Small question.... How often does Talaad check his inbox? 

Yes, extremely helpful post - thank you! 
I followed your advice: I resized the texture to 64x64, put the origin on the bottom middle of my pile, and narrowed my pile of dust down from about 1400 faces including quads (yes, I'm not very conservative) to a mere 37 vertices all in neat little three-sided polygons. Oh, and I lightened it up a bit so it wouldn't be confused with 'pile of dirt'  .

Set Smooth apparently seems to do little difference to the model. I suppose it's due to the concealing factor of my pixellated texture?
I'll have to fiddle around with viewmesh and IRC later.
Thanks again for the useful tips!
[Edit: I worked some with viewmesh.. I can load the .spr files fine, but apparently the directory is screwed up when I copy the item into another file. Any way I can set up my new directory so it's like the old one and load the mesh fully textured?]
[Edit 2: I found out that by putting a file directory 'planeshift/<zip file name that the model came in> inside the Crystal Space data file allowed me to view the models with textures. Also making a file named 'SPRs' and putting all the .spr model files in it allowed me to quickly and easily access most of the PS item models. For some reason it didn't work with the shields.zip file, though.]

Nevermind about the whole GIMP thing. I collaborated with a friend on PS and found this site:
http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412
I'm not sure if it's completely safe/free of adware but it can convert into (yay!) .png format which blender can understand along with a few other file types.
If only I had the structure, and not just the overlay that goes on it. Ah, well. It's a good start 

Hello, computer geniouses! 
I've searched around the forums for a few hours now and haven't found any specific topics about importing an item (such as a helm) to blender already-made from C:/Program Files/Planeshift Crystal Blue/Art in one of the zip files.
Do I need some sort of plugin to convert the .dds and .spr extensions to something compatible with Blender?
The reason I'd like to do this is to see how the genuine PS modelers work on their models and hopefully learn a few things in the process. 
Also, what would be the best way to present a (hopefully) finished work to the PS public and how would the devs go about getting it from me/using it in game?
Keep in mind to dumb things down a bit as I've only started modeling a week or two ago 
Thanks for any assistance,
Jauffre

And yall are only thinking of the eccentric madman side. Think romantic. This poor peasant wants to reach the skies for his love (kinda cheesy but hey what the heck) and, unable to buy a flying winged thing, builds a cheap hang glider  . Even more fun is that if you don't read the note attached to it and realize he dies before he gets to test it, wham bang SPLAT! Free trip to death realm.  (Maybe the support gives way and the glider flies off without you.)

Jeez, 55 pages! (65 including the 10 from the other post) 
Also, as I'm slightly disinclined to search through 55 pages of postage, I'm going to go this alone without searching the posting depths, so if I remark on something already done you can slap me 
Just my 2 cents here, and I dont' know how easy this'll be as I'm not a modeler, but it would be cool (seeing as how other races will be coming to this city) to have a glass underwater viewing area, sort of like a bubble with a stem and ladder going up to the building above it. OR expanding on this view, you could have an underwater walkway/transportation to different parts of the city. It'd be more fun than just the usual wooden steps and the like.
Also, some respectable Klyros fogies won't be able to fish for their food. What if they still want to be independent? Simple: fisheries! Make something akin to a lobster trap only about 10 ft by 10 ft by 4 ft with steps all around the top. The top's open, and the oldsters can grab their guppies and gulp the guts. 
Jauffre

Glad to know my idea's appreciated. Thanks all.
And Croconil, you hit it right on the nail, buddy. My RL last name is Martin too, though. Kind of cool
Oh, and arka, think crochet shield slip-covers 

I don't think anyone's thought of this before, I searched the forum. First time starting a topic btw, bear with me.

Think of a tefu/rat/ulber/beast hide. Not very desirable, right? You can only sell it to the vendor in oja (long walk for us ylianians) and they're only used for quests or selling. 

NOW think of someone WEARING the hide as a cloak!   
It'd kill two birds with one stone, making hides wanted and filling the cloak position! all you'd have to do is make it so that the hide is equippable, give it some stat bonuses, use the old hide graphic with few to nil changes and hey presto! paste it onto someone's back. This seems rather easy to do, just reformat an old item, not making a new one from scratch, and it'll keep cape and cloak freaks from posting numerous topics on the subject of cloaks (not that they wouldn't still do it if it was implemented  ).
Does anyone really know if this is possible and/or easy? I just think it'd look cool for temps, not sure what it'd take to implement it.

Jauffre

P.S: Lots of barbarians go around in hides. Could be an enki thing for hide cloaks. No offense to vegan enkis 
P.P.S: Forgive me for starting a new topic on clothing, I just didn't think this would quite compare to all the other ideas out there.