GTA5 911 Help and Checklist - What to do when Mods make you Mad
-
Other topics that might be of interest:
Asking for Forum Help
Why you shouldn't use OIVs
Basic Ped YMT Editing - Components, Clothes, Textures
New Users - Menyoo or Simple Trainer?
How to Install Vehicle Addon in 2022 - From A to Z
-
GTA5 Error Codes
When GTA5 crashes, and it will, you may or may not get an error message, possibly with an error code. These codes aren't often useful and often the advice from Rockstar is to reboot the game.
Error codes, in different languages, can be found at:
Grand Theft Auto V\update\x64\data\errorcodesYou can also consult the websites below:
Again, error messages aren't always accurate but links above could help.
-
Cars disappearing/despawning
The issue of disappearing cars is a frustrating one and isn't well documented. As far back as 2013, Rockstar warned about parking cars in garages because they could disappear. This happened in the Playstation version, before the launch of the PC in 2015, and Rockstar publicly acknowledged it as a bug. The problem still exists today in both GTAO, where your car can also be stolen, and in SP.
In today's GTA 5 PC version the issue is likely due to streaming memory: the cars not being used are deleted to free up memory and avoid crashes. The issues are often related to new MP DLCs Vehicles but can happen with addon mods as well.
Thankfully there are a few ways to solve this issue and keep spawned vehicles in place - technically called persistence.
You can try one or more of the following.
-
Use the Simple Trainer or Enhanced Native Trainers to spawn vehicles. They are updated regularly and will keep DLC vehicles from disappearing (despawning). Menyoo is an excellent trainer but unfortunately it won't keep your cars from despawning.
-
Use a "persistence" mod. Examples are the Add-On Vehicle Spawner and Persistence II mod. Search the Mods section of the site for "persistence". Keep in mind that mods need to be updated regularly to continue to work after Rockstar patches.
-
Spawn by script. This requires very basic programming skills and guarantees your cars will not disappear even if you spawn them at one extreme of the map and teleport yourself to the other extreme, your car will still be there. Your own scripts can easily be updated but it is rarely required.
Another very similar issue is related to LODs (Level of Detail).
- Edit the values under the lodDistances tag in a specific vehicle's vehicles.meta. This is hit or miss and will fix one car at a time unless you change all the values at once. It can also cause FPS issues if values are too high. You can find the original post here.
This is the distances LOD at which models will switch. There are up to 6 levels of LODs (HD, LOD0, LOD1, LOD2, LOD3, LOD4). Generally speaking LOD0 will be the vehicle's mesh with the most polygons and highest detail.
Example:
<lodDistances content="float_array"> 500.000000 500.000000 500.000000 500.000000 500.000000 500.000000 </lodDistances>The example above increases the distance so it requires a powerful computer, particularly if a vehicle has a high number of polygons. To maintain FPS and stability, start with lower values.
Lod distances for peds
Peds can also be distorted in the distance, see image below. This can be fixed as well by increasing the ped LOD distance in visualsettings.dat at
\mods\update\update.rpf\common\data\visualsettings.dat(solution courtesy @a63nt-5m1th).Example:
ped.lod.distance.high 200.00 ped.lod.distance.medium 400.00 ped.lod.distance.low 700.00 pedincar.lod.distance.high 60.00 pedincar.lod.distance.high.x64 120.00
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ BACK TO TOP OF THREAD ]
-
-
@JohnFromGWN Regarding the OpenIV and update.rpf danger at; https://forums.gta5-mods.com/topic/35789/gta5-911-help-and-checklist-what-to-do-when-mods-make-you-mad/25
If you want OpenIV to shut the hell up, you can take the version.txt from update\update.rpf\common\data and drop it in the same location of your modded update.rpf . Pretty annoying message though
but luckily easy to silence the imbecile 
-
@Aurora11
Thanks that's an excellent tip! I wonder if scripthookv uses a file for the GTA5.EXE version? Because we don't know if a new version of SH5 is always warranted after each update, we do know native functions are updated but the rest is really a black box. In passing, I just delete version.txt from the game version. That works too.BACK TO TOP OF THREAD
-
@JohnFromGWN I'm honestly have no idea about that
I have very very limited knowledge about natives and scripts One time I was tried editing a mod's .dll file with dnSpy to remove a sentece since it was keep popping up when I want to take screenshot, and the game instantly crashed 
-
Topic Index
Getting Help
Asking for Help
Importance of Log Files
Posting Image When Requesting Help
How to search forumsNew to Modding Basics
Introduction - Absolute Basics
New to Modding Checklist
New Users - Important Mods Checklist
Mods Folder OpenIV & Windows
How to Install GTA5 Mods
Proper Installation
Addon Peds - a much better way
Play Online without Ban
Quick Way to Play Without any Mods
Dangerous Mods
OIVs suck and why you should never use them
How to Install Vehicle Addon in 2022 - From A to Z
Modding 101 - Knowledge HelpsFile Versions and Locations for Modding
Path Locations for Open IV
How to find GTA5.exe for Steam or Epic or Any Version
File VersionsTroubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Game Not Working - An Overview
Top Ten Modding Mistakes
Recover from a broken game
Game Failures - Common Causes
GTA5 Error Codes
Replace dinput8 from System32 MythCommon Modding Issues
Car Mod Doesn't Spawn
Car Mods disappear/despawn
Duplicate File and Folder Names
Falling through Ground
How to find location x,y,z coordinates of Map or MLOUpdate Woes
What you need to do for the next GTA update
Surviving GTA5 Updates
Recovering from a game updateAdvanced Topics
Gameconfig.xml and Dlclist.xml
More on gameconfig.xml
More about key modding files
Basic Ped YMT Editing - Components, Clothes, Textures
How to safely install with an OIV
Fix Flooding on Maps
How to install Custom AnimationsMore Tips
BACK TO TOP OF THREAD
-
Essential and Highly Recommended Mods
New users with general game issues, please check to see if the following files are in your game folder. Most of these are essential or highly recommended. This view is from the game installation folder, often called the root folder for modding purposes, and it is where you will find GTA5.EXE.
Click on picture to see larger version.
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ BACK TO TOP OF THREAD ]
-
Step 1. Start here. Important Mods Checklist
Step 2. Read this and follow all the instructions. Troubleshooting Guide
Step 3 (Optional). Read this and watch videos. GTA5 911 Help and Checklist
Step 4. If you still have problems. Asking for Help on Forums
Generally speaking, the most common crash causes are:
- Missing the essential files required for stable modding. They are not installed or not updated for the user's version of GTA5.
- Improperly installed mods. May also be outdated or conflicting - addons, replaces, and scripts (asi, dll).
- Improper edits or customizations on any GTA5 files (syntax or other errors), particularly dlclist.xml.
- Unwanted replacement of files by certain OIV installers.
- PC Hardware or software. May play vanilla game but not powerful enough or not configured properly for a modded game.
Step 5. Optional. Learn more about modding. Modding 101 - Knowledge Helps
The site will not allow posts older than 1 year to be edited, which means the top post in this thread. I've created 3 new sites which I can keep maintained and searchable for those who want to learn more about troubleshooting mods. These aren't meant to replace specific questions in these forums, but just to serve as guides which can be updated when necessary.
THE GTA 5 911 MOD SOLUTION
GTA 5 2023 Help Desk
GTA How to Install Mods
-
Another Trouble Shooting Infographic, hopefully simplified.
