# Shade — Create pro visual effects

> Node-based shader editor for creating real-time visual effects. (iPhone/iPad app by Two Lives Left.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shade/id1402522815 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Two Lives Left](https://appshunter.io/developer/335953314)
- Category: Graphics & Design, Developer Tools
- Price: $19.99 with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.30/5 from 124 App Store ratings · 69 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.6 · 185 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2019-03-15
- Data updated: 2026-09-09
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shade/id1402522815/reviews.md

## What is Shade?

Shade transforms your device into a professional node-based shader editor. Build stunning, connected shader graphs that render in real time

You'll find full support for keyboard shortcuts, drag-and-drop, and documentation built right in

Once you're done, export your shader out to Unity 3D or load it straight into Codea. Use them in your games, apps, or anything you make

Put your finger on the glass and start creating

FEATURES

• Connection stacking: no need for explicit arithmetic nodes. Just plug multiple outputs into a single input. Tap to change how they're blended
• Automatic swizzling: connect anything to anything. Shade will figure it out and swizzle your connection. Tap the little circle to re-wire the logic
• Over 100 nodes for building your shaders, tap any node for help
• Live physically-based render preview
• Drag-and-drop images right into your graph
• Full keyboard support
• AR previews, including Face AR for building shaders right on your... face
• Video tutorials

## Key features

- Node-based shader graph creation
- Real-time rendering preview
- Connection stacking and automatic swizzling
- Over 100 shader nodes
- Drag-and-drop image import
- AR previews including Face AR
- Export to Unity 3D and Codea

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: $19.99.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 14-day Trial | Free | one-time |
| Shade Pro | Free | one-time |
| Shade Standard | $15.99 | one-time |
| Shade Pro Upgrade | Free | one-time |


## Chart rankings

- #159 in Top Paid · Graphics & Design (US App Store)

## What do users think of Shade?

Overall sentiment: mixed

**Pros**

- ✨ Amazing app for shaders
- 💡 Commendable bringing shaders to iPad
- 👍 Intuitive and useful
- 🚀 Great for sketching shaders on the go
- 🌟 High quality visuals on iPad
- 🎨 Node-based shader editor
- 💰 No subscription required
- 📱 Works great on iPhone
- ✨ Great for prototyping and learning
- 💻 Good for 3D workflow integration
- 🎨 Elegant and readable interface
- 💡 Powerful node-based shader editor
- 📱 Great on iPhone and iPad
- 🚀 Well optimized for iPad
- 🤩 Stunning app quality
- 👍 Easy to use
- 💡 Useful for VFX
- ✨ Great for generative art

**Cons**

- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🔥 Generates significant heat
- 💸 Requires payment to create/export
- ❓ Unclear pricing and trial information
- 📉 Export options limited
- 🤷 Difficult to use for beginners
- 🚫 No streaming camera texture support
- 💰 Pro version price is high
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 💸 App requires payment to create shaders
- 🤔 Lack of transparency on pricing
- 🗑️ Lost progress due to no auto-save
- 🚫 No free trial for export functionality
- 💸 Free version only for viewing
- 💸 Full functionality requires payment

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Curvature node crashes the program
- Closing function node crashes and saves incorrectly
- Failed to create new shaders
- iOS 17 crashes the app
- App crashes when opening most shaders
- Unable to report crashes with debug info
- No auto-saves leading to lost progress
- Internal error preventing shader opening after purchase
- Corrupted or version mismatch error when creating/opening shaders
- Cannot reactivate from Beta version after official release
- Exported shaders don't match in Unity
- App requires payment to create shaders

**Most requested features**

- Edit shader code manually
- Add Mac support
- Port Blender to iOS
- Add UE4 support
- Add light node (direction, position)
- Export to Metal/Blender
- Add experimental ray tracing option
- Add support for exporting ShaderGraph or ASE formats
- Add feature to change texture of the object
- Add support for Unreal Engine 4
- Add support for Godot
- Add support for camera/touch inputs
- Add more export options
- Add translation to Chinese
- Support manual shader compilation besides nodes
- Add basic PBR materials folder export
- Add unlit shader for output
- Add gyro, ALS, accelerometer, heart-rate inputs
- Add multi-select
- Adjust long hold-tap gesture time

## Recent user reviews (10 of 69)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shade/id1402522815/reviews.md

### 3/5 — Great app, though I almost immediately encountered a bug

*2025-04-09, version 1.3.2*

This app is amazing, heck even bringing shaders to iPad is commendable on its own. The only grievance I carry is that the curvature node has a bug that causes the program to crash when plugged into diffuse

### 4/5 — 希望有编辑shader代码的功能

*2024-09-01*

只能连线编辑，希望能有一个手动编辑代码的功能，我敢肯定，有这个功能后一定大卖。还有就是发热严重，掉电快

### 3/5 — Bug with function node

*2024-03-07*

When you close a shader while editting the function node, it will save the shader as the nodes in the function. Lost an hour or two of progress from the bug, please fix

### 4/5 — 可以把blender移植到ios上吗

*2024-02-16*

如题

### 3/5 — Can’t make new shadrers

*2023-10-20, version 1.3.1*

Failed to Create Document

iPhone 15 Pro

### 4/5 — iOS 17 crashes the app

*2023-10-01*

great tool; there's no contact info on the support link nor in app (at least i cant access it due to this bug) so im writing this here trying to open most shaders crashes the app in iOS 17

**Developer response:** Thank you for this report. We are currently working on a fix and should have it submitted shortly

### 5/5 — 什么时候能适配Mac

*2023-07-16*

非常棒的App，就是发热量太大了，非常耗电，不过还是很喜欢这种轻便实用的工具，希望以后也能在Mac上体验到这款App。

**Developer response:** 非常感谢您的好评！的确，Shade会消耗较多电量，但我们很高兴您喜欢它。目前您可以在配备苹果硅芯片的Mac上运行Shade（作为iPad应用程序从App Store下载）。我们认为它在macOS上运行得相当不错。

### 5/5 — Please continue development

*2023-04-13*

This app is great. In theory and in some of it’s delivered features. 
I would love to use this app to develop shaders for my game while traveling. Be it water shaders or some Kind of Aura… Whatever. I started using this App today and it crashed twice. There was no way to report the crash with debug info. I just worked a lot with the mix nodes. Altogether about 40 nodes or so. My progress was completely lost sadly because there are no auto saves? Please make this more stable and maybe add nodes like fresnel like in Unity. Examples and more complex nodes would be awesome too! Thank you so much for the hard work. Have a nice day!

**Developer response:** Thank you for your kind review. We're sorry about the crash and loss of progress, that must be frustrating. We have tried to improve auto save, and will continue to work on stability. There is a fresnel example shader included, you could potentially convert that into a function for re-use across other shaders

### 5/5 — Rich features. Astonishing !

*2022-08-26, version 1.3.1*

Very intuitive and useful

### 5/5 — Very great app!

*2022-07-17, version 1.3.1*

It’s so cool best app

## Frequently asked questions about Shade

### What does Shade do?

Shade is a professional node-based shader editor that transforms your device into a tool for building complex, connected shader graphs. It allows for real-time rendering and creation of stunning visual effects for various applications.

### What are the key features of Shade?

Key features include connection stacking for simplified node connections, automatic swizzling to connect any data type, over 100 nodes for shader building, live physically-based render previews, drag-and-drop image import, full keyboard support, and AR previews including Face AR.

### How can I use shaders created in Shade?

Once you have finished creating your shaders, you can export them directly to Unity 3D or load them into Codea. This allows you to integrate your custom visual effects into your games, applications, or any other creative projects.

### Is Shade compatible with my device?

The provided data does not specify exact compatibility requirements. However, it is designed for mobile devices and supports features like keyboard shortcuts and drag-and-drop, suggesting it is intended for tablets or larger screened devices that offer a more robust creative environment.

### What is the cost of Shade?

Shade is available for free, but it includes in-app purchases. This freemium model allows users to explore the core functionality without initial cost, with options to purchase additional features or content.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.3.2 — 2023-11-02

This fixes a bug when creating shaders in the newest version of iOS

### 1.3.1 — 2022-02-19

- Bug Fixes
    - Fixed errors in Screen Size, Volume Flatten and Volume Textures nodes
    - Fixed shader error in Noise 3D node when no position input is connected

### 1.3 — 2021-12-24

- Shade Standard is now free (as in beer)
    - All standard users have been upgraded to Shade Pro free of charge
    - The free trial now unlocks Shade Pro for its duration
- New Example
    - Trail Effect
- New Nodes
    - Screen Size - The size of the screen :O
- Engine
    - Updated to Lua 5.4, improved performance and garbage collection
    - GLTF added to supported preview model formats
- Interface
    - Gradient editor handles touch interaction more consistently
    - Swizzle connections are now easier to drag
- Experimental (Beta features)
    - Drag images into the gradient editor to sample colors directly
    - Transform - Arbitrary 3D vector transformations
    - Time Shift - Shift time for any expression further down the graph    
    - Function, Input and Output nodes enabling subgraph editing (very experimental)

### 1.2.8 — 2021-01-19

- Custom Lighting (finally)
    - Use Light Params and the new Lighting input to have direct control over all lighting in your shader
- New Example
    - Toon Shading (using custom lighting)
    - Triplanar (Simplified) (using new Triplanar node)
- New Nodes
    - Light Params - for use with custom lighting
    - Triplanar - simplified triplanar mapping in one node
    - Spherical (replaced Spherical to Cartesian)
    - SDF Paint
- Experimental (so much so they have no icons yet)
    - Transform UV - experimental sub-network transformation shinanigans
    - Buffer / Buffer Source - experimental double-buffered texture wizardry
- Exporter Plugin System
    - Support for custom lighting and custom unpack normal methods
- Unity (Surface) plugin
    - Added initial support for custom lighting
    - Now using UnpackNormal() for normal maps
    - ShadeUtility.cs is now bundled with the plugin (but not exported), copy to your Unity project in an Editor subfolder to use
    - Graph.json is now exported as well for use with ShadeUtility.cs
    - Texture sampling in vertex function now uses tex2Dlod and correct parameters
    - Default Unity.shader exported in .shader bundles now matches this plugin
    - Plugin now exports folders without .shader extension for improved portability (does not effect ShadeUtility.cs)
- Misc
    - The IAP is a once off forever purchase, functionally identical to a full-price app

### 1.2.7 — 2020-11-17

- Fixed the main menu UI in the library from rendering incorrectly
- Some potential crashes fixed
- Improves usability on Mac

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## More apps by Two Lives Left

- [Codea](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/codea/id439571171)
- [CRABITRON](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/crabitron/id440462182)
- [Cargo-Bot](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cargo-bot/id519690804)
- [Terminal of Woe](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/terminal-of-woe/id6744296466)

All apps by Two Lives Left: https://appshunter.io/developer/335953314

## Related topics

[shade analyzer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/shade-analyzer)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-09.*