We've established that JETWAY isn't the issue. And since the issue happens to me with the PMDG 737 with no changes to the aircraft.cfg, that means it's gotta be connected with PUSHBACK or MARSHALLER.
Which is interesting because:
- The Jetway is the ONLY default service GSX needs and use.
- The Pushback and Marshaller are the ones which can be disabled and won't affect GSX in any way, since GSX has its own custom versions that don't have the slightest interaction with the default version of such services.
If you had the opposite result (jetway causing the freeze unless disabled), a possible explanation might be that, disabling jetway might reduce the amount of data about the airport being sent back by the sim when GSX asks for it, because *maybe* if you are flying an airplane that has been flagged not using jetways, it might not send data about jetways (even if the real bulk of data is parking and taxiways). But that's not what it seems to be happening.
There's nothing in the returned data about pushback and marshallers, but maybe disabling these would have an effect on how many default ground vehicles/crew are being generated on touchdown ? In theory, this should affect only your airplane, but that pause looked as if the sim was trying to create lots of objects at the same time.
Note that, when I say "GSX asks for it", it means if you are within 3NM of the airport center and you are below 1000 ft above ground. This is the exact moment in time where GSX ask for all data about the airport. However, GSX has NO CONTROL whatsoever about *when* the answer (with the data) will come from the sim. This logic has been the same since GSX came out, no changes ever happened in years.
The only change in version 3.5.7 was an automatic restart after takeoff, this is not done anymore in the current hotfixed 3.5.8. Other changes in the latest 3.5.8 hotfix are:
- GSX is skipping many checks it always did (even long before 3.5.6), like checking parking brakes or engines started, etc. if you are on ground but your speed is > 25 knots.
- Same skipping of unnecessary checks has been extended to when you are not on ground, but your altitude is below 500 ft above ground.
These are NEW optimization we added in the latest two 3.5.8 hotfixes, we never had them before!
So right now, when you are on final or after touchdown, GSX isn't doing anything other than checking your position, altitude and speed to detect when you are again below 25 knots and on ground, so it will start again to check for engines, brakes, to see if you are parked or require a service like the follow me.
If the airport has GSX profile with lots of VGDS (those surely can cause a pause when created and the profile didn't had the "disable static VGDS" option set), GSX will always wait until your speed is below 25 kts before creating those. Same if you pre-select a gate in flight: nothing is ever created unless you landed and your speed drops below 25 kts. this optimization has always been there, and nothing changed either.
What is really worrying, instead, was the report GSX crashed on landing (or likely before). This shouldn't happen, but if it did, an automatic restart will likely cause stuttering, because during a restart there's lots of file access required, so we should probably verify if this was the case.
Checking the auto-restarter log at %APPDATA%\Virtuali\couatl64_boot.log file might tell if there was a restart on (or moments before) landing, since it comes with timestamps.
