards the host once you hit the invisible boundary.

Let‘s explore options for alleviating tether woes so you can play ARK to its fullest open-world potential…

Option 1: Tweak Tether Extent in Settings

While 250 meters seems miniscule for epic gaming sessions, the server host can manually raise the tether radius in settings to extend more breathing room.

I recommend trying 500-1000 meters first before pushing max settings. Be aware this strains the host PC simulating more world assets, so monitor for performance drops. Optimizing graphics can help here too.

The Challenge: Friends still can‘t explore freely and eventually hit annoying barriers. Building faraway bases also remain difficult when anyone leaving still tethers others.

Option 2: Coordinate with Tether in Mind

With some group coordination, tethering can be managed even in non-dedicated play without destroying immersion. Some tips:

• Centralize main bases within 150 meters of host device to keep everyone tethered for home tasks
• Take exploration trips together, moving the tether bubble as a caravan
• Designate a travel hub like a coastal shipyard where you‘ll dock before individual voyages
• Plan satellite bases just within max tether range, spaced to blanket the map‘s points of interest

This involves more planning but prevents tether from constantly crashing the party mid-adventure during long play sessions.

The Challenge: More mental overhead coordinating play areas and travel. Individual exploration still hindered.

Option 3: Run a Dedicated Server

The only way to remove all tethering limitations is running a dedicated ARK server on a separate hosting machine, rather than a player‘s PC doubling as the server.

This assigns the heavy computational work of simulating everything within the ARK world to different hardware, freeing up the player‘s machine resources entirely for their client.

Now players can hike, build and sail to the absolute edges of any ARK map without artificial barriers. Huzzah!

Of course this introduces extra costs and gear considerations…

Dedicated Server Options

Self-Hosted

You can transform an extra desktop or laptop you own into a makeshift dedicated server via free software downloadable on Steam, Epic etc.

Managed Hosting

Or you can pay to rent a robust dedicated hosting rig from a provider like SurvivalServers, GTXGaming, Nitrado etc. with top-tier enterprise server hardware, optimized network routing and full admin support.

Managed hosting is my personal recommendation having tried both approaches – the hardware and networking makes a night/day difference for uptime and lag-free player experiences.

The Challenge: Added cost and hardware constraints if self-hosting. Additional game admin work maintaining the dedicated environment.

The Case to Remove Tethering

Based on losing one too many tames falling down a mountain miles from friends to sudden whistle recalls against my will, breaking tether‘s shackles via dedicated ARK server is well worth any tradeoff for unrestricted exploration and building.

Nothing hurts long-play immersion more than stumbling into sudden invisible barriers causing immediate teleports back to anchor points after 30 minutes running wilderness trails. Nor the frustration when lag spikes corrupt all progress anyways due to resources pooled running the server simultaneously.

My advice? Coordinate with tether radius as a short term compromise, but ultimately invest into dedicated hardware to lift limitations entirely! Splitting server hosting onto reliable specialized rigs revolutionized my groups‘ enjoyment. No more tether wrecking arcs hundreds of hours in progress.

Now to share tips optimizing ARK dedicated rigs and mod configurations to empower truly freeform persistent multiplayer worlds…

What has your groups‘ experience been taming ARK‘s tethering dilemma on PC? Let me know in comments!