Following on from last week's Q&A session with Ubisoft community developer, GKane, today he reveals more information about the upcoming aerial combat title, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, revealing the game's PC specs, supported flight sticks and much more.

Which engine is used for the game? How powerful is it?
The engine used in H.A.W.X is developed in house and it's built for supporting a next-gen immersive experience from the beginning. It is based on multithreaded architecture. It is build especially to support our extensive use of special effects. The high number of effects combined with a high level of detail is too much for the CPU to handle most of the time in other engines, which is one of the main reasons that we decided to make our own engine.

Will the PS3 version of H.A.W.X support Sixaxis? What will the player be able to do by using it?
Yes, H.A.W.X will support this great feature. With Sixaxis you will be able to control all the movements of your plane, whether you're in Assistance ON or OFF mode.

Will H.A.W.X PS3 have trophy support?
Yes, H.A.W.X PS3 will have trophy support. We will have more info on this feature in the coming weeks.

Can you give a few examples of supported flight sticks?
Here are a few examples of supported flight sticks for PC: Thrustmaster Afterburner II, Saitek X52, Logitech Extreme 3D PRO. H.A.W.X will also support PS3 and XBOX360 flight sticks.

Click for larger image

Will the game support multiple monitors?
Yes, the game will support Matrox TripleHead 2 Go technology (http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/ ), so you can use three monitors to enhance your visual experience with the game. This support is for the PC version only.

Will the players be able to use headsets in H.A.W.X?
Yes, the players will be able to use headsets for both communications with the other players in multiplayer and in-game voice command.

Will there be a split screen mode?
We reached the conclusion that a split screen view would not be suited to our game, especially when we thought about our "special dogfight" camera view. This could become very hard to use when the screen is split into 2 or more parts. Therefore, in order to keep the same high quality standards in all modes, H.A.W.X will not have a split screen mode.

Will there be cross-platform multiplayer?
No plans for this, no.

What are the hardware requirements for the H.A.W.X PC version?
Minimum requirements:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz/ AMD Athlon xp 2000+ or higher
OS: Windows® XP (with sp 3) or Vista® (with sp 1)
RAM: 1 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista
Graphics Card: 128 mb directx –compliant, shader 2.0– enabled video card


Recommended requirements:
CPU: Intel core 2 duo 6320 / AMD Athlon x2 4000+ or higher
OS: Windows® XP (with sp 3) or Vista® (with sp 1)
RAM: 2 GB
Graphics Card:
256 mb directx® 10.0– compliant video card or directx 9.0 – compliant card with shader model 3.0 or higher

Will the game support TrackIR?
It is now confirmed. H.A.W.X will support TrackIR (http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/ ).

Will the Ace Combat 6 flight stick be usable in H.A.W.X?
Yes.

Will there be an option to host public and private rooms with the ability to change server settings?
Yes, the player will be able to host both public and private rooms, and there will be a variety of changeable server settings.

Will H.A.W.X work with the jdome (http://www.jdome.com )?
No plans for this at this time.

Will online authentication be required to play HAWX in singleplayer?
No, you will be able to play H.A.W.X on any platform, without authenticating on the internet.