Some of the 3rd party models we are using are from Bridge Commander mods. The Galaxy, The Klingon starbase. Much of the Romulan lineup are ported over from BC.
We would use the higher end stuff if they fell within sins limits, and didnt have so many mesh errors that would make doing the tangents (smoothing) in XSI a total nightmare. We already did try to convert other BC mods like CG's Sovereign. It was more trouble than what it was worth.
Cap ships shouldnt be above 4000 tri's Frigates, and Cruisers 2000. Stations 7000. We made exceptions with some ships like the Galaxy. It is almost 7000 tri's. We try to stay within these limits so that anyone that can play sins can also play the mod.
The maximum texture resolution in sins is 3 2048x2048 sheets for the cap ships and stations. 3 1024x1024 sheets for the frigates and cruisers. and 3 512x512 sheets for strike craft. One for the color map or -cl texture. One for the -da, or data texture(light maps, bloom, reflection, and specular channels), and one for the Normal map, or -nm texture. We could up the antie, and make them 4096x4096, but that would screw anyone that had an older video card.
Another thing you need to understand is that while sins can handle models with a higher poly count better than most games can for low end systems. What eats up most of the resources ARE the textures. If you notice the BC, and SFC mods textures have ridiculously high resolutions. 8 texture sheets at 1024x1024, or 2048x2048. The Galaxy was like that with multiple 2048 sheets. I had to re-UV map the entire model using just ONE 2048x2048 sheet. Plus reduce its 10,000 tri poly count to 7000. It is still over the poly limit of 4000, but since not many will be on the map i let it slide. It IS within the sins texture limit of 2048.
Yes, all of the 3rd party works are being used as placeholders until we have the time to build our own stuff. Which i stated will be in the 0.7-8-9 updates. We made sure all the 3rd party stuff is properly credited.
We also cant just arbitrarily use anyones model. We need permissions from the original artist. While it may not be illegal to use it in most cases. It is totally uncool to use someone elses work without their permission. I dont like it when someone does it with my work. So i treat others works with equal respect.
