ActiveShade gives you a preview rendering that can help you see the effects of changing lighting or materials in your scene. When you adjust lights or materials, the ActiveShade window interactively updates the rendering.
You assign which renderer to use for ActiveShade rendering on the Assign Renderer rollout of the Render Setup dialog Common panel.
ActiveShade preview of material changes
Above left: Before the update
Above right: After changing the material for the fabric to a mapped material and increasing the highlights on the material for the wood
ActiveShade preview of lighting changes
Above left: Before moving a light in a viewport
Above right: After moving the light
When you right-click an ActiveShade window, the quad menu displays an ActiveShade menu. This menu contains a number of ActiveShade commands.
To display a free-floating ActiveShade window:
To display an ActiveShade window in a viewport:
To change an ActiveShade viewport to another kind of viewport:
You can also restore the viewport to its previous status by right-clicking the viewport and choosing View (upper-left) quad Close.
To zoom and pan in an ActiveShade window:
You can zoom in and out and pan the image in the ActiveShade window. You can even do this while a scene is rendering.
If you have a three-button mouse, you can use its third button or wheel to zoom and pan: