HAWX Graphics

Graphically, Tom Clancy’s HAWX is an interesting game. It’s got a bundle of incredibly high-end features bundled into, including support for some fairly unusual hardware that we’ll talk about later. Even the environment textures aren’t what they seem either, as they’re apparently actually based on satellite imagery that Ubisoft shelled out for.

At the same time though, HAWX doesn’t look totally mind-blowing. It looks good, but not great. The buildings are like the buildings in any flight sim in that they look a tad blocky, as if they don’t properly mesh with the rest of the environment. Ubisoft also seems to have neglected to include some of the flourishes we would have expected to see too – dust spraying up when you swoop close to the ground, for example. The explosions look a bit pants too.

Still, to help give you an idea of how the game might look on your system we’ve included some screenshots and discussion of the most important settings below. Check them out.

View Distance

In HAWX you spend a lot of time with your head in the clouds, so having a good view distance is important. Check out the screenshots below of the Low, Medium and High settings.


Getting these screenshots even vaguely comparable was pretty hard work, we’ll have you know. Trying to fly the same rough course and capture a screenshot at the same point was trying work and this is the best we could manage, mainly because we took these screenshots in easy-to-setup skirmishes where we couldn't pause the game.

Which makes it all the more infuriating then that the actual difference between the settings is pretty minimal, serving only to bring the grey horizon in by a small amount.

Using the statue on the hillside as a rough gauge, it’s easy to see that even on the Low setting the View Distance is still going to give you a clear look at your surroundings and that, by reining this setting in, you still don’t risk enemies killing you before you see them. We’d recommend putting this setting on High obviously, but there’s nothing wrong with dropping it down.

Environment Detail

What this setting handles exactly isn’t made exactly clear – is it the detail of the terrain, the number of clouds, the weather effects or something else? We took a look at the High, Medium and Low settings to find out.


Even now, it still isn’t clear exactly what this setting does. It clearly doesn’t have any effect on the number of buildings, or the amount of trees. Nor does it seem to effect the number or density of the clouds. Our one theory then is that the environment setting possibly changes the weather effects in some way – but there’s only rain on a handful of levels and the game never puts you in a position where you have to dodge lightning or anything like that.

The conclusion then is that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what this setting does and that, unless you have any brighter ideas, it should probably be the first setting you drop down if you’re having performance woes. Not that you should be having those though, since the system requirements for HAWX are quite reasonable.