Gumb012

Yep! It's not the only one that had caused issues for me but it did seem to be one of them until I installed the mod that I linked. I only have 2 files in my stream folder now including that one. The other is player_zero_knife_holster_000_c0_000_merge.ytd for a black knife holster.

Hey no problem. I've noticed some inconsistency with using trains to test these mods. For example, after first installing Animals AIO the trains seemed to not be spawning. I felt unsure about this so I went to St Denis and there were people on the trams. I then slept in-game until the next morning and trains were spawning fine again and with passengers. I also came across a situation today in which a train seemed to go past my position without spawning (I'm using Railway Engineer to view their icons on the map and radar) and then when it was further past me its icon indicated that it spawned, so I caught up to it and it was indeed driving along the tracks and with passengers. Later on I'll try to view them from a distance more to see if they have peds without being up close to them as you mention. At this point though, if trains are generally working, wildlife is good and people are on trams etc. then I'm considering it working enough to use the mods. I'll take an occasional oddity with a train over not using the mods given the visual improvement they provide, though I'll still be avoiding any that consistently reduce/break spawns. You're right about this all being confusing and it's difficult to find consistent findings - especially with different people having different experiences based on their systems/settings etc. I do think dominatorgt is onto something though. He seems to have solved these issues for his own game, and the conversations he's started on nexus have been the best public resources I've come across so far for shedding some light on this from a technical standpoint. His posts can be difficult to understand as they're quite technical and he's using a language translator, but it feels like it's being pieced together and I think this will continue to develop. It seems to be a bit of a work in progress, but at least it's being actively looked at by multiple people with more coding knowledge. One interesting point is that he apparently uses one custom install file for all/a lot of his mods. His terrain instructions that I mentioned before also included using one install file for multiple mods so I'll be interested to learn more about that and how to put it together correctly. Anyway, the situation certainly feels more hopeful now than it did previously and I'm looking forward to learning more!

I've been using Upscaled Animals AIO since the file replacement update and it works for me. I'm using all/most of his upscales that use file replacement now, as well as a combination of Upscaled Terrain and Terrain Textures Overhaul using the instructions and install file that dominatorgt provided in one of his comments in the Terrain Textures Overhaul post section. I skipped the registers, jail and prop windows part of his instructions and deleted that section from the install file for now though. Part of his instructions include increasing certain pools in your gameconfig.xml. These pools have been increased in the mod linked below which has been linked previously in this thread. They're not increased to the exact numbers that dominatorgt suggested, but they're close and seem to work well enough for now. The author said he'll potentially update it with dominatorgt's full recommendations after some testing. FYI I tried this mod when it was first linked here, and it did allow me to at least use one file in my stream folder that previously affected spawns. It was the rpg_textures.ytd from Basic Needs Final Cut in case anyone is interested. It didn't fix spawning for all mods by itself but it seems to partially contribute to the solution at least. https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/3948

Thanks for confirming. I was on a wild goose (flamingo) chase after all!

The flamingos outside St Denis have been mentioned as an easy way to test rare animal spawns, as this can apparently still be an issue even when everything else seems to be fixed. I haven't found any despite fixing everything else, but I'm also not seeing any reliable info on flamingos in rdr2 through Google...are there actually flamingos in the game or is it just the pink coloured spoonbills that look a bit like flamingos? I thought I remembered seeing flamingos earlier in my playthrough but I could be mistaken. Also, are there any other rare animals that are recommended as a good way to test this aspect of spawning?

Just replying here to be another person to confirm that this is happening in their game. It's late so I haven't tested extensively, but the trams in Saint Denis don't have any passengers. I booked a train and it only had one passenger per cart with no guards, and I don't remember seeing flamingos at all recently (I definitely did earlier in my playthrough, when I had no/far less mods installed). I'll probably test more later but it seems like I suffer from this. I play at 4k resolution, with mostly high/ultra settings and have a relatively large number of 4k texture mods and other mods mentioned like PED, WERO etc. I'll probably just bite the bullet and keep playing with the mods, but man what a bummer now that it's been realised...PRAYING for a fix. I don't have any technical knowhow or experience to offer whatsoever unfortunately. P.S. I came across this thread after seeing a comment on a nexus mod page referencing the issue. Someone replied that it's a "skill issue" and the author of this thread replied to that comment with more detail so I followed the link. I'd actually seen this thread pop up before on google when searching for mods but never clicked on it. I am just as amazed as everyone else that this isn't more widely addressed...