Gaaaah!! lefkos, you are driving me crazy!!

OK, let me explain:
FreeSpace reads .vp files
as they are, without extracting them. The files
are supposed to be in the .vp file. The .vp file, however,
needs to be extracted from the .zip or .rar or .7z file into your FreeSpace2\mod directory (replace mod with the mod's name, for example, \FreeSpace2\INFA). The
only reason you should be extracting things from a .vp file is to view/edit them outside of FreeSpace (eg, with FRED or Notepad++). If you don't need to change something or view it without opening FreeSpace,
then don't extract them from the .vp file. FreeSpace reads .vp files just fine the way they are.
Does that make some sense to you?