[reichman]

Not a dumb question if you're new to Pro Tools. The fades that are "real-time" in Pro Tools 10 are the fades that you make while editing. For example, cross-fading between regions, fading in or out at the head or tail of a region to smooth the sound. Until Pro Tools 10, these were achieved by generating thousands of additional files in the "Fade Files" folder that Pro Tools would read from during playback. This is an essential part of editing.

What you're talking about is the volume automation, which has always been real-time and achieves a totally different goal: mixing.

Instead of Google, read the first few chapters of the Pro Tools reference guide. It's a great document.