Since I've just been asked again, I'll do what I should have done at first, and post it here in the forum.
Before I continue...let me make it very clear...caveat emptor! There may be easier ways of doing this, and subsequent versions of DBOX (or the release of the X3 Modder Kit) may eliminate the need for the following steps. What I describe below works for me...every time. If you find an easier way, please post it so everyone can benefit.
OK...the first thing I had to do was create a "template" of the textures I wanted to use. By template, I mean an existing MAT6 multi-texture I could apply to my own meshes. The way I went about this was to select a ship already in X3 which had a set of textures I wanted to use. Most of my ships use the base texture set that is associated with the Argon M2, since it looks pretty good and has a fairly large number ( 48 ) of DDS textures to choose from.
So...you have picked a ship which uses the texture set you would like to apply to your own mesh(s). Now you must:
- 1. Use Doubleshadow's X2BC to de-compile the BOB file for your selected ship into a BOD file, and then import it into 3dMax using the DBOX tool.
3. You then save the multi-texture associated with the BOD file you just imported to the 3dMax texture library so it can be used later on your won meshes.
4. Once the X3 multi-texture is saved, you must open the original X3 BOD file you used to get the multi-texture in a text editor. In the text editor, select the MAT6 entries at the begriming of the file then save them as a text file (it should only contain the MAT6 entries). (The Argon M2 multi-texture that I often use has 48 MAT6 entries.) The resulting text file is what I call the "template", and it should be an exact match of the multi-texture you saved earlier.
4. Then, when in 3dMax, you can load the X3 multi-texture you saved, and apply it to whatever mesh you wish.
5. Once the mesh textured to your satisfaction, export it using DBOX (always remember to keep Data Handling and Comparability set to X3). If you were to look at the MAT6 entries in the BOD file you just exported using a text editor, and compare them to the MAT6 entries in the X3 BOD file for the ship you selected, you would see that they are "broken".
6. So, the final step is to correct the MAT6 entries in your exported mesh by opening the BOD file in a text editor, as well as opening the "template" you had previously saved, and then using the copy & paste functions to replace the "bad" MAT6 entries in your exported BOD file with the "good" MAT6 entries from your template.
Use X2BC to compile it back into a BOB file...and you're good to go
It is quite easy to add X3 DDS texture entries to extend your template(s) using the same principals described above.