Spot on mate, seems to be sorted now :)

So for future reference I'll be deleting the cache, conf.ini, rolling back and then applying beta patches to hopefully minimise issues :D

Awesome, glad you got it sorted mate! ;)

Your reccomendations would probably be helping a lot of other people as well...if only they'd pay heed.

Well, yeah, a lot of problems are created by people installing beta patch on top of beta patch.

Until those steps to install the patch cleanly are stickied I will happily spam em though where needed ;)

Helps with stutters, graphical glitches, not being able to use ESC in Multiplayer.
Not a cure it all but a good routine to follow nonetheless.

New beta patch has killed my ability to set pre-flight loadout. Now it just stays on default like before.

I uninstalled steam... reinstalled steam and the game on to a different drive... and I still have stutters on MP and can not use the EXIT button to go back to the main menu from MP.... next...:evil:

Well, sorry to hear that bro. Dunno why you feel the need to use the :evil: smiley though.

Spot on. I re-verified and then reinstalled this latest beta patch and its like another game. I had done this with beta2 but forgot to do so with this latest beta.

So to update my feedback for devs in post 280 above....flickering in/near clouds no longer present...slowdowns when near other planes appears to be gone. Running in true Fullscreen with Vsync on (and all other settings the same as in my earlier post) Its now silky smooth over water, whilst some micro stutters remain over land (but not so much as to ruin the fun).

Seems a good beta for my 5970.

single game i get better performance with the new patch but multiplayer i get better performance with the steam patch

Same here.