DAT Parameters for Player Vehicles

Player Vehicles, or simply vehicles, is the name given for any vehicle that can be bought and used by the players.

The parameters and values are separated by = .
Unable to load the jQuery Sortable Tables feature.

---

'obj' Parameter

This parameter defines the object type. For a buy-able player vehicle obligatory it's vehicle.

'name' Parameter

This parameter is the name of the object. This name should not correspond with the name of an object file *.pak in the in-use pakset folder.

'copyright' Parameter

Used to show who made the object, generally the image. Use whatever you want to identify yourself, name or nickname.

'waytype' Parameter

This parameter defines the way the vehicle will travel. Its values are predetermined on Simutrans code and they might be:
Unable to load the jQuery Sortable Tables feature.

'freight' Parameter

The value of this parameter must be a valid object name of a type of goods. Allowable names are usually all good.*.pak files used in the pak directory. The values None, Passagiere and Post can be used in all paksets to transport nothing, passengers and post respectively.

The vehicle will be able to carry all goods with same category the good you have chosen. For example, the good you choose is in boxed goods category, so your vehicle will load all goods in boxed goods category.

For a list of goods that may be used in a specific pakset, consult the pakset documentation or the foruns.

'payload' Parameter

Maximum cargo the vehicle can carry. This value have some connection with the metric parameter from good parameter and with the freight parameter. For example, the value is 80 and freight is Oel; this will make the vehicle load 80m³ of petroleum.

'speed' Parameter

Determines the vehicle's maximum speed in Km/h. Remember that the vehicle will always respect the track maximum speed. This parameter must not be used for wagons.

'cost' Parameter

Determines the depot price. The value include cents so if value 4000000 is used price will be 40.000,00¢.

'runningcost' Parameter

Operational cost including cents for every Km. The value include cents so if value 80 is used in game cost will be 0,80¢/Km.

'power' Parameter

Vehicle power in kW. Value must be an integer number and will be exact, like 230 will give 230kW power. Must not be used on wagons.

'gear' Parameter

This parameter serves to adjust the actual speed of the vehicle, while still allowing its power to reflect actual prototype values. When deciding upon the speed a vehicle may travel at, the power of the vehicle is multiplied by the gear value.

Note, this parameter has very little to do with real life gear, but is simply an internal modifier.

Examples:
gear=80 and power=170, in-game power: 136KW.
gear=140 and power=170, in-game power: 238KW.
gear=100 and power=170, in-game power don't change: 170KW.

'intro_month' Parameter

Vehicle production starting month. It's the month the vehicle will be able to be bought on depots. This parameter must be the number corresponding to the month, 1 is January and 12 December.

This parameter only works with intro_year.

'intro_year' Parameter

Vehicle production starting year. It's the year the vehicle will be able to be bought on depots. This parameter must be a natural number, integer and positive, corresponding to the year. You can use intro_month together with this parameter.

This parameter is obligatory, without it the vehicle will never start its production and won't show in-game.

'retire_month' Parameter

Vehicle production retire month. It's the month the vehicle will become obsolete on depots. This parameter must be the number corresponding to the month, 1 is January and 12 December.

This parameter only works with retire_year.

'retire_year' Parameter

Vehicle production retire year. It's the year the vehicle will become obsolete on depots. This parameter must be a natural number, integer and positive, corresponding to the year. You can use retire_month together with this parameter.

This parameter is optional, without it the vehicle will never become obsolete and will be available forever.

'engine_type' Parameter

Sets the vehicle's propulsion type. If the vehicle needs another to move, like a train wagon, it must not be used. Values are pre-determined and can only be:

Additional: Hydrogen, battery and some electric engines are Fuel Cells, but on Simutrans they have specific categories. Water propelled engines are fuel cells too. More info on Wikipedia.

'weight' Parameter

Vehicle's weight in tonnes, this will change the vehicle's acceleration depending of its power value. The weight will become bigger as the vehicle load goods. In Simutrans Experimental this parameter also limits usage of bridges and roads. Non integer values can be used with a dot. Ex.: 1.4.

'length' Parameter

Determines the vehicle length, the default is 8. Its purpose is enlarge or reduce the length value will be x/16 from tile size.

 Plugin Image

No image specified. One of the following parameters must be set: fileId, randomGalleryId, fgalId, attId or src.

'sound' Parameter

This parameter specifies what sound will the vehicle make when departing from station.

There are two ways to specify the desired sound - by numerical ID (legacy support) and by file name (preferred).

Wav-files (*.wav) must be placed in folder sound of the pakset with this vehicle. In this folder is also a file sound.tab. Entries in this file map wav file names to numerical IDs.

If the vehicle uses no sound effect, the parameter can be completely omitted or given value -1.

For lists of wav files available in different paksets, see the pakset documentation.

'smoke' Parameter

This parameter defines what kind of emissions will emanate from the vehicle when running. Highly used on vehicles with steam and petrol derived engines.

The values of this parameter must match the the object name of the emission, as specified by what is used in the file name between smoke. and .pak .

For a list of available smoke files, see the documentation for each pakset documentation. For more details check smoke parameters.

'loading_time' Parameter

Time the convoy spends loading freight or passengers. It is usually equivalent to real-life milliseconds (ms).

Constraint Parameters

Constraints are used to define which vehicles can be combined with this current vehicle to form a convoy.

If you omit the parameter the vehicle isn't restricted at all, which means it can not only run alone (as a one-vehicle convoy), but it can also be coupled to any other vehicle (of course also depending on the constraints of this other vehicle).

ConstrainPrevx will set the vehicles to be included before it, the vehicle can only be included if any of the vehicles on ConstrainPrev are included before it. If you set one ConstrainPrev as None the vehicle can be included if there's no vehicle before it. ConstrainNextx works the same, but with vehicles after it, if there's no ConstrainNext as None, you must buy any vehicle set on other ConstrainNext to finish the convoy.
Unable to load the jQuery Sortable Tables feature.
since Version 121.0
constrait[prev][0]=any require a vehile in front (and same for [next] to require a trailing vehicle)

PNG Image for Vehicles

Not only the PNG image must be created but parameters must be included in the DAT file so the game can understand it. More general info about the image creation can be viewed in Creating the PNG image.
Unable to load the jQuery Sortable Tables feature.

Loaded Vehicle Image

You can change the graphics if the vehicle is loaded with any good, you can even included lot of products. For doing so, you need to include the following parameters to define the good with new images:
Unable to load the jQuery Sortable Tables feature.

Then you include the parameter for the images itself just like EmptyImage parameters, the number between brackets must match the same on freightimagetype[X]. If the loaded image will be the same for all goods don't include the above parameter and remove the number brackets. If only some goods will have different images and all other good type will have the same image just add below parameters without the number brackets.
Unable to load the jQuery Sortable Tables feature.

Examples

Examples are modified versions from the pak64 open-source repository.