Playing with Imperial Ranks

[Ahmose]

I am trying to get some ranks built on my own without the mesh files. I am trying to replicate this guy's ranks (our guild would use these as Lieutenant rank):

So to explain a bit of my method, I am practicing on a Lieutenant NPC. I imported the Colonel rank plaque as it has the proper width
(4 squares) across, and my thought process was I could split the texture file in half, one part textured and the other part alpha'ed, then knock off the alpha part with the shader, et voila there's the rank. Here is what our NPC looks like pre-shader:

A friend suggested I change the rank plaque's .sht file in the NAME chunk to either a_punchout or h_punchout to remove the white space, but instead both of these completely erase the plaque so all you can see are the two code cylinders.

Is my DDS not set up properly or do I need a different shader file?

 

[rosuto]

It may or may not be possible, but the only way to find out is to try different eft files. Use the ones the start with a_ if I remember correctly. C_ is for color map models and e_ is for effects. Unsure about h_. Most eft files are all or nothing which is why punch out won't work

 

[Ahmose]

A friend was able to add a missing hex value to the shader for the badges that caused the punchout to work properly. Behold:

Now I have a question:

Does anyone know if I can assign multiple texture values to the rank badge model and have a different one appear based on the color of the shirt it is attached to?