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╔═════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ Ultra Fractal 1.1 ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════╝ Please read this file carefully. It contains last-minute instructions, system requirements and frequently asked questions. Be sure to read the Disclaimer in section [1.1]. If you want to know what Ultra Fractal is and what it can, jump to section [2.1]: Program description. 0 CONTENTS ---------------- 1 Disclaimer 1.1 Disclaimer 2 Description 2.1 Program description 2.2 Features 3 Shareware 3.1 Shareware terms 3.2 How to register 3.3 Registration benefits 4 System requirements 4.1 Minimal configuration 4.2 Standard configuration 4.3 High-end configuration 4.4 Configuration problems 5 Installation 5.1 DOS installation 5.2 Windows installation 6 Frequently asked questions 6.1 Windows problems 6.2 Video adapter problems 7 Distribution 7.1 CompuServe 7.2 Internet 7.3 Contact the author 8 Revision history 8.1 Version 1.1 - October 31th, 1997 8.2 Version 1.0 - April 9th, 1997 1 DISCLAIMER ------------------ 1.1 DISCLAIMER I, THE AUTHOR OF ULTRA FRACTAL, SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL I BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE ULTRA FRACTAL MAY CAUSE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES. BY USING OR EVALUATING ULTRA FRACTAL, YOU WILL AGREE WITH THESE TERMS. 2 DESCRIPTION ------------------- 2.1 PROGRAM DESCRIPTION Ultra Fractal is a fractal plotter. That is, it creates images of Mandelbrot and Julia sets. Several different formulas are available. Ultra Fractal provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface, with extensive online documentation. The program was developed with the intention that it should be user-friendly. All functions and features of the program are logically grouped and easy to use. Ultra Fractal is not only very easy to use, it is also very fast. It is the fastest fractal plotter I've ever seen (including Fractint). The program uses integer and floating-point arithmetics, to achieve the best performance possible on both machines with and without a mathematical coprocessor. It has special Pentium-optimized routines for optimal performance on Pentium processors. 2.2 FEATURES Some features of Ultra Fractal: - Images can be created in resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 pixels at 256 colors on screen. Larger true color images, up to 20000 x 15000 pixels, are possible, but must be written to disk directly. - There are 20 Mandelbrot and 20 Julia formulas available. You can use a Mandelbrot fractal to switch to the Julia set of the same point. - Real-time zooming. You can now zoom continously in or out with this exciting new feature. It's no longer necessary to wait for hours until an animation is completed; you create animations interactively in real-time. - Browse mode. You can scroll fractals up, down, left and right smoothly to create the best image possible. Just press an arrow key when you see a fractal. With the Auto browse feature, Ultra Fractal will choose the most interesting browsing direction itsel. So, you can let the program explore a fractal on itself! - Support of common file formats. Images can be exported to PNG, BMP and PCX files. Palettes can be imported from and exported to the MAP palette format. Ultra Fractal contains a built-in palette editor. - Extensive online documentation. Every function of the program has been documented. You can access the help information everywhere in the program. Just press F1. Ultra Fractal also contains much information about the calculation of fractals. - You can enhance an already created image. For example, you may want to increase the Maximum iterations value. Ultra Fractal will increase the number of iterations, without having to recalculate the whole image. This can save a considerable amount of time. - You can generate several images at once, i.e. you can have a lot of images generated at night, while you don't need your computer. - Ultra Fractal can create true color images with dimensions of up to 20000 x 15000 pixels. It can also apply anti-aliasing to these images. They can be saved as BMP or Targa files. - The program comes with 116 example parameter files and 24 example palettes to help you create beautiful images. - A viewer for the .UFG fractal image file format is distributed as the file "ufgview.exe" with Ultra Fractal. You could use this program as a viewer for Windows. 3 SHAREWARE ----------------- 3.1 SHAREWARE TERMS You may use the shareware version of Ultra Fractal for an evaluation period of up to 30 days. The purpose of this evaluation period is to allow you to determine whether Ultra Fractal meets your needs before purchasing it. Once the evaluation period has ended, you agree to either register your copy of Ultra Fractal, or to remove it from your computer. If you have registered your copy of Ultra Fractal, you may continue to use your shareware version beyond the end of the 30-day evaluation period until your registration code arrives. While you are evaluating the shareware version of Ultra Fractal, you may test it on as many computers as are required to evaluate the program. Your 30-day evaluation period starts when you first install Ultra Fractal on one or more computers. After the evaluation period, you must register the program, if you decide to continue using it. I encourage you to distribute the shareware version of Ultra Fractal and give copies to friends, as long as there is no payment involved, more than a nominal fee ($5). For more information about distribution, please read VENDOR.TXT. Note that you are not allowed to distribute or copy the registered version of Ultra Fractal. The registered version is a commercial program. It is a violation of international copyright laws to give copies to others. You may give them the shareware version, so they can register the program on their own. 3.2 HOW TO REGISTER You can easily register Ultra Fractal from within the program. Click the Register button on the Registration reminder dialogs at the beginning or the end of the program, or choose "Register..." from the File menu. The Register dialog will pop up. Click the "Create form..." button to create a registration form. Please fill in the form carefully. If you have an e-mail address, you may specify that, too. It will speed up the registration process. When you are ready, click the OK button. You can now indicate the printer port, or have the form printed to a file. Click the OK button to start printing. You can either send the form by mail or by e-mail to the following address: Regular mail: F. J. Slijkerman Prof. P. Scholtenlaan 38 1181 ME Amstelveen The Netherlands E-mail: slijkerman@compuserve.com Don't forget to send the registration form! I cannot create your personal registration code if you forget to send the registration form! You will also need to send the money. To do so, you must directly credit my bank account. Remit net. US $25 to the following account: Giro number: 6909481 Name and address: F. J. Slijkerman Prof. P. Scholtenlaan 38 1181 ME Amstelveen The Netherlands while mentioning a SWIFT-code: ING BNL 2A It usually costs about $10 to remit money from abroad to the Netherlands - you will have to take care of it. Add $5 if you want me to send Ultra Fractal on a 3.5" diskette by regular mail, in case you don't have access to an online service. Otherwise, only the registration code will be sent to you, and it is assumed that you already own the current version. As soon as your registration form and the money have arrived, your registration code will be sent to you. It can be sent by e-mail, if you have included your e-mail address with the registration form. Otherwise, it will be sent by regular mail. Enter the code into the program using the Register dialog. Click the "Enter code..." button. Enter your name and registration code, exactly as they appear on the letter you received. Click the OK button. If the name and the registration code match, Ultra Fractal will register itself. Thank you for registering! 3.3 REGISTRATION BENEFITS There are several reasons for registering Ultra Fractal: - It is a violation of international copyright laws to keep using Ultra Fractal after the trial period of 30 days without registering it. If you register the program, you will have a clear conscience. - The registration reminders at the beginning and the end of the program will disappear. So, you will never see those nice airplanes again... - Your name will appear in the About dialog to prove that you have registered the program and that you are allowed to use it. - You will support the creation of new, exciting programs like this one. Furthermore, I can keep improving Ultra Fractal. See "Features in next versions" of the online help for some examples of new features. - You will receive information when new versions are released. Minor updates (e.g. a subversion update, like 1.2 instead of 1.1) will be free. Major updates (with a new version number, like 2.0 instead of 1.1) will be available for a reduced price. 4 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS --------------------------- 4.1 MINIMAL CONFIGURATION The configuration described below is the minimal configuration. Ultra Fractal will work with this hardware, but not too fast. - 80386 processor - 640 kB conventional memory - VGA compatible video adapter, with 256 kB video memory - Hard disk 4.2 STANDARD CONFIGURATION With this configuration, Ultra Fractal will run smoothly. Especially a coprocessor is helpful in speeding up the calculations. - 80486 DX processor - 640 kB conventional memory - 4 MB XMS memory - SVGA VESA-compatible video adapter, with 1 MB video memory - Hard disk - Mouse 4.3 HIGH-END CONFIGURATION With this configuration, Ultra Fractal will run very fast. This is necessary to achieve a satisfying frame rate when zooming in real- time. - Pentium processor - 640 kB conventional memory - 4 MB XMS memory - SVGA VESA-compatible video adapter, with 2 MB video memory - Hard disk - Mouse You must use HIMEM.SYS, coming with MS-DOS 5.0 and higher, to make your extended memory available to Ultra Fractal. Refer to your DOS manual for instructions on how to do this. 4.4 CONFIGURATION PROBLEMS Ultra Fractal has extensively been tested with both DOS and Windows 95. However, it has not been tested with Windows 3.1 / 3.11 or OS/2. If you experience any problems using these or other operating systems, please let me know! My address can be found in section [7.3]: Contact the author. Problems with Windows 95 are often caused by invalid shortcut settings. The UF.PIF file, distributed with Ultra Fractal, contains all necessary settings for the program. Please note that your video card has to be VESA 1.2 compatible to work with Ultra Fractal! Otherwise, the SVGA modes will probably not work. You can almost always load a VESA driver to make your card compatible. Of course, your card has to support SVGA modes in its hardware. Contact the manufacturer of your card for a driver, or search on CompuServe or on the Internet. If you can't find a suitable driver, try UniVBE - it will work on almost any adapter. 5 INSTALLATION -------------------- 5.1 DOS INSTALLATION Installation of Ultra Fractal should not be a problem. Either you have the program on a diskette, or in a ZIP or similar archive. If the program is archived, unarchive it first in a temporary directory. Then, execute the Setup program (SETUP.EXE). It will create a directory on your hard drive and install all program files to that directory. You will be guided through the installation process by Setup. 5.2 WINDOWS INSTALLATION After you have installed the program, you may want to install it in Windows. Therefore, an icon (UF.ICO) and a configuration file (UF.PIF) are distributed with the program. The directories in the UF.PIF file are automatically changed according to the installation directory selected when installing the program. 5.2.1 Windows 95 This procedure will create two icons on the desktop and it will associate Ultra Fractal files with Ultra Fractal or its viewer. 1. Start the Explorer. 2. Open the folder where you have installed Ultra Fractal (default: C:\UF). 3. Find the UF.PIF file and drag it to the desktop. 4. Find the UFGVIEW.PIF file and drag it to the desktop, too. 5. Click on the "uf" icon on the desktop and change the name to "Ultra Fractal 1.1". 6. Click on the "ufgview" icon on the desktop and change its name to "UFG Viewer". 7. Choose Options from the View menu in the Explorer. Click on the File Types tab. 8. Click on the New Type button. The Add New File Type dialog will appear. 9. In the Description of type field, type "UF Image". In the Associated extension field, type "UFG". Click on the Change Icon button. Type the path and filename of the UF.ICO file distri- buted with Ultra Fractal (default: C:\UF\UF.ICO) and press Enter. Click on the OK button. 10. Click on the New button. In the Action field, type "Open". In the Application field, type the path and filename of Ultra Fractal (default: C:\UF\UF.EXE). Click on the OK button. 11. Click on the New button. In the Action field, type "View". In the Application field, type the path and filename of the UFG Viewer (default: C:\UF\UFGVIEW.EXE). Click on the OK button. 12. Click on the Close button. 13. Click on the New Type button. In the Description of type field, type "UF Parameters". In the Associated extension field, type "UFD". Click on the Change Icon button. Type the path and filename of the UFD.ICO file distributed with Ultra Fractal (default: C:\UF\UFD.ICO) and press Enter. Click on the OK button. 14. Click on the New button. In the Action field, type "Open". In the Application field, type the path and filename of Ultra Fractal (default: C:\UF\UF.EXE). Click on the OK button. Click on the Close button. 15. Click on the New Type button. In the Description of type field, type "UF Palette". In the Associated extension field, type "UFP". Click on the Change Icon button. Type the path and filename of the UFP.ICO file distributed with Ultra Fractal (default: C:\UF\UFP.ICO) and press Enter. Click on the OK button. 16. Click on the New button. In the Action field, type "Open". In the Application field, type the path and filename of Ultra Fractal (default: C:\UF\UF.EXE). Click on the OK button. Click on the Close button. 17. Click on the Close button. 18. You have now completed the Windows 95 installation of Ultra Fractal. You can open images, parameter files and palette files by double-clicking on them or by dragging them to the Ultra Fractal icon or the UFG Viewer icon on the desktop. You can start Ultra Fractal by double-clicking on the Ultra Fractal icon on the desktop. You can quickly view images by right- clicking on them and choosing "View". 6 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ---------------------------------- 6.1 WINDOWS PROBLEMS 6.1.1 Why does Windows quickly switch between window and full-screen mode every time I calculate a fractal? This is a configuration problem. Solve it as follows. Start Ultra Fractal, and choose "DOS shell" from the File menu. Windows now switches to a window. Press Alt+Enter to switch to full-screen mode. Exit the DOS shell by entering "exit" and pressing Enter. Now, the problem should be solved. 6.1.2 Ultra Fractal runs slower under Windows than under DOS. Why? This is caused by Windows. Especially in the Enhanced mode, Windows uses a substantial amount of system time to perform certain functions, like disk caching, providing memory, providing computer time for other applications, etc. This will cause Ultra Fractal to run about 10% slower. 6.1.3 The GUI screen output is extremely slow when running Windows. Under DOS, it is fine. How can I solve it? This problem is caused by the setting "Monitor ports" in the .PIF file. If you are using Windows 3.1 / 3.11, you can uncheck this option using the PIF editor. If you are using Windows 95, delete the .PIF file and create a new shortcut. It will not contain the setting. A good shortcut is the UF.PIF file, distributed with Ultra Fractal. 6.2 VIDEO ADAPTER PROBLEMS 6.2.1 The SVGA resolutions are not available. I am sure that I have an SVGA adapter, though. What's the problem? Maybe your SVGA adapter is not fully VESA v1.2 compatible. This is a common standard for all SVGA adapters. If your adapter is not compati- ble, you can load a TSR to make it compatible. Such a TSR can probably be obtained from your adapter manufacturer. You can look on CompuServe or similar online services. 6.2.2 Hardware scrolling is unavailable for my favorite video mode. How can I make it available? First, you'll want to have a VESA v1.2 compatible adapter. If you have one, you have to install more video memory. The amount of video memory required to use a video mode can be calculated as follows: Memory = HorSize * VerSize where HorSize is the horizontal resolution and VerSize is the vertical resolution. For hardware scrolling, there should be at least two times as much memory as this formula indicates. With 2 MB, you will be able to use hardware scrolling in all video modes, except for 1280 x 1024. 7 DISTRIBUTION -------------------- 7.1 COMPUSERVE Ultra Fractal is available on CompuServe in many forums. However, it's home forum is Graphics Developers. Here, you can download the newest version, updates and parameter files. Also, you can discuss with other users about Ultra Fractal and other fractal-related topics. GO GRAPHDEV to enter the Graphics Developers forum. 7.2 INTERNET Ultra Fractal has its own homepage on the World Wide Web. Here, you can download the current version of Ultra Fractal, read the latest news and enjoy the images in the image gallery. Also, there are detailed descriptions of Ultra Fractal, articles about fractals in general and the Mandelbrot set in particular, and tutorials that will teach you how to get the most out of Ultra Fractal. Finally, you can send e-mail to the author and find links to fractal-related pages on the Internet. The address of the Ultra Fractal homepage is: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/slijkerman/ 7.3 CONTACTING THE AUTHOR You can contact me for the most current version. I will send you the shareware version for the nominal fee of US $5. The registered version costs US $30. See section [3.2]: How to Register for more information. You can also contact me if you have any questions, bug reports, etc. Addresses: Regular mail: F. J. Slijkerman Prof. P. Scholtenlaan 38 1181 ME Amstelveen The Netherlands E-mail: slijkerman@compuserve.com 8 VERSION HISTORY ----------------------- 8.1 VERSION 1.1 - October 31th, 1997 8.1.1 Improvements - You can now zoom continuously using the real-time zooming feature, by pressing Enter in the Fractal screen. This is very exciting, but you need a relatively fast processor. It only works in the standard VGA video mode with 320x200 pixels, due to memory constraints under MS-DOS. - Mandelbrot floating-point calculation loop has been optimized for Pentium processors. The new loop is more than twice as fast as the old loop on a Pentium. Ultra Fractal automatically chooses the old routine if a 486 or older processor is detected. - New inside coloring option has been added. This option is accessible through the Inside density input box in the Main dialog. - Nine new fractal formulas for both Mandelbrot and Julia sets have been added. - New guessing method for faster drawing of images has been added. - Browsing will now also work with arbitrary sized images. - You can now zoom instantly in the Fractal screen by clicking the left mouse button; right-clicking will return you to the GUI screen. - Ultra Fractal will remember the last path used when opening or saving a file. - The random palette function of the palette editor has been improved. The palettes it generates are much more useful now. - It's much easier to mark a color in the palette editor: just right- click on the color you want to mark. - The random palette function is now accessible from outside the palette editor, using the Q key. The Q key works inside the palette editor, in the Fractal screen, in Browse mode and in real-time zooming mode. - Added a search facility to the Index dialog of the online help system. - Added inside support to the "iterfile.c" and "iterfile.pas" programs. See "Iteration files" in the online help for more information. - The online documentation has been revised and extended. - Much more example images have been created, including all new formulas, and examples on the use of the Inside density value. 8.1.2 Bug fixes - Serious bugs in the VESA video routines have been fixed; Ultra Fractal should now run properly on much more different kinds of video adapters. - Ultra Fractal will no longer crash upon calculating an image using the Parameter list dialog. - Animating random palettes will no longer cause the image to show an abrupt change between colors; instead, all color boundaries will stay smooth now. - When you zoom in further than possible the Magnification will be limited to its maximum value and Ultra Fractal won't zoom any further, rather than acting strange. - Bug fixed that caused the mouse pointer to disappear when zooming or switching with no mouse driver loaded. - Bug that didn't allow the Calculating image dialog to move around has been fixed. - Bug fixed that caused the program to crash when you pressed a mouse button or a key in the Calculating image dialog with some combinations of options. - Screen saver bug has been fixed that disabled the screen saver when the status bar was turned off. - Removed some little bugs from the "iterfile.c" program. See "Iteration files" in the online help for more information. - Minor bug in the Tutorial has been fixed. - Minor bug in the Export image dialog has been fixed. - Minor Help bug has been fixed. 8.2 VERSION 1.0 - April 9th, 1997 This is the initial release.