When I launch RAGE, it starts normally but gets stuck on the loading screen. On-screen it says “Loading Population to World” , and the console shows “LML not Initialized”, but I can’t get it to boot past that.

I’ve tried everything: disabled Windows Defender, emptied the mods folder and even renamed it to mods, did the same with dinput8.dll (renamed to dinput8.dll), reinstalled multiple times, and even with a fresh clean install (only using what the LSPDFR installer adds) the game still won’t start. Any ideas?

RagePluginHook_22012026_213411.log

Hello,

Does your game launch normally without RPH? and if it does, are you able to then start RPH?

1 hour ago, Gan Ceann said:

Hello,

Does your game launch normally without RPH? and if it does, are you able to then start RPH?

Hi,

No, the game doesn’t launch normally without RPH either. It still gets stuck/frozen on the same loading screen.

If I try to start RPH while GTA V is already running, RPH just stays on “Launching Game” and never attaches/finishes.

It is likely one of your mods then, do you have a mods folder and/or did you edit the original RPF files at all?

I don’t even have any mods inside the mods folder, and I haven’t edited any original RPF files. This is a clean setup with only what the LSPDFR installer adds, nothing else.

I’m attaching screenshots and a tree of my GTA V directory so you can see exactly what’s in there.

Thanks.

directory.txt

Edited January 23Jan 23 by Dixho

Which version of GTA V do you have? Steam, EPIC, or Retail?

Hi,

I own both the Epic Games version and the Rockstar Games Launcher version, but the one currently installed is the Rockstar Games Launcher version.

Exact game version: 1.126.1400.17637.

Since you aren't that far along, I recommend cleaning the Main Directory by making it look like the screenshot here. Then verify game files and run normal GTA V and see if it crashes on startup.

I’ve done all of that. I cleaned the main directory so it only has the files shown in the screenshot, verified the game files, and tried launching vanilla GTA V. Same result, it still gets stuck on an infinite loading screen.

Please do it again anyways. It makes it easier for me to help if you go off what I am telling you now instead of what you had already done.

Sure, that’s what I mean, I already did that (after reading your message) and it’s still the same.

Sorry, maybe it was a bad translation.

Screenshot the Main Directory as it currently is.

Try adding the Main Directory folder, GTA V exe, and Rockstar Launcher exe to the exceptions list for your anti-virus. Then restart your PC and see if the issue persists.

I already had my GTA V folder excluded in Windows Defender. I also tried launching the game with Defender completely disabled, and it still happens.

What GPU do you have out of curiosity?

Its a AMD RX 6750 XT

Okay so you shouldn't be having issues with it.

Based on your other replies, at this point I recommend just getting your game back into a normal working state without mods first before we add anything to it. There could be residual files left over from mods.

Well… I finally fixed it.

And of course, after everything I went through, the problem was the savegame.

Back in January, after trying basically everything I could think of and still not being able to fix it, I decided to go for the nuclear option and reinstall… the entire operating system.

I switched from Windows to Linux thinking maybe that would somehow solve it.

Spoiler: it didn’t.

I then spent months trying pretty much every possible way to run GTA V on Linux — WINE, Proton, UMU, etc. Vanilla GTA V would still freeze on the loading screen, and I never even managed to get RAGE Plugin Hook working properly.

After months of fighting with it, this week I finally went back to Windows. I thought that with a completely clean Windows install, a fresh GTA V installation, and a fresh LSPDFR installation, surely it would finally work.

And… nope.

Still infinite loading.

After a lot more troubleshooting, searching around, and asking AI for ideas, I eventually thought: “What if the save files are corrupted?”

So I deleted the original save files and replaced them with another save just after the Franklin and Lamar mission.

And that was it.

The game finally loaded.

Months of troubleshooting, changing operating systems, reinstalling GTA multiple times, trying Linux compatibility layers…

…all because I needed to delete a save file.

Pain.

Anyway, thanks a lot to everyone who tried to help me troubleshoot this <3