So after reviewing a few threads I found this response by @OfficerChris1. He suggests

 

By what I have seen a lot of people are having about the same issue. This is the loading of GTA 5 and not Rage. I had the same issue and this simple fix allowed GTA 5 to work. I would suggest giving it a try. Please respond if it works for you.

Edited July 1, 20232 yr by EditName

In a similar fashion, disabling the ASI loader by renaming dinput8.dll to _dinput8.dll will also likely 'fix' a lot of users' issues with their game as very little to no mods will be loaded -- including the mods folder.

 

This is a diagnostic step as part of fixing a problem, not a fix. vfs.dll belongs to Lenny's Mod Loader - renaming it this way disables it. The problem likely lies in an issue with a mod LML has been asked to load (residing in the LML folder), an outdated version of LML (it has to be updated between game version breaks) or another issue stopping LML or other mods from working correctly, like heap file adjuster or gameconfig.

If you don't use an LML mods though, then it won't cause any problems.

9 minutes ago, Cyan said:

In a similar fashion, disabling the ASI loader by renaming dinput8.dll to _dinput8.dll will also likely 'fix' a lot of users' issues with their game as very little to no mods will be loaded -- including the mods folder.

 

This is a diagnostic step as part of fixing a problem, not a fix. vfs.dll belongs to Lenny's Mod Loader - renaming it this way disables it. The problem likely lies in an issue with a mod LML has been asked to load (residing in the LML folder), an outdated version of LML (it has to be updated between game version breaks) or another issue stopping LML or other mods from working correctly, like heap file adjuster or gameconfig.

If you don't use an LML mods though, then it won't cause any problems.

Make sense. I didn't think of that part.