Also, unless I'm mistaken, the RC1 provides (as do any of chiefs nightlies) non-SSE optimized builds. If the same pause or stop is taking place there in those builds, then it is not related to compiler issues. Further, if compiler issues were the fault for this, shouldn't the issue be much more predominately occurring from the onset of their usage?
I do know that the moment the cutscene runs is when windows will ask if you will allow Freespace as a process to access the internet. It is likely that during this time, since pilot select does init networking code (in the chance that you select a Multi Pilot) that there may be a networking issue at hand.
It could also be a pilot file issue as well of some sort. Try copying your freespace2\data\players folder out to some other location (to archive it), and then go into the single and multi folders and delete the files found in them (as you will have them backed up from copying out the players folder prior to doing this) and see what happens. The game, in not finding any pilots, should prompt for creating a new one. Should it fail to do that, then we'll have to take a deeper examination of the issue with the understanding that, because it is currently an isolated case, we may be facing an issue with either your particular setup or configuration.
If the game, with absolutely no pilots present, loads just fine, then we can take a look at the contents of the players folder contents that were copied out.
