But I just discovered something not good. The Egypt palms appear to be made so as to depend on the .mat file parameter tfDoubleSide 1. The mesh viewer utility *does* show single-sided objects as being textured on the other side if tfDoubleSide is enabled.
But the game doesn't recognize this. If you want a sheet-like object to have a texture on both sides, you must create the extra polygons, which of course doubles the number of them.
I was wondering why these new palm seemed to get harder to see in the distance than I had expected. Now I know why. If you only ever look at these palms from well above, things are OK. But looking at them from the side--and especially from below!--the fronds partly or entirely disappear. Not good.
I'm not sure if I want to make up the extra polygons; there are already 1733 polygons among all 5 LODs. Perhaps if I removed one of the LODs (the 2nd most detailed one might be the better victim)? While the process merely requires to duplicate the existing vertices and reverse the order in which each triplet makes up a triangular polygon, it's still a bit of work to undertake. (And the grind of the second palm group still awaits!)
I'm now wondering if my existing tree model, clothed in the new lighter texture, might just suffice well enough...
If it's deemed good enough, I can specify different texture names in the desert meshes so that BOTH the coconut and the date liveries are always available. This can be done lickety split.