the biggest problem is there are few artist friendly shader tools and shaders are very specialized. What with light settings being controlled on a per material basis rather than from the light itself.
But even a 1.1 shader can work a simple bump and specular map with per pixel lighting shader. Even on 6 year old GPU's. Thats good enough for descriping most surfaces well.
Shaders are much nicer than fixed function, and closer to what artists are used to using with their 3D apps native pre rendered material system. In many ways its easier than old fashioned materials that require the artist to create all the highlights and shadows in the textures.
The hard bit is often getting a free shader thats in the public domain to work how they want when they cant code shaders themselves.
But even a 1.1 shader can work a simple bump and specular map with per pixel lighting shader. Even on 6 year old GPU's. Thats good enough for descriping most surfaces well.
Shaders are much nicer than fixed function, and closer to what artists are used to using with their 3D apps native pre rendered material system. In many ways its easier than old fashioned materials that require the artist to create all the highlights and shadows in the textures.
The hard bit is often getting a free shader thats in the public domain to work how they want when they cant code shaders themselves.