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You always need permission to reuse/distribute any author's work, unless they have explicitly stated in the readme/description that they allow reuse/redistribution without permission. So if you want to redistribute one author's model and another author's texture then you need permission, again, unless one or both has stated otherwise. The problem you are going to have in this case is the likely impossibility of contacting ToastyFresh. You'll have to talk to the DS admins regarding their position on that. Recompiling models to suit a particular game isn't difficult for weapons. You'll want the latest beta version of MDLEdit. Since you'll presumably have a bunch of models to work on, start by batch decompiling them. In MDLEdit, go to File -> Batch -> Convert to ASCII. In the window that pops up, select all the MDLs and hit the Open button. Wait for it to finish. Now you can delete all the original MDLs and MDXs. Make sure you toggle the game setting to KOTOR2 (button on the top left) before compiling. You can batch compile all the models at once via File -> Batch -> Convert to Binary, but be aware that you'll need to manually edit all the filenames, since they'll all be called something like "w_vbrdblswd_001-mdledit-mdledit.mdl" etc. Your other option is to manually compile them one at a time, which will allow you to edit the filename before saving (File -> Load to load the ASCII, then File -> Save -> Binary). If you have a lot of files to deal with, you may want to look into some sort of batch renaming tool to get rid of the cruft in the filenames.

The more practical route would be for someone to develop a batch model converter. It would have to be black box and newb friendly.

Possible, yes. The most difficult part would be to get permission to port the actual models. I don't think the original author is active in the community anymore.

Alright so at this point I've got four versions in different stages of completion. I realized I was probably going overboard with the first three, and that the width of the blades might not jive with all the weapon animations. So here's the latest model, with a simpler design and a blade which is about the same width as that of the standard vibro double-blade.