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Is there a Displacement map shader that could work with GS... a dx8.1 shader

It's not possible to make a displacement mapping shader in DirectX 8 at all.

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are there any shaders currently for gamestudio that handle lighting correctly

Yes there are some, but I don't know of any public ones.

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Are there plans for easier implementation of .fx anbd cg shaders

No, not until the change to DirectX 9 is done. Until then, you need shader assembler.

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Has anyone seen or tested the shader editor?

No, and I don't think that it's really in development at the moment.