Hello gap,
thanks for enlightening explanation on the mechansims of the GR2 system/exporter. Now I finally understand why it separates the model in many "random" chunks that do not represent a specific type of surface. It's simply because of the mapping ...
Well, not much of effort the repair that. Since regular, Meshlab can handle that with ease. I am just treating the Queen of Bermuda that way -- reversing the excessive splitting using Meshlab, then doing a Edge splitting to a pre-set angle (Blender 2.49). Model looks great and a lot of bytes can be saved.
Here are two recent images of models still edge splitted -- strange shaddows and highligts can be seen everywhere; the effect probably most easily spotable along the lines of the amour belt and around the anchor.
Cheers