Texturing problem

I'm not too familiar with XSI because I do all of my mesh work in Max, but I'm betting your issue is 1 of 2 problems.

The first possibility is that you most likely aren't permanently linking the textures to the mesh, especially considering how difficult XSI is to work with in this particular area.  Try opening your mesh file up in text format.  One of the first things you'll see is the textures.  If "black-cl.dds", "black-da.dds" and "black-nm.dds" are listed as the textures, then this is your problem.  Simply change the "black" to the name of your texture, so you would have "youtexture-cl.dds", etc. 

If the textures are linked correctly, just make sure the textures are in the Texture folder within the main Mod folder that you're trying to work with. 

Hope one of these helps!

Sorry, but this isn't the problem, as i've been doing that from the beginning and i'm still getting the problem, thanks for trying though.

Hm, that makes it a bit more difficult, then.

The problem is that the game isn't connecting your model with your texture for some reason, but the cause can vary.  Obviously you've double-checked the presence of texture references in the mesh file.  Make sure the name of the texture file matches what's in the mesh file exactly, including spelling, capitalization, and file extension. 

If I could see a copy of the mesh file and the textures files, I could more easily help you find the issue.  If you could post pictures or upload the files somewhere, I think it would be a huge help.

Do your texture .DDS files have alpha channels as well? If the CL, DA or NM alpha channels don't exit or are all black you might be getting a zero luminosity/spectral issue. make sure that the DDS files are DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp interpolated alpha type (ie. Photoshop with Nvidia DDS plugin has that option).

Otherwise as Mystic says... edit the .mesh file with Notepad and make sure that the textures you made are actually linked.

e.g. you should see in Notepad:

TXT
MeshData
    hasValidTangents TRUE
    BoundingRadius 415.362823
    MaxBoundingExtents [ 51.469864 139.509872 315.000000 ]
    MinBoundingExtents [ -51.459583 -169.101410 -415.000000 ]
    NumMaterials 4
    Material
        DiffuseTextureFileName "yourtexturename_CL.dds"
        SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "yourtexturename_DA.dds"
        NormalTextureFileName "yourtexturename_NM.dds"
        DisplacementTextureFileName ""
        TeamColorTextureFileName ""
        Diffuse ffffffff
        Ambient ffffffff
        Specular ffffffff
        Emissive ffffffff
        Glossiness 32.000000

Actually, the alpha channels in the textures don't affect whether it shows as black or not because every channel serves a specific function.  Cl is team color, DA is bloom, but NM I'm unsure about.  Everything other graphic in the game does use the alpha channel as a transparency gauge, though.

I did mention correct file-type, but not specifically.  JasonFJ has a point about the DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp. 

Still getting the problem, is there a complete tutorial out there for texturing that I can follow to make sure that i am not missing anything important out.

btw, i have changed my .dds files now to DXT5 ARGB 8bpp but that hasn't changed a thing

There isn't any single tutorial that covers everything, unfortunately.  Would you mind uploading your files somewhere so that I can take a look?  I think that's going to be the fastest way for me (or anyone else) to figure out what's giving you so much trouble.

Or, if you prefer, you can simply e-mail them to me.  PM me and I'll give you my e-mail address if you like.