Noel's shaders are software shaders. "Shader" simply means a small fragment of code which creates some kind of visual effect, usually a material-type effect. The shaders that everyone is talking about are hardware shaders. They're no different in terms of what they can do ( generally speaking.. except that software shaders have no directX requirement and Blitz doesn't have access to hardware shaders ) but hardware shaders are "free".
In other words, SSwift's shadow system creates shadows, and you could also ( but not in Blitz ) use hardware shaders to create shadows. The difference is that hardware shader shadows are "free". They don't carry the kind of performance overhead that doing them in software carries.
The bloom effects that some people have posted are another example of effects that can be done directly in Blitz and could also be done with the use of hardware shaders.
In other words, SSwift's shadow system creates shadows, and you could also ( but not in Blitz ) use hardware shaders to create shadows. The difference is that hardware shader shadows are "free". They don't carry the kind of performance overhead that doing them in software carries.
The bloom effects that some people have posted are another example of effects that can be done directly in Blitz and could also be done with the use of hardware shaders.