I’m a huge fan of RDR2. I originally played it on Windows and got somewhere around halfway through the game before life happened and I stopped playing.
Then I got a MacBook (M5 Pro, 24 GB RAM) and was like HEHE it’s time to try out CrossOver and play my games again.
Since I’ve successfully played The Witcher 3 through CrossOver (only issues being my PlayStation controller, even wired, having compatibility issues for half the buttons), the next stop was RDR2.
I had basically no issues with the game itself. The only thing I had to adjust was the display setup, because for some reason it launched in windowed mode and I really did not want to play RDR2 in a tiny window.
And then the story went to modding, but that’s gonna be later.
HOW TO GET THE GAME RUNNING (NO MODS [YET])
I used CrossOver to run RDR2 on my mac.
If you’ve never used CrossOver before, I wouldn’t bother explaining the entire thing here — there are already some really good guides showing how to install CrossOver, create a bottle, and configure Windows applications inside it (video link)
So install CrossOver and get your bottle running.
The video above recommends not installing your games inside the same folder where your bottle files sit. I believe this is probably the correct method, but I skipped that part anyway and installed everything on the Drive C of the bottle (take a look on that vid if you don't get it what I'm talking about).
You need Steam in the bottle. Open it, install RDR2.
And here I got hit with a really annoying part — Rockstar Games Launcher. It just wasn’t starting. Like, at all.
The thing is, the Launcher gets downloaded together with RDR2, so we can actually force it to run using Run Command.
1. Launching Rockstar Games Launcher manually
In CrossOver:
Run Command → Browse
This opens Finder. In my case, it opened the drive_c folder. From there, find where Launcher.exe sits.
For me, the path was drive_c → Program Files → Rockstar Games → Launcher → Launcher.exe
The route should be more or less the same for you. The difference will mainly be where your drive_c folder is located.
Select Launcher.exe.
Important: click “Save Command as Launcher” so you don’t have to go through Browse and find the .exe every single time.
And now, give it some time to get its brain together. It’s completely okay if the Launcher takes around 5 minutes to load. Mine did some absolutely questionable things before deciding that, yes, apparently it does want to exist.
At this point, you should be able to get Rockstar Games Launcher running and launch RDR2 from it. Get the vanilla game running first. Make sure you can actually launch it and get into the game.
2. The weird AMD driver warning
One more thing you’re probably going to see when launching RDR2 “Your AMD graphics drivers are outdated.” Except… you’re on a Mac. And you’re probably not going to be able to solve this by going and downloading some AMD driver package like you would on Windows.
I got this warning too.
I just clicked OK. The game continued launching normally.
3. Graphics / Display
Once the game is running, I would change the display settings before doing anything else.
For some reason, RDR2 launched in windowed mode for me, and I really didn’t want to play it like that.
Go to: Settings → Graphics → Fullscreen
Do screen type change BEFORE changing the resolution.
I initially changed the resolution first and then switched to fullscreen. That was a mistake. The game started behaving completely crazy.
I’m guessing this has something to do with the fact that we’re taking a Windows game and putting it on a MacBook display with a much denser pixel structure, but I honestly don’t know enough about the technical side to explain what’s happening here.
idk why screenshots just don't work from rdr
I ended up using Balanced, and that was completely enough for me.
I wasn’t trying to squeeze every possible FPS out of the game. RDR2 already looks gorgeous, so I mostly wanted it to look good and run comfortably.
After that, I didn’t have any problems with freezing, crashes, or anything similar.
So at this point the game works.
If you’re here just to get RDR2 running on your Mac, this is where the guide ends for you. If you’re here for the masochistic part — modding RDR2 through CrossOver — stick with me.
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MODDING RDR2
Okay, if you’re still here, you’re probably also a little bit insane.
Before getting into the actual mods, there are a few things you need to install first. This is the boring infrastructure part, but once this is working, adding individual mods becomes much easier. I’m going to explain this as if you’ve never modded RDR2 before, because that’s basically how I approached it.
I also have two videos that I’m going to link throughout this section:
VIDEO 1 — basic RDR2 modding setup / LML Mod Manager / ScriptHook
You don’t need to install every mod shown in the video. I only recommend following it for the basic setup: LML and ScriptHook.
I also recommend installing Online Content Unlocker (OCU), since quite a few other mods depend on it. I’ll mention it again later.
And about the video’s “you NEED Vulkan” part: don’t worry about it. In my CrossOver setup, RDR2 keeps switching back to DX12 anyway, and the mods still work perfectly.
0. Rule of thumb or whatever it could be named
- Install one mod at a time then launch the game. You see error FFFFFFFF — something is not compatible, read the modes descriptions or community posts on Nexus better.
- Try not to install any mods on chapter 1, start experimenting from chapter 2.
1. Install something to unpack ZIP files
You are going to download a frankly unreasonable number of ZIP files.
If your Mac doesn’t already have something you like for this, I use The Unarchiver.
It’s free and does the job.
2. Find your RDR2 root folder
You’re going to need this folder constantly, so find it first. Remember, Drive C: means we open this drive from CrossOver bottle, right sidebar.
In my setup, the path is:
C: → Program Files (x86) → Steam → steamapps → common → Red Dead Redemption 2
This Red Dead Redemption 2 folder is what I’ll call the root folder throughout the guide.
If you’re using a different installation setup, your path can obviously be different.
The important thing is that you’re looking for the folder containing things like:
- RDR2.exe
- PlayRDR2.exe
If you’re looking at that folder, you’re in the right place.
3. ScriptHookRDR2
The first important piece is ScriptHookRDR2.
This is what allows ASI-based modifications to actually hook into the game. Use the first video mentioned above for detailed take-me-by-my-hand-and-guide-me-through-it-all-which-I-found-super-useful.
For the setup the important ones are:
- ScriptHookRDR2.dll
- dinput8.dll
These go directly into the RDR2 root folder. Not inside another folder.
4. Lenny’s Mod Loader
Next is Lenny’s Mod Loader (LML). This is where a lot of the actual mods will live.
Follow the installation instructions from that first video from above.
The important thing to understand is that after installing LML, you’ll have an lml folder inside your RDR2 root folder.
And this is where your LML mods go.
One thing that confused me
Not everything that comes with a mod goes into the same place. If you’re installing an ASI mod, its .asi file will usually go into the RDR2 root folder. If you’re installing an LML mod, the mod’s files/folder go intoRed Dead Redemption 2 → lml
And if a mod comes with things like .ini files or a complete folder structure that the installation instructions specifically tell you to put into LML, those go into LML too.
Always check the individual mod’s instructions, though. Don’t just throw everything into LML because it exists.
5. Launching LML Mod Manager through CrossOver
Once you’ve installed Lenny’s Mod Loader (LML), you can also use LML Mod Manager to manage your mods. Add it to CrossOver as a Windows application, pretty much the same way we did with Rockstar Games Launcher.
Open your RDR2 bottle in CrossOver and go to Run Command → Browse
Then find ModManager.UI.exe
Select ModManager.UI.exe, then make sure to click Save Command as Launcher
This will create a launcher for Mod Manager inside your CrossOver bottle, so you’ll be able to launch it directly from CrossOver whenever you need it and your bottle will look like the screen below.
You don’t technically need Mod Manager to make LML work — it’s mostly there to make managing a growing pile of mods much less frustrating.
6. The CrossOver setting that caused me about five hours of problems
This is probably the most important part of the entire guide.
If you are using CrossOver, you need to make sure dinput8 is being overridden correctly.
Open the CrossOver bottle containing RDR2 and go to:
Bottle → Wine Configuration (right sidebar button) → Libraries
Then add dinput8
And set it to Native, Builtin
This was the thing that finally made my ASI mods actually behave like they were supposed to.
Before this, LML was working and I could see mods being detected, but the actual ASI mods weren’t doing anything.
7. Some tips for troubleshootong or how to check whether the mods are actually loading.
There are a few log files that can tell you what’s happening.
asiloader.log
This tells you whether the ASI loader is actually finding and loading your .asi files.
For example, mine eventually showed:
AutoLooting.asi
GunTricks.asi
Rampage.asi
If the .asi file isn’t appearing here, you’re probably dealing with a file location / loader problem.
ScriptHookRDR2.log
This tells you whether ScriptHook is registering the scripts.
Mine eventually showed:
Registering script 'AutoLooting.asi'
Registering script 'GunTricks.asi'
Registering script 'Rampage.asi'
Rampage logs
If you’re using Rampage, it also has its own logs inside:
RampageFiles → Logs
You don’t necessarily need to understand everything written in these files.
The important thing is to know which layer is failing.
If the .asi isn’t in asiloader.log, don’t waste your time debugging the mod itself yet. If it’s there but the mod still doesn’t work, then you can start looking at the mod, dependencies, compatibility, etc.
9. Online Content Unlocker
The next thing I’d install is Online Content Unlocker (OCU).
This one is important because quite a few mods rely on content from RDR Online being accessible in Story Mode. This is one of the things I recommend installing relatively early rather than waiting until some completely unrelated-looking mod doesn’t work.
For example, some clothing, weapons, horses, animations, and other content can depend on online assets being available.
10. The mods I actually use
My mod setup is not intended to completely overhaul RDR2. I mostly wanted to keep the original game intact and improve the things I personally care about.
So the modes are (mainly in the order of importance; LML, Hook and Rampage not included in the list but installed):
- W.E.R.O (Western Euphoria Ragdoll Overhaul) (better animations for kills)
- R.W.A.O. (Realistic Weapon Audio Overhaul) (realistic and super tasty guns sounds)
- Crime and Law Rebalance and Enhancement (much better chances surviving stuff, adds more realism)
- Graphical issues fixes (I believe it's self-explanatory)
- Cowgirls Revisioned (adds more cool women to the game, WE NEED MORE WOMEN *evil laughs*)
- Gun Metal Rework (I just love fancy stuff… fancy and cold……….)
- Gun Tricks (no need to explain)
- Corpse Spawn Distance (improves render distance so corpses do not fry in the air while you're riding somewhere close)
- Particles (once again, fancymaxxing without breaking the original vibes)
- Equine Improvements (horsies)
- Auto Looting (cause COME ON ATHUR)
So my LML looked like the following:
I also wanted more options and better access to clothing. This is where the three interconnected outfit mods from Video 2 come in.
The mods are:
Follow that one carefully, because these mods depend on each other and aren’t really something I’d recommend installing randomly one by one. It's said you have to hop in their Discord community to get files that work together well. I did that and downloaded Gonpachiros separately.
For sure you can download more modes/other modes/etc., just check their compatibility first. Remember – Error FFFFFFFF means some of them are darn fighting in the files.
BTW Check out this crazy mode, I'd love to play with it one day if not my love for full black aesthetics lol
Fantasy Horses
11. If something doesn’t work
1. Is the file in the right place?
- .asi → usually RDR2 root
- LML mod → lml
- ScriptHookRDR2.dll → root
- dinput8.dll → root
2. Is dinput8set to Native, Builtin in CrossOver?
CrossOver → Wine Configuration → Libraries → dinput8 → Native, Builtin
3. Does asiloader.logsee the .asi?
If no → loader/file problem.
If yes → continue.
4. Does ScriptHookRDR2.logregister it?
If no → ScriptHook/dependency problem.
If yes → continue.
5. Does the mod have its own log?
Check it.
Rampage, for example, has:
RampageFiles → Logs
6. Are you testing it in Chapter 2?
If not, do that first.
7. Did you actually give the game enough time to launch?
If you’ve waited two minutes:
wait longer.
If you’ve waited ten minutes and nothing happens:
okay, now we have a problem.
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So far the modes are running smoothly, but I'm only at the beginning of Chapter 2. I'll edit the post in case of any updares.
Good luck to yall fellas playing Windows games on Macs 👋🏻
Source: r/RDR2 · by /u/Alternative-Border76