when working with a mesh template, what is the difference between a "regular" template and a, "dae" version?

Dae is what you can use in blender to tweak it yourself.

^

so for someone that knows nothing about blender, the normal version is best then? lol... i think i would go mental in blender.

i already want to kill daz. and that is for poses (which i do not even use anymore, i use an inworld tool...)...

a .dae file is what is exported from blender/maya/etc, so that it can be imported into SL and other grids. It is the actual mesh file.

if you toss the link here I can help you pick but it sounds like the regular version will be fine for you. I dont want to say for sure without seeing what you are looking at though.

are you looking to purchase one to use in sl? are you just wanting to modify the texture in photoshop? or are you wanting to do so in a program like Blender?

Goober : oh i don't want to mess with the mesh, just texture it, and then texture the item.

Goober : this is the store

the PSD version of that will be fine for you. it gives you the files that you can take into photoshop and apply textures too. The DAE option is for people who want to take it into a program like blender

and actually edit the mesh itself

Yeah, if you just want to recolor/texture the base textures, grab the psd version. But if you want to create patterned textures, such as leather, latex, something more 3 dimensional, then then .dae is the way

to go