the common folder contains only a subdirectory with a shader in it and yes if you don't have that file or if the file is damaged or if the shader for whatever reason(old directx, old gfx card/drivers) is not loading the plugin will crash the game, that is indeed a bug but the thing is you can see that right away. look inside RX_CONTENT\TEMP\log.txt, you'll find something like:
Code:
RXTRACK::LoadTextures ...
RXTRACK::LoadEffects ...
LoadEffect() : error in RX_CONTENT\COMMON\FX\shadowvolume.fx
you'll see the blue screen during track loading (it has nothing to do with the BSOD btw, it could have been any other color) and is there because the rendering is paused, i probably need to add some animation there but that will only slow the loading process.
for big tracks it may take considerably longer to load mostly because the ground collision meshes are also calculated during loading and thats quite alot of processing so you'll have to wait.
usually that is done offline and in theory it is possible to calculate those meshes externally, in BTB in example, but the thing is you'll still have to wait one way or another, and again, for long tracks that blue screen will look frozen even for a couple of minutes depending on how many polys are in driveable surfaces and how fast is your cpu. there is an easy way to see if the game is indeed frozen: run it in windowed mode by adding
at the end of your RichardBurnsRally.ini, in that way you can check RBR's status in Task Manager.
is ok to see the cote d'abroz loading screen because the plugin uses that track slot to load the custom tracks, it could have been any other slot so you can ignore it.