modding HUGE Problem with Modding RDR2 That No One is Talking About

[kris33 0]

So how do you actually fix this issue? I confirmed I have this bug, I mostly use texture mods (I have a 49' Samsung G9 right in my face, so it's a necessity). The bug went away when I disabled all my mods.

 

I'm quite technical, I just need to know how to identify which textures are problematic and why, and how to fix them (using which tools).

[IWannaBangAnastasia 0]

You can fix this issue by increasing the amount of RAM and VRAM the engine is allowed to allocate via config.xml mods like this one:
 

A Modest Memory Pool Booster for LML - Anti-Stutter Performance Booster at Red Dead Redemption 2 Nexus - Mods and community
 

I use it + several other mods (mostly minor gameplay rebalance/rework stuff and fixes that aren't too texture-heavy or script-heavy) and I'm able to get trains full of passengers to spawn just fine, no problem. You probably should still avoid stuff that heavily increases memory usage though such as 4k retextures and euphoria mods etc...

The only memory-heavy mod that I use is Enhanced Entity and World Persistence by PixieV because it improves the game far too much, but after a particularly large amount of dead bodies piles up in a single region, new NPCs of all kinds (including new police waves) refuse to spawn until I leave the area.

Edited March 14 by IWannaBangAnastasia

[TheAlmightyZugs 0]

  On 2/15/2024 at 2:24 PM, Jrw174 said:

Whats the name of the mod? I'm a programmer and can take a look. No promises though

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Did you ever make a script? 

[TheAlmightyZugs 0]

  On 11/5/2024 at 12:05 AM, deadwoodd said:

My fault, I missed the trams part of your comment.

 

Here's a general guide for the newcomers to the thread.

Since streaming textures seems to be the primary cause of the issue, we want to look for our texture mods that use streaming and see if we can make them use the replacement method instead. This takes place in the install.xml files of the mods.

 

Luckily for us, there is a powershell script you can run which will essentially turn the mod's streaming method into the replacement method. The script can be found here.

 

Let's take a look at the mod Characters Overhaul as an example.

 

When we look at the mod's install.xml, we can see this:

 

Now if we use the powershell script to change this into the replacement method, we now see this:

 

(cropped for the sake of the forums)

 

You can see that instead of streaming the entire folder, we are using each individual texture instead as a file replacement.

 

Obviously this can be done one by one, but given the amount of textures some of these mods have, that would be a painstaking process, which is where the powershell script comes into play.

 

We can also see that the script calls for a source_paths.txt file. This text file should include the exact directories of the files you wish to replace. This can be achieved by using OpenIV to find the directories. All of them must be included. Here's an example of a source_paths.txt file.

 

This works with any texture mod that uses the streaming method. Here are a list of mods that I am currently using with no problems.

 

1. Crime & Law Rebalance
2. Better Camera
3. No Kill Cam Filter
4. Flo
5. Characters Overhaul
6. Upscaled Vegetation
7. Terrain Textures Overhaul
8. Blackwater Terrain Textures Overhaul
9. Best TAA & Visual Effects (slightly modified and combined with the Darker Nights mod)

I am also using the gameconfig provided by werwolf969 which you can find on this post.

 

All in all, I have zero issues with any spawns whatsoever. Not sure if worth mentioning, but I am running at 1440p at 1.5x resolution scale with a 3080 Ti and a 12700k.

 

When it comes to WhyEm's, I've had no luck getting this to work properly using the replacement method (meaning regardless of the method used, trains do not spawn with WhyEm's). Werewolf might have addressed this in this post  but I have not had the time to test it (and quite frankly, I'm okay with not using WhyEm's mods at the moment).

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What about for Complete Horse Overhaul? I see there used to be files for fixing it, but they are not available anymore. 

I was able to dig up the instal.xml file for Complete Horse Overhaul and followed the directions correctly from werewolf (I think) but restructuring the mod and putting it in lml doesn't seemingly work. 

Edited Thursday at 03:02 AM by TheAlmightyZugs

[TheAlmightyZugs 0]

  On 3/14/2025 at 2:32 AM, IWannaBangAnastasia said:

You can fix this issue by increasing the amount of RAM and VRAM the engine is allowed to allocate via config.xml mods like this one:
 

A Modest Memory Pool Booster for LML - Anti-Stutter Performance Booster at Red Dead Redemption 2 Nexus - Mods and community
 

I use it + several other mods (mostly minor gameplay rebalance/rework stuff and fixes that aren't too texture-heavy or script-heavy) and I'm able to get trains full of passengers to spawn just fine, no problem. You probably should still avoid stuff that heavily increases memory usage though such as 4k retextures and euphoria mods etc...

The only memory-heavy mod that I use is Enhanced Entity and World Persistence by PixieV because it improves the game far too much, but after a particularly large amount of dead bodies piles up in a single region, new NPCs of all kinds (including new police waves) refuse to spawn until I leave the area.

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Can confirm that this doesn't work through testing in terms of fixing the spawning issue. 
 

Edited Friday at 08:26 AM by TheAlmightyZugs

[TheAlmightyZugs 0]

Also, I've done some extensive testing myself, started fresh and added mods one at a time, used the files shared here etc for some of the mods and when I initially tested some times it seems to work and others it stops working. Initially I was just looking for trains and then I moved to the Railroad Engineer mod and then later now the "Chicken method" a youtuber laid out among other things. Keep in mind this is when I still believed trains to be a good indicator, but in my opinion it only really is an indicator if no trains spawn at all. They can still spawn, but the issue can still present itself. That's not even mentioning actually checking for peds on trains etc which is another issue. 

 

For those tests, I would do circuits of 10 game launches between mod changes. 5 launches where I would load in and immediately try to find train spawns. If I found one I would try to find another. Depending on the mods I used, I may see one train but as soon as I would move to the next - all trains would despawn and I'd notice a lot less "life" in the world. Little things where when the trains would spawn in, there were also more peds doing things vs just sitting down etc. Peds freezing in motion etc and then continuing about their business, no passengers on wagons etc. But I also noticed that even when a game launches and I'd find a train or indicators that spawning was working, if I made no changes to the files and then relaunched that same train would now not show up. So not consistent. Then 5 launches where I would leave the game running for 10 minutes, and then proceed to look. These 5 usually resulted in failure every time.

 

But even when I removed the majority of mods one by one, spawning would still be an issue. Obviously removed stream and any texture mods, ytd's etc. Even when I removed the lml folder completely leaving only for example the Train Engineer mod in some tests - I could find two trains at times but never more than that and as soon as I would try for a third, the other two trains would be despawned and not show up. Sometimes not even the first one. This is on top of other things I noticed regarding ped behavior, numbers etc.

So I'm currently trying to see consistency in my launches and that has been difficult. A lot of false positives.

Have we made progress on an actual fix for this akin to what exists for GTA 5? Do we know of anyone working on a fix? I'd be willing to take a crack at it and even possibly commission someone or a group of people (even if the cost may be steepish for what we're talking about). I just fear this will never get fixed and when the next GTA game releases, a lot of people may just move to that game.  

[Edegon 14]

  On 1/7/2025 at 7:13 PM, Osoa said:

 

Looks great - your QoL folder's streaming folder filelist seems to be missing a ton of files from the original mod. Is this intentional?

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It doesn't, I just moved some files to the other folder to keep it tidy

[Edegon 14]

  On 1/14/2025 at 2:22 AM, KingEdward said:

so using this method i was able to find a few trains that wouldn't spawn i mean up until this point i taught my spawns are pretty good was seeing chickens and peds on trollys so now im going to remove my mods one by one ending with graphics ones until i get all the trains to spawn

 

this is my mod list 

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I don't know for sure if that method is 100% valid, anyway I believe it's good. I recommend to try the "chicken run" from this video, if you didn't already: 

 

[Edegon 14]

  On 1/28/2025 at 5:00 PM, KingEdward said:

i can list all the issues caused by high fps its mostly alot of small things that just add up and once you notice them its hard to ignore ill also drop a list of mods im using which ik dont cause problems as far as im aware so i think its a good baseline.

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I'd like to know the issues since I play at 75fps, the only one I noticed yet is the water splash waves not forming most of the time when dynamite explodes in the water.

[Edegon 14]

  On 1/30/2025 at 12:34 PM, KingEdward said:

Honestly I don’t think much can be done atm first thing first rockstar has to patch the base game starting from the frame rate issue and going up then modders have to figure out a way to actually edit the locked files and insert not just replacing textures but that’s a long way off I’m afraid

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Maybe after GTA VI they release an update or enhanced version like they did with GTA V. R* (or T2) never seemed to give a fuck about the PC release. Ever since GTA III the games had problems like lack of graphical effects (III, VC, SA and IV), unoptimization (GTA IV), this stuff with RDR2, or didn't even come to PC alltogheter like RDR1. The PC releases seem to be minimum effort (or strict budget). The only game without issues might be GTA V? Maybe because it has a high profit Online mode. Anyway I don't want to pollute the thread further with this off topic stuff.

[Edegon 14]

  On 3/28/2025 at 8:27 AM, TheAlmightyZugs said:

I just fear this will never get fixed and when the next GTA game releases, a lot of people may just move to that game.  

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I really hope instead it will be the opposite. Since people will "crack" GTA VI to mod it (and of course the number of people will be a LOT more and with a lot more interest than RDR2 modders), some new stuff about RDR2 might be found, especially if the game happens to have the same issues as RDR2. If they find a fix for GTA VI it might be able to be applied to RDR2 too.

[Edegon 14]

  On 1/27/2025 at 5:42 AM, GregPopaperc said:

Sorry if I’m asking stupid questions I am pretty green when it comes to the technical aspects of modding. I understand enough to fix minor issues, identify/avoid file conflicts and I understand the broad concepts that you all are discussing here but after trying to read all 29 pages of this thread I’m still a bit confused.

 

1. Is it fairly certain among you fine gents that the issue is NOT fixed by replacing instead of streaming? I saw someone comment towards the end of this thread that this method fixed his spawning issues and then another claim that the streaming vs. replacement method was misinformation and did not fix the problem 100% of the time, although it may have helped some users in certain cases?

 

2. Is it considered “confirmed” with certainty that the issue is definitely caused by improper compression of .ytd files? 
 

3. If the answer to 2 is yes, will this mod fix the spawning issues caused by 1899 Firearms/Firearm Cosmetics?

https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/5552

Lastly, I think I have achieved a “mostly stable” game with my current mods. I have a handful of light .asi mods, and a very small lml folder with absolutely no textures (.ytd’s) other than “properly” compressed ones via the mod I linked above. I have peds on summoned fast travel spawned trains, peds on trolleys, multiple passengers in carriages, I have the pink spoonbills, I have chickens in Valentine, and I haven’t noticed any serious lack of random encounters… but the TRAINS DAMMIT.

The trains are STILL not showing up. I have the Railroad Engineer mod installed for the map blips, and every time I load into my save, if I’m near a train blip, it shows up. And there IS peds on it. There are usually about 5-6 passengers per car. But after that I can’t manage to come across one in the open world unless I pay for fast travel - then I can follow it for a while obviously. I’m assuming if that’s the case, then I still have a spawn problem right? Because I also saw someone say not to use trains as a spawn metric due to the fact that they are extremely unreliable and inconsistent.

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated, and again sorry for any repeat questions. 
 

PS: Not sure if I missed this somewhere, but since I have what I would consider a “fairly stable” game configuration, with my current mods and graphical settings, but am still having issues with train spawns; might it be worthwhile to do a complete uninstall/reinstall and attempt to load into a fresh unmodded save with my current mod configuration? Or perhaps uninstall/reinstall all the mods from scratch? Or both? Ihaven’t tried that. I didn’t want to lose my game or waste the time if there was no chance that it was the save file still plaguing me. Thanks again, fellers. 🤠 

 

PS Again: I totally forgot, I also have a handful of folders installed from this mod as well. This and the WHM Firearms Cosmetics Compressed are the only .ytd files contained in my lml folder.

https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/5580
 

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I can only answer point 1: from what I read it seems loading any mod adds strain the game engine to some degree, possibly so much that it makes it not spawn low priority stuff like trains, some animals, NPCs, etc...
How much the engine is strained depends on the mod, what method it utilizes to load the files and how many mods you have (there are also other factors specific for the type of mod, like texture mods with uncompressed textures cause problems). The replacement method seems to strain the engine way less than the streaming one.

So to answer directly to your question: no, it doesn't fix the problem itself, it's just less likely to cause problems and, if it does, it should cause smaller problems than streaming, it all depends on the factors I listed above.

Probably someone else can provide a better and more detailed answer. Of course correct me if I said something wrong.