Hi there
definatly an interesting thread.

What i do to get a specular effect on model parts is:
- be sure to have a good UV-Layout
- Open the uv-unwrapped model in the Model editor
- Go to Skins and add a skin with a TGA which has a Black/white Map in the Alpha-Channel
- save the model
- then i use SMEE to get the shader effect. ( u can get SMEE here )
- when u get smee there are very good tutorials to learn how to do that.
- u will see how to use the alphmap of the entskin to define metal parts.

Here is an example of a window with an metal handle:


i never tried the shaders in the collections named above...
i definatly are going to do that, but before i wantet to ask if it is possible to implement grayscale specular maps and not just simple black/white alpha maps in order to define the amount of specularity.

and aswell i will have to check out that sphere engine... but so little time

i hope this helps

cheers sinnlos