I've adapted Zeno's automated renderer for pak128.Britain style blends and it can be downloaded here:
http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/render_SimutransRender_pak128Britain.zip
Place this in the python scripts directory within blender. Once you've loaded it into blender it should appear in the render tab.
NB this requires blender 2.56 beta (will not work with 2.49).
This looks interesting - just trying it out! One question - is it not possible to set the background colour automatically to the requisite shade of turquoise?
I have just (re-)installed 2.57b, and I can no longer get this to work - it doesn't display in the addons system, even when I select it manually. Does this need updating for 2.57b, or am I missing something?
Zeno updated his script for 2.57:
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=4503.msg69639#new
I assume that means I need to do it too, but I'm currently being too lazy to do so and sticking with 2.56...
Might I ask - in what way(s) did you alter your script to work with Pak128.Britain?
Think I just changed the names of the camera accordingly and also included the rotation of the lighting hemisphere thingy.
I have produced an updated version for 5.7 based on Zeno's updated version: attached.
I have now updated this so that the output files are correctly centred so as to avoid the need for re-aligning with templates. The background is still black, however, so manual re-colouring of the background is still necessary. I am not yet sure how to alter that: any suggestions as to how to go about that would be most welcome.
The updated version is here (https://github.com/downloads/jamespetts/simutrans-pak128.britain/render_SimutransRender_pak128Britain-57.7z).
Edit: It seems that changing the "alpha" option in the "shading" sub-tab of the "render" tab from "straight alpha" to "sky" gives the correct colour background (where the horizon colour is set correctly), but, unfortunately, the anti-aliasing blends that background colour with the edges of the images. Ideally, there should be no anti-aliasing as between the edges of the image and the background colour, but it is not clear how to do that whilst retaining the sky background: using "straight alpha" seems to work only with a black background.
I have further updated this to give the correct direction names, which were given incorrectly in the previously released version (being different, it seems, to the standard Pak128 version from which it was adapted).
Edit: This seems to be quite successful, and is most effective at eliminating a stage in the production of graphics. This could really save some time, as well as eliminate alignment errors when using templates. To give an example of how effective that this system is, have a look at the green livery for the class 37 on my Github branch for the Experimental version of the pakset (here (https://github.com/jamespetts/simutrans-pak128.britain)).