Right on, BW.
Thanks for the tip, joe. I still have a copy of 2.63 floating around (since I overwrote 2.49 like a derp when I installed 2.68a), so I'm definitely trying that.
fightermedic, thanks for the pointer. Read thread. Had a similar idea while going to bed last night, probably would not have worked--involved using the facetexture (name?) option instead of a legit image texture. Thanks for the proper way to do it. I've been fiddling with the export options and my data shows that by all means Copy should not be checked. In my testing it was one of the options that was certain to leave the model with no textures at all, but this was before proper material application. Might change. And no advice is stupid. I've hit so many errors before, I've come to expect hiccups... just this time seems to have gone maximum derp.
UPDATE!!! UVs successful. And yes, Copy must be selected, otherwise the materials have no UV data input. Now to figure out why the turrets are wonking.
DOUBLE UPDATE!!! Found turret firepoint issues. All helperXX and firepointXX objects MUST HAVE NO ROTATION. Also, it is prudent to set your firepoints helper to the object center of the multipart barrels as PCS2 applies the firepoints relative to the arm, not the turret base.
Also I added a blip on the
Blender to POF Conversions page about how to do live debris.