The closed beta of the PC version of Tom Clancy's The Division went live a few hours ago and we thought it would be a good time to do a simple graphics comparison of the game as it currently is. It goes without saying that any aspect of the graphics that you see here can be modified or removed in the time before release. So far however, the game looks pretty impressive, especially considering the scale of it all.

Tom Clancy's The Division Beta Preliminary Graphical Analysis

　　After loading the game, the first thing we did was crank up the settings as high as they can go. To compare the two graphic systems, we have used the presets provided in-game of Low and Ultra and no other settings were changed. Be warned though, the game in its current state is not very optimized and will require quite a lot of power at the ultra level configuration. The low setting, however, should run easily on fairly outdated hardware - although the requirements are still quite high. The game has a very extensive list of graphical options that should satiate even the most hardcore PC gamer. That said, we were not able to find many Nvidia specific graphical settings, apart from the usual suspects (Shadows, AO etc). Without further ado, the comparison:

The Division Beta Ultra Graphics:

　　2 of 9

The Division Beta Low Graphics:

　　2 of 9

The differences between Ultra and Low setting on PC

　　The Ultra settings are heavily focused on increasing the realism of the graphics - as opposed to simply the graphical quality. While textures do get an upgrade going from Low to Ultra, one of the most obvious differences are the changes in the game's shadow system. The shadows and refection, which help blend in the game assets with their surroundings are dropped to a jarring level going from ultra to low. Similarly, other changes to the game's dynamic lighting system can be seen. The depth of focus is also dropped, which changes the visual acuity considerably - although that is something which not everyone will constitute as a downgrade.

　　If you take a look at the screenshots below, you will notice that the Ultra setting screenshots are very realistically lit (for eg Shadows on the helicopter seat, Shadows of the carousel) while Low settings have almost no shadows. Other effects like Ambient Occlusion and Temporal AA are also dropped in favor of performance but the results are still very pretty - although not nearly as realistic. The indoors however, is one place where it gets very hard to tell the Ultra settings apart from the Low settings except for the textures. But considering the nature of the game, that isn't really something worth lingering over.