Yes, working with shaders is too low level in Gamestudio. Most competitors (Unity, C4,...) have moved on to some kind of higher level shader generators.

http://aras-p.info/blog/2009/05/05/shaders-must-die/
http://aras-p.info/blog/2009/05/07/shaders-must-die-part-2/
http://aras-p.info/blog/2009/05/10/shaders-must-die-part-3/