Ok, i´ll talk you through it.
First, open Truespace. If you don´t have TS, download the free version, or even better get the latest version in any p2p network.
Load your model, the one you linked first. You should now be seeing your model in perspective view, right? Now open the Material Editor. It´s the icon that looks like a painter´s ink plate. Next, open your Material Library, it´s the 4th icon from the top down, on the left of the screen in TS. It looks like a bunch of coloured balls. Now, here´s the thing: you need textures. TS comes with a set of ugly textures and shaders, but nothing we can use. So you need Freespace textures. If you don´t have them yet, open VP_View, and look for the "sparky_fs2.vp". Inside there are several folders. Open the "maps" folder. You should now get a big list of every texture in FS2. Browse through them, and choose the ones you like, and extract them to a folder on your HDD. You can extract them all at once , to save work. Next, you need to convert these .pcx textures to something Truespace can work with. I find that bitmap (.bmp) is the best format. Open your favourite paint program, like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.
You now have to open each .pcx texture, and save them under the same name, but in bmp format. Place these newly converted textures in a folder of its own, to avoid any hassle.
As soon as you have the textures converted to .bmp, go back to TS, and open your Image Browser, wich is the top icon on the vertical tab on the left of the screen. It looks like a TV.
Once you open it, use it to look for the textures folder you just created. You should now see your textures in TS. But you can´t use them yet, you need to add them to your project library first. So now, go back to the Material Library, right click on the bottom of the window and click "NEW". You should now see an empty library, but don´t worry, you´ll place something in it in jus a sec.
With the new library open, go to the Image browser, and right click on any texture. Select "Add All to Library". This will place all the Freespace .bmp textures in that library you just created, for easy access later on.
Now it´s the easy part: With your model loaded, use the Library and the Material Editor to select our texture. Click any texture in the Library, and you will see it in the Material Editor. Select your model, and click on the top icon in your Material Editor, that says "Paint Object". And there you go! Your model is now painted with that texture.
NOTE: Do NOT use the UV tools, otherwise you will loose your placeholders.
With the model textured, save it as an object, not as a scene.
Close everything, and open PCS. On the "Conversion" tab, select "Cob to Pof", and look for your newly saved .cob model.
Wait as it loads, it will take about a minute. If you see a message saying "Input was: 2 materials, 1 group, 1 light... bla bla bla yadda yadda yadda", then you are all set! You should now be able to view your model in the PCS 3d window. Save it as .pof, in the "models" folder inside your Freespace directory, make a table entry and you are all set!
NOTES:
Remember always to group your models, by adding the lights, and triangulize your models ALWAYS.
Don´t use over 15 textures per model, or you´ll crash.
Don´t make models with more than 10.000 polys, or you´ll have troubles with it.
Add your custom textures to FS, in .pcx or .tga format, in your "maps" folder inside the FS directory.
And finally, if you don´t know something, ask for help. It beats spending hours and hours of trial and error to get it right...
Hope this helps. Cheers!!
