Making a Vehicle: Overview

For Vettura 1.0.0, Minecraft 1.20.1, Forge 47.4.x, Vextris 0.1.1. The template is the example pack examples/packs/example in the Vettura Creator Kit (a white-box coupe, example:whitebox_coupe): every step below has working files there; its Blender file is examples/blender/whitebox_coupe.blend.

Vettura began as the vehicle mod built into the world of Apocalypse First Light. It is now a mod of its own, so players and creators can make their own vehicles. You only supply data and assets: the vehicle's physics, its frame, models, textures, hit hull and sounds, in a vehicle pack, with no code. Driving, shifting, keys, refuelling, lights, rain, damage, gauges and the HUD are Vettura's, the same code as the built-in Halstead Tamarack T15.

The pack format: the Vehicle Packs page. For an add-on mod in Java instead: the Java API (Advanced) page; both use exactly the same assets.

Steps

Step	What	Result
1	Copy the example pack, change the pack id and the vehicle's name	a pack that loads
2	Decide the size and numbers (wheelbase, track, tyres, engine, gearbox)	physics in vehicles/<name>.json
3	Model it in Blender by the conventions	.blend
4	Export the meshes with the export script	meshes/*.vxmesh.json, geo/*.geo.json
5	Paint the textures, or bake them from the materials	textures/entity/vehicle/*.png
6	Build the hit hull	data/<pack>/vehicle_hulls/<name>.bin
7	Write the frame (seats, steering wheel, doors, hood, filler)	layout in vehicles/<name>.json
8	Sounds, names, icon, key	sounds.json, lang/*.json, textures/item/*.png
9	Run the checker, test in game	screenshots, an in-game check

The vehicle's id (<id> below, e.g. example:whitebox_coupe) is the key to everything: the pack id before the colon, the vehicle's name after it; meshes, textures, hull and lang keys are all found by it.

What you need

1. Blender (4.2 or later; 5.x tested): modelling, and the export and bake scripts (in tools/blender/).
2. Python 3: the checker and the hull builder (no extra libraries); the atlas fixup needs Pillow (pip install pillow).
3. The Vettura Creator Kit (an additional file on Vettura's CurseForge page): the example pack, its Blender file and every tool, ready once unzipped. Its terms are its LICENSE.txt: use it and change it to make content for Vettura; the packs you make are yours; the Kit itself is not to be used elsewhere or redistributed.
4. A game instance with Vettura and Vextris to test in: the pack goes in its vettura/packs/.
5. No Java, Gradle or IDE (only for an add-on mod).