Do it!

[ATAG_Bliss]

If you have installed a beta patch EVER, you seriously need to reinstall the game from scratch. My typical experience online was a 45 minute session then crash to desktop. It was almost like clock-work.

This is what I did based on the convo JTDawg had with me on TS.

1st thing I did was completely delete the Documents/1cSoft folder completely. Go to your steam/IL2 folder and save a copy of your defuser.ini. This file contains all your joystick/keymapping assignments. Then uninstall the game through your control panel's add/remove programs. (Make sure all remaining folders for IL2COD are gone)

Download/install the game through steam. And whatever you do, don't touch a single setting in any config files. Place your keymapping file back in the game. Start it up and adjust your audio/video/network settings (IN-GAME) and go fly.

In my 1st online session I flew with every single setting maxed @ 2650x1600. This was the 1st time in a long time I've ever been able to fly at my native resolution let alone with EVERYTHING cranked up. But that's just the beginning though.

My 1st sortie I took off in a Ju88 and completed a bomber sortie in England. I somehow limped it back home and was able to land at France. There's one hour already! 2nd sortie I do another Ju88 sortie bomb the snot out of stuff and, again, am able to make it back to successfully land. 2 hours no crashing at this point. My 3rd sortie I took off in an E4 and hung around England for a bit - around 30 minutes into that sortie I finally crashed. I have never had a sortie last much more than an hour without crashing, let alone almost 3.

Not only was it smooth, using higher gfx settings/resolution, omg @ the sounds. I swear I must have been missing 1/2 of them before. There was no more static noise on engine idle (I used to get that 50% of the time at the right RPM's) I could actually hear the wheels changing sound with different surfaces, the landing gear, the hydraulics, well, everything sounded soo much better. There was thunder coming through my headphones as the flak bursts were going off. I played 2 hours straight before I even had my 1st stutter. This was when there was 40 players online.

I know there's many supposed fixes/helpers out there, and trust me I've tried most of them, but this truly was a night and day difference for me and not a placebo effect.

I can't harp enough. If you've changed your files, loaded beta patches, or in any way shape or form have an inkling that you've corrupted your game in the slightest bit, trust me in saying the steam integrity check doesn't catch everything.

All I can say is reinstall and don't touch any configs at all!

Hope this helps.