Phaxol

Did you update your update.rpf in your mods folder to the newest version? This needs to be done every update; OpenIV should give you the option to replace the one you have with the newest version. Then you just have to reinstall any modded files you had to the new RPF.

For every new GTA V update you need to update ScriptHookV, RagePluginHook, and your update.rpf in your mods folder to the newest versions to avoid crashing. OpenIV should give you the option to replace it with a newer version, but you have to reinstall any files you have modded in there to the new RPF.

Try starting the game by the normal launcher, then before the game window pops up but after the launcher goes away launch RPH. It should say "waiting for game window..." and then hook into it automatically when the game window pops up . Then from there it should skip the part where you choose story mode/online and load directly into story mode. This is how I do it with and have had no issues

I find this tool to be very useful when editing XML files: https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_validator.asp It will tell you if you have any syntax errors, just copy and paste your full backup XML text into that and see if any errors are found.

Nope, you want a fully transparent background except for what you want to see in game (for example just license plates). The texture should look something like this in most photo editing programs:

For any place on the texture you want to be able to change the color, you have to make it transparent (no color at all) for it to be changeable in game. Then you use a trainer as Pavy said to actually change the color when you are in game.