Ok this is a noob question but i'm a noob anyway so it doesn't matter i guess
i'm posting this here because i didn't find this anywhere else.. sorry if its already there somewhere and i missed it somehow..

Any game i create seems to have a washed out and bland look no matter how many lights i add or how sharp i make the textures. I'm wondering if i should start using shaders.

I'm no high-level directX programmer so there's no way i can program my own shaders. I recently downloaded a 'toon shader' from the website earthcontrol.de. I'm not sure what kind of shader it is (pixel/vertex/material). It has a .wdl script and a .fx file.
Say i have made an FPS game in Gamestudio, defined all the textures, models and lights. Can i just add a few lines of code that will implement this shader? Or is it going to take a revamping of the entire code for the game?

Or should i learn directX ?

ok i found a tutorial on the AU resource site on implementing shaders. I downloaded some fx files also but when implementing the shaders i get the error message

"(shader name here) line(1) syntax error"

and then all shaders seem to have the same effect on the object. There is no difference between specular/diffuse/(others).. what does the "line(1) syntax error" statement denote?

which GS version you are using?

are your shaders GS compatible?

I'm using A6..

the shaders i downloaded are from the AU resource site. The tutorial gives some example files (specular,diffuse,ambient and normal mapping) with exe demos. The executables show the effect properly and the tutorial was for GS, so i think the fx files must be compatible..

I'm not very knowledgeable about shaders and their programming, so i just followed what was given in the tutorial:

//code start
material mtlNormalMapped
{
flags = tangent; // given in the tutorial saying "Make sure the engine sends tangents to the shader"
effect = “NormalMapped.fx”; // NormalMapped.fx is one of the files in the demo
}

if(key_a) {my.material = mtlNormalMapped;}
//code end

using this in a .wdl file and running my level gives the line(1) syntax error. However the level runs and when i press 'a' i get a noticable change in the material shading (it becomes little brighter) but not the effect shown in the tutorial's demo file. Also the effect is the exact same whichever .fx file i use (there are 4 in the tutorial). The level is a closed room, no sunlight.

Changing the syntax and using in lite-C causes the level to crash saying 'shader feature' not supported.

felt like your version doesnt support (a6 standart?) shaders.