{"id":6989,"date":"2026-05-12T12:04:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takodawahya.com\/?p=6989"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:20:09","slug":"ets2-appendix-4-load-order-how-to-troubleshoot-errors-properly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takodawahya.com\/es\/ets2-appendix-4-load-order-how-to-troubleshoot-errors-properly\/","title":{"rendered":"ETS2 Appendix 4: Load Order & How to Troubleshoot Errors Properly"},"content":{"rendered":"
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APPENDIX 4: <\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Load Order & How to Troubleshoot Errors Properly<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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ETS2 - Colecci\u00f3n de Mods \"La Ruta de los Lobos\"<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Load Order (LO), what is and how to manage it in ETS2<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Games that allow mods to modify the gaming experience, have many things in common, one being the ability to setup a specific load order for the mods at the time the game is loading.<\/p>

Some games has its own Mod Manager to place mods in a specific position in the Load Order (from now on we mention it as LO), ETS2 is one of those, others need a third app in order to achieve same feature, like Skyrim, and some are in the middle of both cases, like No Man’s Sky.<\/p>

Coming back to ETS2, the game has an imbued Mod Manager that allows us to setup Mods visually with ease. We just need to install mods in one of two ways: using Steam Workshop and subscribing to mods we want to use, or downloading them manually from other sources, like TruckyMods, ModLand, Promods, authors’s websites and others and placing them in the Documents\/Euro Truck Simulator 2\/mod folder.<\/p>

That is the easy part: to get mods. But then we need to keep them updated and compatible with the last version of the game, to avoid crashes and errors. We need to constantly and actively watch over our mods list to avoid issues.<\/p>

But then is a third, and very important task for us: to place them in a order that allows the game use them without conflicts with each other and with the game itself. That is because the game engine, when loading, will check if mods are installed, and depending in which position is placed in the Mod Manager Active List, it will affect other mods in the LO.<\/p>

Let see a general screenshot of the Mod Manager in-game:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In the screenshot above you can see the mods were recognized when the game opened. These mods are shown at the left side, but they are unusable if we do not add them to the Active Mods list to the right. Only when we active them, the game will use them when we load any save file.<\/p>

Now, each Career profile has its own LO completely isolated from other Career LOs. In other words: all Careers profiles will see the same mods list to the left, but only will show in the Active Mods list those mods we intentionally added in that specific Career profile.\u00a0<\/p>

This is crucial to understand: we can have different profiles with different mods active at any time, and switch to another profile without losing its specific LO.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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But how exactly works the LO?:<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We know the Mod Manager will load only the mods placed in the Active Mods list. But how it works exactly?.<\/p>

Is really simple: the game engine will start reading mods from bottom to top of the list, that is.<\/p>

So, if we have two mods that change same values in-game, it will win the one that is higher in the LO, in detrimental of the other one.\u00a0<\/p>

But why we would use two mods that change same values?. Well, some mods affect many parts of the game, for example: weather mods affect flora textures, sky textures, rain textures and more. But we have another mod that we prefer for the rain textures. So we can use both, placing the weather mod lower in the LO and the rain mod higher so the weather mod will apply all its modifications to the game, but specifically the rain will be “win” by the rain textures since will loaded after the Weather mod. It is as simple as that.<\/p>

Lets see a graphic example of that:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In the screenshot above, you can see the Real Traffic Density Mod, which has to be higher than any AI Traffic Mod in the LO priority. But, there are in the image two exceptions: Real Country Classic AI Spawns Add-on and Real Sport AI Country Add-on, both which modify the spawn ratio of two mods that way down the LO, not visible in the image: Classic Cars Traffic Pack by TrafficManiac and Sport Cars Traffic Pack by TrafficManiac.<\/p>

So, we have the two Classic and Sport mods adding traffic to the spawn pool at any giving time, them we have higher in the LO the Real Traffic Density mod dictating the general spawn numbers that affect all mods below, and then the two add-ons higher that ensure the original Classic and Sport mods spawn specific cars according to the country the player is on when playing. This is the order these 5 mods has to be in the LO so they all work together nicely.<\/p>

Lets see now the two previous mentioned original mods Classic and Sport placed in the LO much lower than the Density and Real AI by Country:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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As you can see in the image, each mod consist in two different files:<\/p>

The definition file and the base file. The def dictate spawn ratios and the base file has the cars models. It has to be first (lower) the base, and then over (higher) the definition. That is the only correct LO to make this two single mods that composed of two files, works.<\/p>

In summary, the classic and the sport mods consist in two files each, being the base part lower and the def part higher, then we have the Density Traffic placed above all 4 files in the LO, dictating the final spawn ratios for each one, and then even higher, we have the two extra plugins on top of Density dictating in which country spawn what model of classic and sport cars from the original mods down below.<\/p>

That is how it works LO. Is as important as maintain mods updated and not using mods that modify same values in-game at least is intentional and strictly necessary, like the case above.<\/p>

An example of unnecessary use of two mods that replace exactly the same values in ETS2, is Better Flares by Avelium, that we use in our guide, and Realistic Vehicle Lights Mod by Frkn64, on Steam Workshop. if you install both, will win the one activated and placed higher, making the other one useless and pointless to have it even installed at\u00a0 least we are testing and deciding between both. In many cases, having two mods with similar changes active can lead to issues and errors.\u00a0<\/p>

Having said the above, is important to clarify that the guide prefer one mod over another not because the dismissed is a bad mod, but because we think that the chosen one reflects better our vision for the guide. There are other factors also at the moment we chose one mod over another, like updating frequency, compatibility with the last version of the game and active presence of the mod author in the mod’s page. This last point, though, we see with nuance, since Mod Authors has their own life and they are in no ways obligated to provide support for their mods. Is up to us, as users, to chose between or move one when a mods is abandoned.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ok, cool, but how do I detect and troubleshoot properly?:<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Now we will learn how to identify, isolate and try to solve to the best of our abilities the cause of errors in game.<\/p>

Errors can have different consequences, like crashing to desktop (the game close itself and get us back into the operative system desktop). Can also trigger lack of textures, which means pink textures in buildings or vehicles. Or even worst: lack of textures and collision, like suddenly while you are driving your truck, the road disappears entirely.<\/p>

Some errors are minor and some are important to address. Some are fixable and some are not, so is up to us deciding if we keep using the mod that triggers the error.<\/p>

The reasons why mods or the game trigger errors can be, and also use this same list to check that everything is correct:<\/p>