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

[bobbymilwaukee 0]

On 10/30/2024 at 6:20 AM, werwolf969 said:

If the mod uses uncompressed textures, you should repack it with compressed ones. If the mod streams game textures, you need to modify the install.xml file to use the replacing method instead of streaming them. This approach won't work for newly added textures, so files with them can only be streamed.

You should also increase the resource pools for textures, drawables, fragments, and other parts of the game engine, including peds and weapon components. The exact amount you should increase depends on your computer's capabilities. To start, you can combine the gameconfig.xml and systemsettings.ymt files from different Nexus mods and set all the values to their maximum.

But overall, you will soon find limitations and have to choose between having dense cities and open spaces, trains, trams, or HiRes graphics everywhere.

How do I increase the resource pool? I don't use WhyEm or RDO, but I do use all of garbageman's Upscales which is the straw that breaks the camel's back in my game. I have 3tb on a 4070ti

[werwolf969 17]

1 hour ago, bobbymilwaukee said:

How do I increase the resource pool? I don't use WhyEm or RDO, but I do use all of garbageman's Upscales which is the straw that breaks the camel's back in my game. I have 3tb on a 4070ti

You need to edit the gameconfig.xml file and replace it with the LML. You can find some of these files on Nexus. I can provide you with mine, which has been edited for my specific specs. Also, you need to edit the systemsettings.ymt file and replace it with an LML, it's in this archive too. You can try it out. Finally, you must edit the system.xml file in "Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings". Find and change the line for <maxTexUpgradesPerFrame value="25">, make the system.xml read-only after, since the game will overwrite this change when it starts. It is important that you set the texture quality to Ultra in the game settings, otherwise some resource pools will not be applied and you may experience many crashes, stuttering, and so on.

If your game starts crashing a lot after all these changes, then you should lower the values. You can use the gameconfig.xml_gameorg file inside my archive to check the default values as well as on Nexus, in different comment sections for similar game config mods.

Gameconfig.7z

Edited Thursday at 07:52 PM by werwolf969

[bobbymilwaukee 0]

1 hour ago, werwolf969 said:

You need to edit the gameconfig.xml file and replace it with the LML. You can find some of these files on Nexus. I can provide you with mine, which has been edited for my specific specs. Also, you need to edit the systemsettings.ymt file and replace it with an LML, it's in this archive too. You can try it out. Finally, you must edit the system.xml file in "Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings". Find and change the line for <maxTexUpgradesPerFrame value="25">, make the system.xml read-only after, since the game will overwrite this change when it starts. It is important that you set the texture quality to Ultra in the game settings, otherwise some resource pools will not be applied and you may experience many crashes, stuttering, and so on.

If your game starts crashing a lot after all these changes, then you should lower the values. You can use the gameconfig.xml_gameorg file inside my archive to check the default values as well as on Nexus, in different comment sections for similar game config mods.

Gameconfig.7z 18.38 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks, I'm reinstalling RDR2 from scratch now to test exactly which mods give me problems.

What should I edit the UpgradesPerFrame value to?

 

What specs are you running / are you using texture mods + WhyEm? I really have everything I want except for the WickedHorseman suite and garbageman's Upscaled textures, but looking like those aren't an option due to just how many textures they remake. Since they aren't in the stream folder, are you saying I can compress them to make them work? Appreciate your time, aside from dropping files into the root or lml folder, I'm not very seasoned in this.

 

 

[werwolf969 17]

3 minutes ago, bobbymilwaukee said:

What should I edit the UpgradesPerFrame value to?

With systemsettings.yml editing, we can increase that to 25, as I mentioned in a previous post, but it looks like there is a hardcoded limit in the game engine, so increasing it further doesn't provide any benefits.

4 minutes ago, bobbymilwaukee said:

What specs are you running / are you using texture mods + WhyEm?

5950x/ 32Gb/ NVMe/ 4080. Game graphics settings combined from different optimized guides in YT, maxed out where needed. Mods with textures that I can run without any problems with spawning. Some of them have been repacked or changed from using the streaming method to the replacement method for their assets.:

Blackwater Terrain Textures Overhaul
CharactersOverhaul
Terrain Textures Overhaul
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Animals AIO
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Bottles
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Documents
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Fires
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled General Store Props
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Gravestones
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Jails
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Journal
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Objects
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Signs & Posters
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Vegetation
Complete Horse Overhaul
lodscale 1.75-2.0
WhyEm's DLC/ RDO merge

 

I cannot use any weapon packs like 1899 Firearms, Firearm Cosmetics — Carvings and Grips, or Munitions without problems with spawning. Even after repacking and downscaling the textures (and fixing any incorrect sizes, such as 64x63 or 1025x513), and running only one of these mods, the game still has spawning issues. This is a big disappointment.

Increasing the streaming pool size further does not help and can lead to game instability.

 

15 minutes ago, bobbymilwaukee said:

Since they aren't in the stream folder, are you saying I can compress them to make them work?

Short answer - No. As mentioned above, the problem lies not only in the texture format but also in how the game handles streaming textures. Since LML doesn't allow for adding new textures without streaming them, we are unable to create new graphical assets without this feature.

It's difficult to determine the exact cause of our problems because I am unaware of how the game engine handles streamed assets. However, we have raised the limits for the scripting pools enough to run any number of .asi mods. This is another issue, as there are currently not much properly updated or working script mods available for RDR2.

The size of the resource pools for graphics assets such as textures and models is not enough even after increasing them. You can increase the limits for peds, but you will still have issues with trains and pedestrians in trams, unfortunately.

 

17 minutes ago, bobbymilwaukee said:

dropping files into the root or lml folder

Just a heads up: my gameconfig folder needed to be placed inside the LML folder. So, you should now have a file called install.xml located in the LML\Gameconfig folder, along with other related files.

[bobbymilwaukee 0]

16 minutes ago, werwolf969 said:

With systemsettings.yml editing, we can increase that to 25, as I mentioned in a previous post, but it looks like there is a hardcoded limit in the game engine, so increasing it further doesn't provide any benefits.

5950x/ 32Gb/ NVMe/ 4080. Game graphics settings combined from different optimized guides in YT, maxed out where needed. Mods with textures that I can run without any problems with spawning. Some of them have been repacked or changed from using the streaming method to the replacement method for their assets.:

Blackwater Terrain Textures Overhaul
CharactersOverhaul
Terrain Textures Overhaul
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Animals AIO
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Bottles
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Documents
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Fires
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled General Store Props
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Gravestones
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Jails
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Journal
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Objects
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Signs & Posters
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Vegetation
Complete Horse Overhaul
lodscale 1.75-2.0
WhyEm's DLC/ RDO merge

 

I cannot use any weapon packs like 1899 Firearms, Firearm Cosmetics — Carvings and Grips, or Munitions without problems with spawning. Even after repacking and downscaling the textures (and fixing any incorrect sizes, such as 64x63 or 1025x513), and running only one of these mods, the game still has spawning issues. This is a big disappointment.

Increasing the streaming pool size further does not help and can lead to game instability.

 

Short answer - No. As mentioned above, the problem lies not only in the texture format but also in how the game handles streaming textures. Since LML doesn't allow for adding new textures without streaming them, we are unable to create new graphical assets without this feature.

It's difficult to determine the exact cause of our problems because I am unaware of how the game engine handles streamed assets. However, we have raised the limits for the scripting pools enough to run any number of .asi mods. This is another issue, as there are currently not much properly updated or working script mods available for RDR2.

The size of the resource pools for graphics assets such as textures and models is not enough even after increasing them. You can increase the limits for peds, but you will still have issues with trains and pedestrians in trams, unfortunately.

 

Just a heads up: my gameconfig folder needed to be placed inside the LML folder. So, you should now have a file called install.xml located in the LML\Gameconfig folder, along with other related files.

Damn, you’ve managed a lot of texture mods. Gonna give this a try when I get home

[werwolf969 17]

12 minutes ago, bobbymilwaukee said:

Damn, you’ve managed a lot of texture mods. Gonna give this a try when I get home

There are many factors that can affect this problem. Even the resolution you play the game in can make a difference. If you play at 1080p, you'll have a lower chance of experiencing the ped/train issue.

I play at 1440p. I think that if I added ten more texture mods that only replace existing textures and don't add any new textures or models, the game would work just fine. For example, I could use the mods from Upscaled Items Hub. These mods are safe to use in large quantities, although they might need some minor adjustments to the install.xml file.

Unfortunately, we still don't have a common standard for mods that are not recommended for use and need to be redesigned to be safe for use in a single pack. Also, we don't have any script-based addons that can extend the game engine's resources pool to allow full hardware usage based on PC specifications, not just the game engine's internal limits.

Edited Thursday at 10:37 PM by werwolf969

[RLTYProds 0]

Do you guys think that maybe cutting a lot of fat from WhyEm's DLC will help? There's some buggy items there (like the holsters that don't holster guns), and some items I can do without (like many of the saddles).

I'd say this is ideal, because surely WhyEm would allow this since it does not copy their work and we're only altering the files that get loaded, and if we know how to do it for ourselves we won't need to distribute/upload anything without their permission. The only problem is I do not know how to cut out the parts I do not want from WhyEm's DLC...

=======================================

UPDATE: This method definitely works. I only use a few choice items from WhyEm, so I started deleting .ytd files that *don't* sound like they could be the 5 clothes and 2 masks that I use. Testing it with Saint Denis trolleys, as it seems that they're the most easily affected by the spawning issue, so if there's no passengers, then you gotta step back on your mods/textures. After deleting over 700+ files, the passengers are instantly back after I load in and don't disappear after moving around.

With that said, there's *got* to be a better method than this. If we could remove the guesswork by figuring out which items are connected to which textures, it would be a godsend.

Edited 11 hours ago by RLTYProds

[werwolf969 17]

5 hours ago, RLTYProds said:

If we could remove the guesswork by figuring out which items are connected to which textures

You can check which item is uses which ytd file by opening "Item_Strings\strings.gxt2" with any text editor and find there hex hash value from "Item_Database\shop_items.ymt" and there from "Item_Database\assets_albedo.ymt". The same method applies to material and normal map textures.

Edited 11 hours ago by werwolf969

[deadwoodd 0]

On 10/31/2024 at 6:05 PM, werwolf969 said:

With systemsettings.yml editing, we can increase that to 25, as I mentioned in a previous post, but it looks like there is a hardcoded limit in the game engine, so increasing it further doesn't provide any benefits.

5950x/ 32Gb/ NVMe/ 4080. Game graphics settings combined from different optimized guides in YT, maxed out where needed. Mods with textures that I can run without any problems with spawning. Some of them have been repacked or changed from using the streaming method to the replacement method for their assets.:

Blackwater Terrain Textures Overhaul
CharactersOverhaul
Terrain Textures Overhaul
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Animals AIO
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Bottles
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Documents
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Fires
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled General Store Props
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Gravestones
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Jails
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Journal
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Objects
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Signs & Posters
Upscaled Textures/Upscaled Vegetation
Complete Horse Overhaul
lodscale 1.75-2.0
WhyEm's DLC/ RDO merge

 

I cannot use any weapon packs like 1899 Firearms, Firearm Cosmetics — Carvings and Grips, or Munitions without problems with spawning. Even after repacking and downscaling the textures (and fixing any incorrect sizes, such as 64x63 or 1025x513), and running only one of these mods, the game still has spawning issues. This is a big disappointment.

Increasing the streaming pool size further does not help and can lead to game instability.

 

Short answer - No. As mentioned above, the problem lies not only in the texture format but also in how the game handles streaming textures. Since LML doesn't allow for adding new textures without streaming them, we are unable to create new graphical assets without this feature.

It's difficult to determine the exact cause of our problems because I am unaware of how the game engine handles streamed assets. However, we have raised the limits for the scripting pools enough to run any number of .asi mods. This is another issue, as there are currently not much properly updated or working script mods available for RDR2.

The size of the resource pools for graphics assets such as textures and models is not enough even after increasing them. You can increase the limits for peds, but you will still have issues with trains and pedestrians in trams, unfortunately.

 

Just a heads up: my gameconfig folder needed to be placed inside the LML folder. So, you should now have a file called install.xml located in the LML\Gameconfig folder, along with other related files.

 

How exactly are you creating the install.xml's? Are you actually going through each individual file and putting them each into the install.xml? There's no way, right? Because I can't imagine how long that would take to do each individual file. Are you using a script or something?

Edited 6 hours ago by deadwoodd

[werwolf969 17]

1 hour ago, deadwoodd said:

Are you using a script or something?

I created my own script that matches the game path to the file and mounting points in LML and removes duplicates in process, because some mounting points in LML aggregates few game archives. I copy the full path into a text file, provide the folder with mod files and the path to this file to the script, and then it automatically generates an install.xml with the correct game path nodes. Here's script code if you want to tinker with it by yourself:
https://pastebin.com/mL7qz3yx

You need to specify the source folder where the files that must be included in install.xml are placed as well as the source_paths.txt file with the full file path copied from OpenIV or CodeX. The output file will be named EasyInstall.xml, so you can check it before replacing the existing install.xml. Also, the node author is your nickname, so you can replace it.

Edited 5 hours ago by werwolf969

[deadwoodd 0]

1 hour ago, werwolf969 said:

I created my own script that matches the game path to the file and mounting points in LML and removes duplicates in process, because some mounting points in LML aggregates few game archives. I copy the full path into a text file, provide the folder with mod files and the path to this file to the script, and then it automatically generates an install.xml with the correct game path nodes. Here's script code if you want to tinker with it by yourself:
https://pastebin.com/mL7qz3yx

You need to specify the source folder where the files that must be included in install.xml are placed as well as the source_paths.txt file with the full file path copied from OpenIV or CodeX. The output file will be named EasyInstall.xml, so you can check it before replacing the existing install.xml. Also, the node author is your nickname, so you can replace it.

 

This is incredibly helpful. Thank you very much!