If anybody has a mesh that wraps a texture the old way pinching the poles hell i would even take one of those in .mesh for mat

I have been trying to use photoshop to make my textures and to paint the seams out.

I understand pretty much how to do it using polar coords filter.

I start with the desert01-cl as my template. (it has nice clear strips on top and bottom of middle section,also i can see the polar circles pretty well.)

Next I Pick What I want to make. For example I been using textures from celestia.

I make a new layer . copy The middle section of the texture to the new layer, minus the top and bottom strips.
I duplicate this layer . I rotate one 180 degrees ,then use polar coords filter on each ,producing 2 donuts, one will match the north pole ,and the other will match the south pole .

now heres where i tend to get confused. so I really could use some help. and this is the main purpose of this post, this last step here.it is the poles that confuse me.

using these donuts i created i somehow generate the circle that covers each pole ,and in the process have it all lined up.

#1 I could really use some direction on how to make the polar circles from those donuts.

32 and behind that donut is another section that connects to those strips .where does that come from ?

so lets say I have a texture from io the moon of jupiter ,but it if in the format to wrap it the cylinder way where it pinches the poles. It would seem that i need to cut the texture into 3 slices. the top and bottom being I guess,half as large as the middle . then resize it? until it is a square.

also i know photoshop could apply the texture to a sphere so it would be easier to paint out the seams but i figured the spheres size is gonna matter and should be about the same size as sins.

which brings me to the last problem. if i could just open A sins planet mesh. which i havent been able to cause of its .mesh format
I could then see it and work with that in a program like blender.

so please someone throw me a bone.

A sphere mesh that I could use that wraps a easier way to get the seams out,
or
A way to open and convert a .mesh file
or
advice on how to just fix the seams the donut way
or
A wireframe about the same dimensions i could use in photoshop
or
I will have to go back to just avoiding the seam areas like the plague ... which all my textures currently do. which is why i want to fix this

so please give me a bit of help