The Dev Kit itself is kept up to date through Steam. But downloading the binaries from Github by hand each time is an avoidable step.
Installation
First you need a Git client like Git for Windows (msysgit) (portable Version available on Github). Download and install it using the following options:
- Use Git from Git Bash only
- Use OpenSSH or Plink if you know putty and RSA keys already
- Checkout as-is, commit as-is (doesn’t matter in this case)
There is also a helper for credentials available which you get get from here. Alternatively you can use RSA keys for authentication.
If you chose to use the credential helper, you need to run it once so it can configure Git. Open Git Bash from your start menu. You can run the credential helper by typing something like (tip: use tab for auto completion)
cd /C/folder1/folder2/git-credential-winstore.exe
Choose “yes”. If you choose to get rid of the tool, just go to %AppData%\GitCredStore, delete the .exe; open Git Bash and execute git config --global --unset credential.helper
If you want to use a SSH key for authentication and don’t know what that is, then you probably need to generate a pair.
If you chose **OpenSSH **during the installation: Open Git Bash from your start menu and execute
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
Save it to the default path and set a strong encryption password. Why use a password? Because anyone who gets the private key can use it for authentication and normally one does only generate one key pair on each machine. The public key can be found in rd_rsa.pub.
If you chose Plink: Open puttygen and generate a new private key. Use RSA and 4096 bit for security reasons. When saving the private key, set a strong password. You find the public key inside of the UI.
Go into your Github SSH settings and add your public key. The private key never leaves your PC!
Cloning the Repository
Note:If you don’t use a SSH key and chose to use the authenticator on Github go to Personal access tokens, generate a new token and use that as your password.
Open Git Bash and navigate into the DevKit folder (i.e. /F/Steam/steamapps/common/ARKDevKit) and execute the following commands:
git init
# With SSH key
git clone --single-branch -b release git@github.com:StudioWildcard1/Ark-Dev-Kit.git clone
# Login using username and password
git clone --single-branch -b release https://github.com/StudioWildcard1/Ark-Dev-Kit.git clone
At the time of writing git clone downloaded 1.08 GiB. So take a break 
Close git bash (exit) and navigate to the dev kit. Move everything in the clone sub folder to the dev kit main folder. Make sure you also move the folder .git which is hidden.
Final steps
To update the binaries you have two choices:
- Edit ARKDevKitLaunch.bat (could get deleted)
- Edit Steam launch option
For option 1 edit ARKDevKitLaunch.bat. You might need to adjust the path to sh.exe and to the ArkDevKit.
if exist Engine\Binaries\Win64\UE4Editor.exe (
C:\Git\bin\sh.exe --login -i -c "cd /F/Steam/steamapps/common/ARKDevKit && git pull"
timeout 5
start Engine\Binaries\Win64\UE4Editor.exe "ShooterGame\ShooterGame.uproject"
) else (
start http://tiny.cc/arkdevkit
)
exit
For option 2 create a new .bat file in the ArkDevKit folder and name it whatever you like. Let’s go with launch.bat. Paste all the stuff from option 1 in there, save and close. Next go into your Steam client and right click on the dev kit and select properties. Set the following launch options:
"F:\Steam\steamapps\common\ARKDevKit\launch.bat" %command%
*Tip:*Shift + right mouse click on a file in windows give you the option to copy the path.