Hey, sorry I didn´t replied your PM yet. But I am busy as hell.
I never used templates. I am not sure if it´s easiely possible to use bumpmapping with them.
I must say I am impressed about the noob questions, because of the awesome work I have seen from you. I hope you take my stupid comment like a MAN!
Check the web about your graphic card if it supports pixelshader 2 and vertexshader 2 (ps 2, vs2). Most working normalmapping shaders with specularity use this level as far as I know.
Check your shader how he reads the Bitmaps. Skin1 Colormap, Skin2 Normalmap(or Greyscalemap) alpha channel of skin 1 (or maybe 2(?)) specularity.
Personal I hate shaders because they can make some crazy problems, like you game doesn´t start anymore on not so new pcs even if the shaders are totally turned off (I am not 100% sure if it´s because of the shaders, but after I implemented the shaders I got post that it doesn´t work anymore on some computers).
Actually it is very simple applying shaders. Just in combination with templates it could be a problem. Frank_G and me did some tests where the bumpmapping(?) shader didn´t worked with the templates. Don´t know why.
You can apply shaders in MED as far as I know. I woud set up a test level, run it and watch it.