Yeah. Thanks to Steve who bought us so much fun with this addon.

Just spotted the typo "...Steve who brought us...."

Ok a little confused about Shade.So I guess shadows must be enabled to use Shade? And which ones? Are shadows a major frame rate killer?

No need to change anything. Just load a shade preset, make sure to clone day1 with that button and load FSX. You will see the difference instantly.

Are shadows a major frame rate killer?

The scenery shadows indeed are and they are also a bit wonky. But you get those on the terrain and things and that's what makes the difference.

Ok a little confused about Shade.So I guess shadows must be enabled to use Shade? And which ones? Are shadows a major frame rate killer?

You don't have to enable shadows for airplanes and ground objects. Regardless of those settings FSX uses a shadow system for the scenery (obvious on mountains) and the VC (overall color, not real VC shadows) and Shade changes the values of those shadows which you can't turn on or off. Changing these shadows with Shade doens't have an impact on performance at all.

Edited January 20, 201214 yr by J van E

Ok I bought it an was reading through the manual as you guys replied.Tons of thanks!Glad I do not have to enable ground objects or airplane shadows.I have worked a bunch on my fsx.cfg and if I go into FSX settings I have to rebuild it.If I just want to turn on shadows for my aircraft only (just to see the impact) what adjustment would you suggest in the config so I do not have to open the settings tab in FSX?Again guys thanks!

If I just want to turn on shadows for my aircraft only (just to see the impact) what adjustment would you suggest in the config so I do not have to open the settings tab in FSX?

Without the settings tab? I don't know, but what's so bad on using it once? Shade has limited (if any) impact on the way the shadows for the planes are drawn. At least I didn't spot a difference on that part. So they may look like before and I personally would miss my aircraft shadow and even the ones on the AI. With your system, there's nothing to worry about I think.As Jereon said, the Shade improvement comes with the shadows on the mountains and things. You can combine the Shade benefits with some nice ENB setup. At least for VFR things, this is like a new FSX for me. You may find yourself tuning the actual darkness of the shadows though, since the downside could be a very dark cockpit on the first attempts.

I have written a new manual for Shade if anybody has problems. You can find it here - http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/topic/10353-clems-tweaked-shade-userguide/ . Cheers,Clem, Shade Beta Tester.

Here are a couple shots from my first Shade:I just ran the basic config the handbook suggested.LOVE IT!Also REX2,OpenClouds, and enb:

Edited January 21, 201214 yr by Need-To-Know

Nice shots.I'm still using Shade happily via the burn and forget feature, ENB never worked for me since I have 3 monitors, great product for a nice price.

Nice shots.I'm still using Shade happily via the burn and forget feature, ENB never worked for me since I have 3 monitors, great product for a nice price.

I don't know why people are still talking about Shade as a replacement for ENB. They do NOT do the same thing! I'm happy that you found an alternative effect to spice up your sim in the form of shade, but people keep talking about it like they've replaced ENB with it. That's like saying you're replacing Active Sky with FSUIPC. They do different things people, and you can run them together.People are going to start thinking Shade does bloom effects and buy it and be disappointed with all this misinformation. (Not just you, loads of people are saying the same thing and I can't for the life of me figure out why)

Edited January 21, 201214 yr by TheBFG

Here are a couple shots from my first Shade:I just ran the basic config the handbook suggested.LOVE IT!Also REX2,OpenClouds, and enb:

Nice combo. And nice shots too. As said, the only tweak and twiddle thing with Shade could be the darker cockpit.

WIth PMDG 737NGX mostly, right? I read it's because PMDG compensated FSX bright environment doing darker textures, but when Shade does what is it's job, the cockpit gets even darker.

Edited January 21, 201214 yr by Alec

I don't know why people are still talking about Shade as a replacement for ENB. They do NOT do the same thing! I'm happy that you found an alternative effect to spice up your sim in the form of shade, but people keep talking about it like they've replaced ENB with it. That's like saying you're replacing Active Sky with FSUIPC. They do different things people, and you can run them together.People are going to start thinking Shade does bloom effects and buy it and be disappointed with all this misinformation. (Not just you, loads of people are saying the same thing and I can't for the life of me figure out why)

+1 I also don't understand it at all...

WIth PMDG 737NGX mostly, right? I read it's because PMDG compensated FSX bright environment doing darker textures, but when Shade does what is it's job, the cockpit gets even darker.

The enb setting I use brighten up everything. I almost exclusively...until recently... fly the 737ngx and have no problems with a dark cockpit. However in saying that I plan to tweak the settings around some to get a more dramatic effect. Mine is a little lacking.However I do not want to have the Depth of feild setting I have seen. That IMO seems annoying.Oh and btw - to turn aircraft shadows on without going to FSX settings and having it screw up what I already have added by hand it is simple. Add 1 to AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=1 ...I should have known but was not sure.

I recently wrote a utility called ShadeShifter to make the switching of Presets a lot easier and user-friendly. Anyone interested could see my post here. Note that version 2 is coming soon. However, subscribing to my blog is required in order to get a copy of it.

Edited January 29, 201214 yr by Tom Tsui