I have a difficult time with the generic terminology used.
Crash to desktop: Ok, there are multiple types of these. A silent drop to the desktop, sometimes precipitated by "Losing UDP, switching to TCP". A hard crash, where the Windows dialog panel pops up, "blah has encountered a problem and must shutdown".
Freezes/Pauses/Stutters: These three terms are not the same. "Freezes" means the computer had to be rebooted to get control back. "Pauses" are very long stutters where the game continues to run, but in spurts with long delays between the spurts of activity. "Stutters" are short, jerky motions in the graphics. All three can be caused by a multitude of things. Resource limits in the computer, CPU activity outside the game (background processes), inconsistent network activity from outside the local network and so on. Basically it all boils down to the CPU being too busy to handle the game.
In addition, hard locks/freezes could be heat or power related. While this all sounds like I am trying to say it is not game code related, I am just stating the most obvious issues. If it were game code related, every user, regardless of the computer would have these issues. I know for a fact, most players do not have these issues.
Discos: A soft disco is always preceded by "Losing UDP, switching to TCP" message. This is the game notifying you your network connection is dropping packets somewhere between you and the server. Too many dropped packets and the game aborts right back to the desktop.
A hard disco occurs without a message and still leaves you at the desktop with no other error message. It is usually best to run A Ping Plot (
www.pingplotter.com) to 206.16.60.38 to see if the connection will show where the packets are being lost. You need to run it for a few minutes and as fast as you can after a disco in order to obtain meaningful results.
If you do not see any lost packets, then there is a far chance the problem is resource related where your computer could not service a network request in a timely manner.
Most people will overestimate what their computer is capable of doing. You can have the fastest CPU in the world, but if you are running 200 background processes, it is going to be resource starved and run the game poorly. Flight sims need CPU time, more so than any other type of game, as modeling flight is very, very CPU intensive.
In order for us to be able to resolve issues, we need accurate data. I can ask all the questions to point you in the right direction so we can get an assessment of problems anyone may be experiencing, but it would be really helpful if we could start upfront with some common ground, as far as the description of what problem any person may be having.
