Will Luminance mapping be able?

i am not sure what exactly you mean by luminance mapping but probably it's doable!

Luminance mapping can be done even without a shader, just with the fixed function pipeline.

is it true that functions of that pipeline are different on every graphics card, and where do i get a good overview of this feature?

Partially. Basic functions are available on all recent cards, but more exotic functions are not supported on some cards. On some old cards, like the Voodoo series, even the functions that were awailable didn't work as expected. But on recent cards the functions normally work well.

This is the reason why every effect should always have a fallback technique. The minimum A6 works with is two texture stages, and the MODULATE, MODULATE2X, ADD, and ADDSIGNED color operators. A5 mode works even with only one texture stage and the MODULATE operator only.

You can use the DirectXCapsViewer to see which functions are available on your 3D card.

Is this the same as having luminous areas of textures, for glowing eyes, etc?

It seems like code that supported illumination, bump, and environment mapping in one shader that could be controlled with alpha channels or skins would be super helpful

That way you could comment out effects that you do not want for different effects??

Has anyone got bump and environement mapping working together well?

I have yet to get a grip on this stuff - got it workin', but what it's doing??