So I just started trying to do it. I know how to model them (I use blender). But my question now is how would a DAT file for a vehicle look like??
And once I have the dat file done, how do i convert it to a pak?
.dat files are simple text files - and for examles you can always look at the pak64 sources at sourceforge (http://simutrans.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/simutrans/).
For the conversion to a .pak you need a program called makeobj - which is linked on the download pages of this forum. See more on this thread (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=348.0) in the pak128 section...
Also try the Wikis:
http://en.wiki.simutrans.com/index.php/Creating_addons (http://en.wiki.simutrans.com/index.php/Creating_addons)
http://de.wiki.simutrans-forum.de/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=en_doPak (http://de.wiki.simutrans-forum.de/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=en_doPak) (only partially in English or other languages)
That was my problem. I didn't know that the PNG file needed to be one picture. Ill try it again to see if that was my problem. =)
Actaully, the png-files can be many pictures, at least according to the syntax, as long as they have the correct size. However, for sake of simplicity singe image for all view was (and is) preferred.
Rendering at 64 size is difficult. Usually there will be many stray pixels and / nad \ view will look very differnt, even for symmetrical vehicles. AT least this was true for all raw rendered images I saw.