oh, and in answer to 1), that's exactly what VSS is for. it's not a skin shader.  it's a way to template your materials.  i have no clue how to use the designer yet, but when i do, i'll be making skin templates like a fiend.  right now i save single materials, apply it to one material, change the textures, copy the new material to zones that take the same textures with ShaderSpider, copy to one new texture mat zone, go to that zone and load the correct textures, copy those to the zones that take the same texture, etc.  doesn't take but so long, but it is definitely a PITA.  i can't wait to be able to just save a group of texture independent settings.