If all done correctly, we should now have:

• Meshes and empties (main part empty, gimbal, thrustTransform, node_stack_bottom, node_stack_top) in correct hierarchy and given good names we can use in our config code.
• An engine shroud if needed, correctly set up to be hidden in the VAB/SPH icon.
• Colliders for all our meshes.
• Working diffuse, specular, and emissive texture maps.
• An engine core glow effect.

Time to export. Click on the main part empty, the one where everything is ultimately parented to. In the active tool tab, click apply scale and clear inverse—this ensures your part is of the correct scale and that any strange transformations are taken care of. Then, click export mu model.

Exporting your textures to .DDS

KSP can actually use .PNG image files, but they are slow and not great for load times. Instead, it’s better to convert them to .DDS. There are a few tools for this, but again, CineboxAndrew’s QuickTex tool is the best way to go about this.

Note that DDS textures need to be flipped vertically when exported for KSP, otherwise you get weird stuff like this happening. If you use CineboxAndrew’s QuickTex, though, it should be done automatically.

If you haven’t installed QuickTex yet, follow these steps (for Windows):

1. Download and install the latest version of Python for Windows. Make sure you install for all users and to add it to the PATH/environment variables when going through the installer.

2. Run command prompt as administrator and run the command pip install quicktex. Close the window once it’s done.

3. Navigate to the folder containing your finalised .png textures, and create a new .txt file. Immediately change the file extension to .bat.

4. Open it in a text editor like Notepad. Paste this code into it:

   :: Colour/diffuse map
   quicktex encode bc3 -N EngineColourMap.png
   
   :: Normal map
   quicktex encode bc3 -n EngineNormalMap.png
   
   :: Emission map
   quicktex encode bc3 -N EngineEmissionMap.png
   
   PAUSE
   

   Replace EngineColourMap.png, EngineNormalMap.png, EngineEmissionMap.png with the filenames of your textures.

5. Run the .bat file. The tool should automatically convert all your PNGs in the folder it is in to the appropriate DDS textures.

Neat, huh? You can also make the batch file more versatile by using wildcards. For example, quicktex encode bc3 -n *_Normals.png will find any file ending in “_Normals.png” and encode it as a normal map, allowing you to use the same batch script file for all your projects.

The more tech-savvy of you might have figured you could simply run the commands from a command prompt window set to the directory of the folder. I find making a batch file, however, much simpler since I just run it when I want to re-encode all my textures in one go.