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

[TheCubanMissile2 1]

3 hours ago, Edegon said:

 

Try changing the hour with Rampage and see if the number of blips changes

Edit: Thinking about it, there should always be at least 4 train blips, since trams count as trains. If it actually goes down to 3 there's a serious problem, if it goes to 4 it means there are no trains at all. Are you using a save file used with mods installed?

So my original comment was inaccurate. I loaded into a fresh save and there are 12 trains. Once I complete a mission the blimps drop to 8. There is only one train roaming and most are either in Saint Denis or Annesburg. I try changing the time and all that happens is the one train roaming moves. Is this normal behavior?

[Edegon 11]

3 hours ago, TheCubanMissile2 said:

So my original comment was inaccurate. I loaded into a fresh save and there are 12 trains. Once I complete a mission the blimps drop to 8. There is only one train roaming and most are either in Saint Denis or Annesburg. I try changing the time and all that happens is the one train roaming moves. Is this normal behavior?

The train blips number dropping to numbers like 7 is normal (or at least it is in my game when I remove all mods but the scripts for Rampage and Railroad Engineer). Unfortunately I don't know exactly what affects the numbers of trains on the map (visible with the blips). But I guess the important thing is that every train on the map spawns when you get near the blip, and that the trains and trams have normal ped spawning. That's as far as my knowledge goes

Edited November 7 by Edegon

[Edegon 11]

3 hours ago, werwolf969 said:

Here's the link to the source_paths.txt file with all possible paths to every file in the rpf archives:

https://file.io/13u7BMIcvB29

However, my install.xml generator script won't work with such a large file. You need to shrink it down to only the files you need to replace from mod, or modify my script so it use different method for parsing source_paths.txt.

The source_paths.txt only exists because we can't parse the rpf archives without CodeX or OpenIV, and neither of those has any CLI or API for interacting with them.

My logic for creating the install.xml generator was that mod authors might make mistakes like:

1) wrong file name;

2) wrong mount point in the mod install.xml, or wrong method for some files (like replacing a file that doesn't exist inside the rpf archive, or streaming a file that can be replaced);

3) duplicates in paths in install.xml.

By manually adding paths to source_paths, we check 1 and 2, and 3 is resolved by the script. But if you certain that mod files are inside single rpf archive, you totally can make much simpler script, in this case, you really don't need source_paths.txt. you just paste paths inside xml nodes directly with correct pattern. I think such script was posted few pages ago.

As you can see I'm pretty ignorant about this, so thank you for explaining. Anyway I'm just going to continue as I did until now since this thread is too long and, while it's good for discussion, it's very bad to find the solutions and all the important stuff (like that script you mentioned). (Also the file in the link has been deleted).

I think someone should make a separate thing with all the important info and resources like the scripts, so everyone can find it easy and the thread doesn't fill up with anymore questions that already have a (buried) answer.

[StachuD.Jones 1]

Hit there, new here. Anyone could share their modlists that work at the moment?

[Edegon 11]

On 11/8/2024 at 11:29 AM, StachuD.Jones said:

Hit there, new here. Anyone could share their modlists that work at the moment?

I think you can use almost any mod as long as it doesn't use streaming to load the files and has the textures modded with the right format and size, but this is just a generalization, unfortunately you need to read the thread if you want the details. There are some mods that are known to cause problems like WhyEm's DLC.

This my modlist atm (haven't throughly tested it yet, but seems ok) but I remade some of the install.xml files, so if you don't do the same it's useless.

LML:
 

Quote

1.00 Fitment
AB10
Aiming Animations (from Extended Player Animations)
AMFAO EPA merge
Bank Robbery Requirements
Best TAA and Visual Effects (I've left just the visualsettings.dat and deleted the other files)
BlackwaterOfficersVoiceFix
Buell Fix
Calorie Descriptions
Cowboy Outfit Reworked
DCA (Different Camera Angle)
Easier Gold
Extended Player Animations
The Original Bounty Hunter (Shirt Only)
Gun_Belt_Fix
Herbalist
Immersive factions
ImprovementsInBlood
John Marston - 1899 Overhaul
John Marston No Stitches (made this with the instructions from the mod above)
John Marston Restoration Project
Just Fucking Bleed Already!
Just Shut Up Already!
LAW
Maize Sack Fix
NPC Aiming Animations (From EPA)
Out of Bounds
Realistic Cartridges
Saddle Fixes
Serving Spoon Fix
SnappyUl
Terrain Textures Overhaul
The Legend of the West
UpscaledAnimals:Birds
UpscaledAnimals:LargeMammals
UpscaledAnimals:MediumMammals
UpscaledAnimals:Reptiles
UpscaledAnimals:SmallMammals
Wrinklemasks

Scripts:
 

Quote

AmbientMoneyWagons.asi
BountiesExpansion.asi
CampAnywhere.asi
CampfireWeaponLocker.asi
CutDialogueEnhanced.asi
Duels.asi
Gun Tricks.asi
HatBlip2.0.asi
HuntingCamp.asi
J10RailroadEngineerRDR2.asi (I only use this for testing purposes)
JumpFlop1.3.1.asi
kill_children.asi
LessMoney.asi
MorePersistentWeather.asi
NoAutoEquip.asi
NoBlackBars.asi
NoBountyWithMask.asi
NoHolstering.asi
NolnvisibleSnipers.asi
NoOffHand Holster2.1.asi
NoSinking.asi
PhotoModeEnhancer.asi
PlayerCleaner.asi
Rampage.asi
RestoredCutContent-Quiver1.6.6.asi
SgtJoeBankRobbery.asi
SmokingComplete.asi
Stagecoaches.asi
Stash ThatLantern2.8.asi
TieYourLasso.asi
vfs.asi
Zen.asi

Edit: Forgot to mention that other modlists have been posted before, so you can search "modlist" on the search bar and see if you can find them

Edited November 9 by Edegon

[Saber23454 2]

Hello everyone, does anyone know if dual leg holster with no straps causes any problems, it requires remove knife sheath and remove satchel, so do those also cause anything?

[deadwoodd 1]

16 minutes ago, Saber23454 said:

Hello everyone, does anyone know if dual leg holster with no straps causes any problems, it requires remove knife sheath and remove satchel, so do those also cause anything?

I took a look and Dual Leg Holster w/ No Straps shouldn't cause any issues, however Remove Knife Sheath & Remove Satchel partly utilize the streaming method, so those may cause problems. Fortunately though, given the number of files and the size, it should be very easy to change those to use the correct method.

[Saber23454 2]

3 hours ago, deadwoodd said:

I took a look and Dual Leg Holster w/ No Straps shouldn't cause any issues, however Remove Knife Sheath & Remove Satchel partly utilize the streaming method, so those may cause problems. Fortunately though, given the number of files and the size, it should be very easy to change those to use the correct method.

Thank you for informing, Ill change the knife sheath and satchel

[Ttsobreiro 0]

Hello, I apologize in advance as I’m not very tech savvy, but I’ve been following this thread and was wondering if anyone here can help me out. 
 

I seem to be having a spawn problem with the trains, but only the passenger ones. I see the cargo trains and the trolleys all properly populated with npcs. 

I’ve been using the railroad engineer map, and passenger trains just won’t spawn for me, aside from scripted events on quests. 
 

I’ve encountered this problem even when I purged all mods and left

just Rampage, scripthook and lml installed. 
 

Is there anything I can do, shorter than going full vanilla, to remedy this problem? 
 

Or is this save irreparably damaged now? 
 

 

[deadwoodd 1]

6 hours ago, Ttsobreiro said:

Hello, I apologize in advance as I’m not very tech savvy, but I’ve been following this thread and was wondering if anyone here can help me out. 
 

I seem to be having a spawn problem with the trains, but only the passenger ones. I see the cargo trains and the trolleys all properly populated with npcs. 

I’ve been using the railroad engineer map, and passenger trains just won’t spawn for me, aside from scripted events on quests. 
 

I’ve encountered this problem even when I purged all mods and left

just Rampage, scripthook and lml installed. 
 

Is there anything I can do, shorter than going full vanilla, to remedy this problem? 
 

Or is this save irreparably damaged now? 
 

 

When you buy train tickets to another town, do you see passengers on the train?

[Ttsobreiro 0]

2 hours ago, deadwoodd said:

When you buy train tickets to another town, do you see passengers on the train?

Yes, just a few per cart though. And the train never leaves the station

[deadwoodd 1]

7 hours ago, Ttsobreiro said:

Yes, just a few per cart though. And the train never leaves the station

There is no definitive answer here, but a "corrupted" save file is a possibility. When I did all of my testing, it was on a fresh save, so can't say if that's the case for sure. I would suggest trying one of the gameconfig's posted in this thread first. If that doesn't work, the only way to test is to try on a new save.

[venson162ve 0]

Hello, I read through some and tried to remove some textures from WhyEm's DLC. The thing is, I use only the Montana coat from WhyEm's DLC... I was wondering, is it possible to find out what texture this one is so I can remove all other? Like is there some 3D program I can put these files into and get an actual picture? 

 

Thank you in advance.

[Ides4 0]

Does anyone still have the fixed version of Whyem's? 

[Saber23454 2]

Hello there, Im using 1899 firearms and apparently it causes the spawning issue, actually its firearms cosmetics, so I was wondering if 1899 firearms can still work without firearm cosmetics

[dundarrion 10]

I went through and read a lot of this thread (not all) because I am also interested in solving the spawn issue.

 

 

All this time people were using railroad engineer to check for train spawns but that mod by itself affects trains in some manner and when you die on a train or close to it it won't be able to track them anymore (train blip icons still move they just wont be there.) Tested this with no no other mods, no lml files.

 

So the question is how to reliably test the spawns.

 

Below I will try to summarize my findings somewhat, because I became opsessed with the spawn system of this game over the past 2 months I've been trying to mod it heavily. I will keep updating it with my findings overtime.

 

 trains are not supposed to run all the time even in vanilla, so this railroad engineer method is completely unreliable as it keeps spawns in memory all the time.

 

In my testing on vanilla the game spawns trains when you enter certian areas, or checkpoints if you will, then a train will spawn (usually relatively far away) and makes it way towards the player. Even if you start running the whole of the railway system trains are not guaranteed to spawn even on a vanilla game.

 

The answer is: Test, test and test some more. the best thing you can do is load the same save file all the time and experiment via teleportation or just run some lenght of the railway until you get comfortable where a train is supposed to be coming from ( and time it so you know approximately how long it takes).
Once you got that down to a semi-exact timeframe DO NOT start adding mods just yet. Now go ahead and look for a second train and again, make sure you are able to consistently able to find it in a given timeframe after you found the first train. (PREFERABLY finding a third train might be even more beneficial for the results)

Now you can start adding mods 1 by 1 (preferably by the replacement method) and test the spawns every single time.

 

Also check for animal spawns, you are not supposed to see animals spawn very close to you when you just turn the camera (you know they just spawned because they are still doing grazing or whatever animation and havent reacted to you being there) Check for horse spawns, check for small rodents like muskrats in river bed.

If you see like 20 deers or proghorns at once thats also not a good sign, means the memory management is acting up (can happen if you use vestigia's popzone spawner file edits for example)

 

No gameconfig (tested them all the only one that is helpful for the game is that stutter fix texture pool increase), no systemsettings file are going to help you in this. And of course, needless to say do not use stupidly high res textures like the popular one on Nexus that has 8gb of textures, this will kill your game's internal memory management.

 

 

Edit2:

 

For example, my testing ground is the following:

 

I use this simple intro completed save file: https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/3693

 

1. Get on horse (u can use rampage for the next steps)

2. Turn on superspeed, I usually leav it on default 35 speed

3. Head towards the first Reverend Swanson (RS) blip (this could be a scripted spawn, not sure, but all spawns are kinda scripted if you believe this checkpoint method I theorized above, which I do believe. Even animals spawn points are scripted tucked away in the respective region scenario .ymt files)

4. A train MUST spawn coming from the north over the bridge.

 

5. Once that is confirmed, I usually teleport myself down to Saint Denis outskirts, where the animal corrals are

6. I make my way through the city (just quickly checking the trolley pasengers, note that not every trolley will be full of passengers, dont panic if you find 1 empty, but definitely not a good sign if multiple trolleys are empty)

7. I leave SD following the railway to the north towards the heartlands - the one that goes through the swamp inlands

8. A train MUST spawn coming towards you somewhere along the line before you reach the next station in the middle of the heartlands.

Edited November 14 by dundarrion

[Syyyke 0]

This is awful lol

Edited November 15 by Syyyke

[Edegon 11]

23 hours ago, dundarrion said:

I went through and read a lot of this thread (not all) because I am also interested in solving the spawn issue.

 

 

All this time people were using railroad engineer to check for train spawns but that mod by itself affects trains in some manner and when you die on a train or close to it it won't be able to track them anymore (train blip icons still move they just wont be there.) Tested this with no no other mods, no lml files.

 

So the question is how to reliably test the spawns.

 

Below I will try to summarize my findings somewhat, because I became opsessed with the spawn system of this game over the past 2 months I've been trying to mod it heavily. I will keep updating it with my findings overtime.

 

 trains are not supposed to run all the time even in vanilla, so this railroad engineer method is completely unreliable as it keeps spawns in memory all the time.

 

In my testing on vanilla the game spawns trains when you enter certian areas, or checkpoints if you will, then a train will spawn (usually relatively far away) and makes it way towards the player. Even if you start running the whole of the railway system trains are not guaranteed to spawn even on a vanilla game.

 

The answer is: Test, test and test some more. the best thing you can do is load the same save file all the time and experiment via teleportation or just run some lenght of the railway until you get comfortable where a train is supposed to be coming from ( and time it so you know approximately how long it takes).
Once you got that down to a semi-exact timeframe DO NOT start adding mods just yet. Now go ahead and look for a second train and again, make sure you are able to consistently able to find it in a given timeframe after you found the first train. (PREFERABLY finding a third train might be even more beneficial for the results)

Now you can start adding mods 1 by 1 (preferably by the replacement method) and test the spawns every single time.

 

Also check for animal spawns, you are not supposed to see animals spawn very close to you when you just turn the camera (you know they just spawned because they are still doing grazing or whatever animation and havent reacted to you being there) Check for horse spawns, check for small rodents like muskrats in river bed.

If you see like 20 deers or proghorns at once thats also not a good sign, means the memory management is acting up (can happen if you use vestigia's popzone spawner file edits for example)

 

No gameconfig (tested them all the only one that is helpful for the game is that stutter fix texture pool increase), no systemsettings file are going to help you in this. And of course, needless to say do not use stupidly high res textures like the popular one on Nexus that has 8gb of textures, this will kill your game's internal memory management.

 

 

Edit2:

 

For example, my testing ground is the following:

 

I use this simple intro completed save file: https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/3693

 

1. Get on horse (u can use rampage for the next steps)

2. Turn on superspeed, I usually leav it on default 35 speed

3. Head towards the first Reverend Swanson (RS) blip (this could be a scripted spawn, not sure, but all spawns are kinda scripted if you believe this checkpoint method I theorized above, which I do believe. Even animals spawn points are scripted tucked away in the respective region scenario .ymt files)

4. A train MUST spawn coming from the north over the bridge.

 

5. Once that is confirmed, I usually teleport myself down to Saint Denis outskirts, where the animal corrals are

6. I make my way through the city (just quickly checking the trolley pasengers, note that not every trolley will be full of passengers, dont panic if you find 1 empty, but definitely not a good sign if multiple trolleys are empty)

7. I leave SD following the railway to the north towards the heartlands - the one that goes through the swamp inlands

8. A train MUST spawn coming towards you somewhere along the line before you reach the next station in the middle of the heartlands.

We know Railroad Engineer affects train spawning, in fact we (or at least I) don't use it to check normal train behaviour, I use it to see if all the trains shown on map spawn and if they have passengers inside.

When I have stuff like WhyEm's DLC installed the trains don't spawn when I get to the blip, meanwhile when I remove those mods they spawn. This method works 100% of the time for me so I find it a reliable test, not to mention it's very fast. Yes, the number of total trains (and so of blips) might get lower after a while, but you just need to reload the fresh save to have them back.

Anyway your method seems good (altough more time consuming but probably more accurate and complete too) and you're right that trolleys sometimes aren't full of passenger, I think it's pretty important to note this because some people use that as a test and it's not reliable if you check just one trolley.

Edited November 15 by Edegon

[lexo1000 3]

Sometimes the bug comes after few hours of gameplay, so pretty hard to test which mod is faulty. 

Edited November 15 by lexo1000

[SilentStealth71 0]

On 11/13/2024 at 10:34 AM, Saber23454 said:

Hello there, Im using 1899 firearms and apparently it causes the spawning issue, actually its firearms cosmetics, so I was wondering if 1899 firearms can still work without firearm cosmetics

Yes, you can use 1899 Firearms without Firearms Cosmetics. That's what I run. Just know that some glitching may occur and the custom grips and such will not show up. I overlook these issues as I find 1899 Firearms essential to my play style. I wish this game could handle the textures, but at present it cannot.

Edited November 15 by SilentStealth71

[deadwoodd 1]

1 hour ago, SilentStealth71 said:

Yes, you can use 1899 Firearms without Firearms Cosmetics. That's what I run. Just know that some glitching may occur and the custom grips and such will not show up. I overlook these issues as I find 1899 Firearms essential to my play style. I wish this game could handle the textures, but at present it cannot.

I haven't looked much into 1899 Firearms, but does it use the streaming method? If it does, have you tried modifying the install.xml to use the replacement method? And if so, are you still seeing problems?

[Ides4 0]

Hey guys, I downloaded the Install.xml for Complete Horse Overhaul that Werwolf posted earlier in the thread that utilizes the file replacement method. I've replaced the default install.xml with his, placed the .ymt files in the base Complete Horse Overhaul folder, and placed the .ytd files inside the Textures folder inside the Complete Horse Overhaul folder. I swore I followed his instructions exactly but it is not working for me. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? 

 

"For example, Complete Horse Overhaul keeps its files in the lml/stream folder, so you need to move the textures (.ytd files) in the "Complete Horse Overhaul/Textures" folder, and the config files (.ymt files) just in the "Complete Horse Overhaul" folder next to the install.xml, and replace the install.xml with the one attached to this message."

install.xml

[SilentStealth71 0]

6 hours ago, deadwoodd said:

I haven't looked much into 1899 Firearms, but does it use the streaming method? If it does, have you tried modifying the install.xml to use the replacement method? And if so, are you still seeing problems?

1. Yes, it does use the streaming method.

2. No, I have not tried modifying it with the replacement method. It's way too time consuming to go through such a tedious process when I'm not having any problems.

3. I haven't had any problems with spawning when using 1899 Firearms. I just don't use Firearms Cosmetics despite it being listed as a requirement because that mod does cause spawning issues.

[lexo1000 3]

I wonder the same about Complete Horse.

By analysing the install.xml, from what I understand, all files should be put in lml/Complete Horse Overhaul except for .ytd files that should be put in lml/Complete Horse Overhaul/Textures. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

 

I see some errors in the install.xml.

For example the line 

            <FileReplacement>
                <GamePath>
                    extra:/x64/packs/base/models/component_textures/0x1a5fde6.ytd</GamePath>
                <FilePath>Textures/0x1a5fde6.ytd</FilePath>
            </FileReplacement>

 

The .ytd has the wrong name. It should be 0x01a5fde6.ytd

 

Also 0x0aeef8c5.ytd is missing in install.xml

 

Most of the textures paths are wrong. After launching the game, check vfs.log and you will see that most of the files are not loaded...

 

If someone could share a clean install.xml for Compelte Horse, it would be very nice.

Edited November 16 by lexo1000

[ydamao 2]

A few months ago, I noticed this topic but didn’t have the time to fully read through it. Yesterday, I stayed up all night and read everything from start to finish. Oh my God, it’s been months and there’s still no good solution to this issue. Over the past few months, I’ve also tested many different days. My most serious problem is caused by the WhyEm DLC. I’m using WhyEm’s DLC Red Dead Offline Edition, and I modified his shop_items.ymt file to make it use the textures that are already in the game. It has some effects. Since I only use his saddles and horse masks, I don’t have high requirements, so switching to the game’s original textures works with some effects.

 

The WhyEm DLC-modified Red Dead Offline Edition file also caused a serious problem. 
The optional file—the WhyEm DLC Red Dead Offline Edition compatibility file—causes the coffee pot to be impossible to purchase (this is a permanent bug that must be resolved during the “Self-Respect, Injured and Departing” mission). This happens right at the start of Chapter 2, before Hosea takes Arthur hunting. The solution is to exit the game, uninstall the Red Dead Offline Edition compatibility file, then re-enter the game and buy the coffee pot before saving the game. Afterward, exit the game and reinstall the Red Dead Offline Edition compatibility file. That should fix it. Otherwise, you won’t be able to buy the coffee pot later on.

 

Also, when purchasing enhanced gear from the trapper, it will prevent the extra level-ups for Health, Stamina, and Dead Eye from working. It’s stuck at level 8, and you won’t be able to reach level 10 anymore (this is also a permanent bug). The solution is the same: exit the game, uninstall the Red Dead Offline Edition compatibility file, then buy the enhanced gear before saving the game. After that, exit and reinstall the Red Dead Offline Edition compatibility file. It should work normally, but if you don’t do this, you won’t reach level 10.

 

It looks like I’ll just have to continue waiting.

Edited November 16 by ydamao