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It seems, though, that a lot of stuff from shaders can simply be done with a skin image so what's the point in having a shader in this case?
If you can get the effect you are after by simply using a skin, then you should do so. Look to shaders to provide effects that just cannot be achieved that way. Obvious examples would include things like glass with refraction and reflection, objects with specular highlights etc.
There are some popular shader example pics at the NVidia site that might spark your imagination and show you some effects that would require a shader.
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