while on the topic:
If you apply a shader to a block, and don't set it's FLAT flag, there is a huge fps drop. On the other hand, if you apply the shader through d3d_automaterial, there is no big hit on the fps.
Don't know if it's possible, but maybe add a new flag between FLAT and SHADED, where you can apply shaders without a big fps drop AND get the lightmaps? laugh

I also like darkinferno's idea a lot. Defining texture catchphrases like he mentioned and then automatically applying shaders to the corresponding textures sounds nice. Also the 15 characters limit is a little anoying, but i guess this is because of performance reasons?

regards

Shade-C EVO Lite-C Shader Framework