The Crystal Ball 2

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by d.burnette

Just curious as I am a new Cliffs of Dover owner and while it is installed have not even played it yet as I am trying to read up and gain as much knowledge as I can.
This memory leak issue that I keep seeing discussed, apparently is a huge problem - is this issue fixed in the upcoming patch everyone is anxiously awaiting for?

Hi Don,

The Crash to Desktop (CTD) memory leak (also known as a launcher.exe error) is a huge problem for those flying online; it doesn't seem to occur when flying offline (someone correct me here if I'm wrong on this).

As its name implies, it is characterized by a sudden onset of a drop in framerate and/or stuttering, quickly followed by an outright crash back to your desktop. Sometimes a screenfreeze will result requiring a CTL ALT DEL exit to Task Manager to quit the program, or even a hard reboot if your PC doesn't respond to anything! Definitely a show stopper!

For most the CTD can occur anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes into online gameplay; sometimes sooner, sometimes never. For myself and others, it seems to occur during moments of intense action -- especially in low level dogfights over terrain. Bomber pilots have reported CTD's when flying multi engine aircraft in formation for extended periods -- effectively killing the mission for them.

What to do? Reports vary from nothing can be done to fairly successful work arounds (which are a bit of a nuisance until a fix can be found).

Work around 1: After each sortie/mission exit CoD completely, then relaunch it. On ATAG's Teamspeak Server there is a one-mouse click .bat link which relaunches CoD directly back to the ATAG Server, greatly speeding up the process since you don't have to navigate through all the intro GUI's. Still a nuisance, though.

Work around 2: Before each online session delete the entire Cache folder (C:\Your Documents\1C Softclub\IL2 Sturmovik\Cache) (including the Shaders subfolder within). A new Cache folder is automatically built when you start CoD -- nothing further to do on your part.

I've tried all kinds of stuff as well; running in low resolution, knocking out grass, trees, shadows, etc etc to reduce graphic load on my GPU. Doing this DOES help keep framerates up overall, but I've been gradually enabling different features again (I like the eye candy), including increasing the resolution once more to 1680 x 1050 on my 22" Samsung. I've only had one near-CTD this year (frame rates dropped to single digit in a low level dogfight, resulting in me crashing into terrain -- but no actual crash or screen freeze).

I don't bother doing (1) anymore, but I try to remember to do (2). The time I had the near-CTD I had neglected to delete the Softclub Cache folder for some time.

Several other times during intense low-level coastal dogfights I noticed my frame rate dropping so I immediately disengaged and turned towards the sea -- my framerate instantly rose back up to the normal 60 fps (I have VSynch turned on) allowing me to resume play with no further interruption.

Other things that may help that your system possesses: Win 7 64-bit (CoD is only 32 bit, but the extra RAM you have no doubt helps handle the background processes and affiliated programs (TrackIR, Teamspeak, etc) while CoD is running.

Hope this helps. We need a fix for CTD's, these are only a few tips that may or may not keep things running when flying online.