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- ~Topic=Common Problems
-
- Of course, Fractint would never stoop to having a "common" problem. These
- notes describe some, ahem, "special situations" which come up occasionally
- and which even we haven't the gall to label as "features".
-
- Hang during startup:\
- There might be a problem with Fractint's video detection logic and your
- particular video adapter. Try running with "fractint adapter=xxx" where
- xxx is cga, ega, egamono, mcga, or vga. If "adapter=vga" works, and you
- really have a SuperVGA adapter capable of higher video modes, there are
- other "adapter=" options for a number of SuperVGA chipsets - please see
- the full selection in {Video Parameters} for details. If this solves the
- problem, create an SSTOOLS.INI file with the "adapter=xxx" command in it
- so that the fix will apply to every run.\
- Another possible cause: If you install the latest Fractint in say
- directory "newfrac", then run it from another directory with the command
- "\\newfrac\\fractint", *and* you have an older version of fractint.exe
- somewhere in your DOS PATH, a silent hang is all you'll get. See the
- notes under the "Cannot find FRACTINT.EXE message" problem for the reason.\
- Another possibility: try one of the "textsafe" parameter choices
- described in {Video Parameters}.
-
- Scrambled image when returning from a text mode display:\
- If an image which has been partly or completely generated gets partly
- destroyed when you return to it from the menu, help, or the information
- display, please try the various "textsafe" parameter options - see
- {Video Parameters} for details. If this cures the problem, create
- an SSTOOLS.INI file with the "textsafe=xxx" command so that the fix will
- apply to every run.
-
- "Holes" in an image while it is being drawn:\
- Little squares colored in your "inside" color, in a pattern of every
- second square of that size, in solid guessing mode, both across and down
- (i.e., 1 out of 4), are
- a symptom of an image which should be calculated with more conservative
- periodicity checking than the default. See the Periodicity parameter
- under {Image Calculation Parameters}.
-
- Black bar at top of screen during color cycling on 8086/8088 machines:\
- (This might happen intermittently, not every run.)\
- "fractint cyclelimit=10" might cure the problem. If so, increase
- the cyclelimit value (try increasing by 5 or 10 each time) until the
- problem reappears, then back off one step and add that cyclelimit value
- to your SSTOOLS.INI file.
-
- Other video problems:
-
- If you are using a VESA driver with your video adapter, the first thing
- to try is the "vesadetect=no" parameter. If that fixes the problem, add
- it to your SSTOOLS.INI file to make the fix permanent.
-
- It may help to explicitly specify your type of adapter - see the
- "adapter=" parameter in {Video Parameters}.
-
- We've had one case where a video driver for Windows does not work
- properly with Fractint. If running under Windows, DesqView, or some
- other layered environment, try running Fractint directly from DOS to see
- if that avoids the problem.\
- We've also had one case of a problem co-existing with "386 to the Max".
-
- We've had one report of an EGA adapter which got scrambled images in
- all modes until "textsafe=no" was used (see {Video Parameters}).
-
- Also, see {Video Adapter Notes} for information
- about enhanced video modes - Fractint makes only limited attempts to
- verify that a video mode you request is actually supported by your
- adapter.
- ~OnlineFF
-
- Other Hangs and Strange Behaviour:\
- We've had some problems (hanges and solid beeps) on an FPU equipped
- machine when running under Windows 3's enhanced mode. The only ways
- around the problem we can find are to either run the Fractint image
- involved outside Windows, or to use the DOS command "SET NO87=nofpu"
- before running Fractint. (This SET command makes Fractint ignore your
- fpu, so things might be a lot slower as a result.)
-
- Insufficient memory:\
- Fractint requires a fair bit of memory to run. Most machines with at
- least 640k (ok sticklers, make that "PC-compatible machines") will have
- no problem. Machines with 512k and machines with many TSR utilities
- and/or a LAN interface may have problems. Some Fractint features
- allocate memory when required during a run. If you get a message about
- insufficient memory, or suspect that some problem is due to a memory
- shortage, you could try commenting out some TSR utilities in your
- AUTOEXEC.BAT file, some non-critical drivers in your CONFIG.SYS file, or
- reducing the BUFFERS parameter in your CONFIG.SYS.
- ~OnlineFF
-
- "Cannot find FRACTINT.EXE" message:\
- Fractint is an overlayed program - some parts of it are brought from
- disk into memory only when used. The overlay manager needs to know
- where to find the program. It must be named FRACTINT.EXE (which it is
- unless somebody renamed it), and you should either be in the directory
- containing it when you start Fractint, or that directory should be in
- your DOS PATH.
-
- "File FRACTINT.CFG is missing or invalid" message:\
- You should either start Fractint while you are in the directory
- containing it, or should have that directory in your DOS PATH variable.
- If that isn't the problem, maybe you have a FRACTINT.CFG file from an
- older release of Fractint lying around? If so, best rename or delete it.
- If that isn't the problem either, then the FRACTINT.CFG included in the
- FRAINT.EXE release file has probably been changed or deleted. Best
- reinstall Fractint to get a fresh copy.
- ~OnlineFF
-
- Some other program doesn't like GIF files created by Fractint:\
- Fractint generates nice clean GIF89A spec files, honest! But telling
- this to the other program isn't likely to change its mind. Instead, try
- an option which might get around the problem: run Fractint with the
- command line option "gif87a=yes" and then save an image. Fractint will
- store the image in the older GIF87A format, without any fractal
- parameters in it (so you won't be able to load the image back into
- Fractint and zoom into it - the fractal type, coordinates, etc. are not
- stored in this older format), and without an "aspect ratio" in the GIF
- header (we've seen one utility which doesn't like that field.)
-
- Disk video mode performance:\
- This won't be blindingly fast at the best of times, but there are things
- which can slow it down and can be tuned. See {"Disk-Video" Modes}
- for details.
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Fractals and the PC
- ;
- ; empty for document, present just so we can reference the subject
-
- ~Format-,Doc-
-
- A Little History:
- { Before Mandelbrot }
- { Who Is This Guy, Anyway? }
-
- A Little Code:
- { Periodicity Logic }
- { Limitations of Integer Math (And How We Cope) }
- { The Fractint "Fractal Engine" Architecture }
-
- A Little Math:
- { Summary of Fractal Types }
- { Inside=bof60|bof61|zmag }
- { Inside=epscross|startrail }
- { Finite Attractors }
- { Trig Identities }
- ~Format+,Doc+
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Before Mandelbrot
-
- Like new forms of life, new branches of mathematics and science don't
- appear from nowhere. The ideas of fractal geometry can be traced to the
- late nineteenth century, when mathematicians created shapes -- sets of
- points -- that seemed to have no counterpart in nature. By a wonderful
- irony, the "abstract" mathematics descended from that work has now turned
- out to be MORE appropriate than any other for describing many natural
- shapes and processes.
-
- Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. The Greek geometers worked out the
- mathematics of the conic sections for its formal beauty; it was two
- thousand years before Copernicus and Brahe, Kepler and Newton overcame the
- preconception that all heavenly motions must be circular, and found the
- ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola in the paths of planets, comets, and
- projectiles.
-
- In the 17th century Newton and Leibniz created calculus, with its
- techniques for "differentiating" or finding the derivative of functions --
- in geometric terms, finding the tangent of a curve at any given point.
- True, some functions were discontinuous, with no tangent at a gap or an
- isolated point. Some had singularities: abrupt changes in direction at
- which the idea of a tangent becomes meaningless. But these were seen as
- exceptional, and attention was focused on the "well-behaved" functions
- that worked well in modeling nature.
-
- Beginning in the early 1870s, though, a 50-year crisis transformed
- mathematical thinking. Weierstrass described a function that was
- continuous but nondifferentiable -- no tangent could be described at any
- point. Cantor showed how a simple, repeated procedure could turn a line
- into a dust of scattered points, and Peano generated a convoluted curve
- that eventually touches every point on a plane. These shapes seemed to
- fall "between" the usual categories of one-dimensional lines, two-
- dimensional planes and three-dimensional volumes. Most still saw them as
- "pathological" cases, but here and there they began to find applications.
-
- In other areas of mathematics, too, strange shapes began to crop up.
- Poincare attempted to analyze the stability of the solar system in the
- 1880s and found that the many-body dynamical problem resisted traditional
- methods. Instead, he developed a qualitative approach, a "state space" in
- which each point represented a different planetary orbit, and studied what
- we would now call the topology -- the "connectedness" -- of whole families
- of orbits. This approach revealed that while many initial motions quickly
- settled into the familiar curves, there were also strange, "chaotic"
- orbits that never became periodic and predictable.
-
- Other investigators trying to understand fluctuating, "noisy" phenomena --
- the flooding of the Nile, price series in economics, the jiggling of
- molecules in Brownian motion in fluids -- found that traditional models
- could not match the data. They had to introduce apparently arbitrary
- scaling features, with spikes in the data becoming rarer as they grew
- larger, but never disappearing entirely.
-
- For many years these developments seemed unrelated, but there were
- tantalizing hints of a common thread. Like the pure mathematicians' curves
- and the chaotic orbital motions, the graphs of irregular time series often
- had the property of self-similarity: a magnified small section looked very
- similar to a large one over a wide range of scales.
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Who Is This Guy\, Anyway?
-
- While many pure and applied mathematicians advanced these trends, it is
- Benoit Mandelbrot above all who saw what they had in common and pulled the
- threads together into the new discipline.
-
- He was born in Warsaw in 1924, and moved to France in 1935. In a time when
- French mathematical training was strongly analytic, he visualized problems
- whenever possible, so that he could attack them in geometric terms. He
- attended the Ecole Polytechnique, then Caltech, where he encountered the
- tangled motions of fluid turbulence.
-
- In 1958 he joined IBM, where he began a mathematical analysis of
- electronic "noise" -- and began to perceive a structure in it, a hierarchy
- of fluctuations of all sizes, that could not be explained by exiting
- statistical methods. Through the years that followed, one seemingly
- unrelated problem after another was drawn into the growing body of ideas
- he would come to call fractal geometry.
-
- As computers gained more graphic capabilities, the skills of his mind's
- eye were reinforced by visualization on display screens and plotters.
- Again and again, fractal models produced results -- series of flood
- heights, or cotton prices -- that experts said looked like "the real
- thing."
-
- Visualization was extended to the physical world as well. In a provocative
- essay titled "How Long Is the Coast of Britain?" Mandelbrot noted that the
- answer depends on the scale at which one measures: it grows longer and
- longer as one takes into account every bay and inlet, every stone, every
- grain of sand. And he codified the "self-similarity" characteristic of
- many fractal shapes -- the reappearance of geometrically similar features
- at all scales.
-
- First in isolated papers and lectures, then in two editions of his seminal
- book, he argued that many of science's traditional mathematical models are
- ill-suited to natural forms and processes: in fact, that many of the
- "pathological" shapes mathematicians had discovered generations before are
- useful approximations of tree bark and lung tissue, clouds and galaxies.
-
- Mandelbrot was named an IBM Fellow in 1974, and continues to work at the
- IBM Watson Research Center. He has also been a visiting professor and
- guest lecturer at many universities.
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Periodicity Logic
-
- The "Mandelbrot Lake" in the center of the M-set images is the traditional
- bane of plotting programs. It sucks up the most computer time because it
- always reaches the iteration limit -- and yet the most interesting areas
- are invariably right at the edge the lake.
- (See {The Mandelbrot Set} for a description of the iteration process.)
-
- Thanks to Mark Peterson for pointing out (well, he more like beat us over
- the head until we paid attention) that the iteration values in the middle
- of Mandelbrot Lake tend to decay to periodic loops (i.e., Z(n+m) == Z(n),
- a fact that is pointed out on pages 58-61 of "The Beauty of Fractals"). An
- intelligent program (like the one he wrote) would check for this
- periodicity once in a while, recognize that iterations caught in a loop
- are going to max out, and bail out early.
-
- For speed purposes, the current version of the program turns this checking
- algorithm on only if the last pixel generated was in the lake. (The
- checking itself takes a small amount of time, and the pixels on the very
- edge of the lake tend to decay to periodic loops very slowly, so this
- compromise turned out to be the fastest generic answer).
-
- Try a full M-set plot with a 1000-iteration maximum with any other
- program, and then try it on this one for a pretty dramatic proof of the
- value of periodicity checking.
-
- You can get a visual display of the periodicity effects if you press
- <O>rbits while plotting. This toggles display of the intermediate
- iterations during the generation process. It also gives you an idea of
- how much work your poor little PC is going through for you! If you use
- this toggle, it's best to disable solid-guessing first using <1> or <2>
- because in its second pass, solid-guessing bypasses many of the pixel
- calculations precisely where the orbits are most interesting.
-
- Mark was also responsible for pointing out that 16-bit integer math was
- good enough for the first few levels of M/J images, where the round-off
- errors stay well within the area covered by a single pixel. Fractint now
- uses 16-bit math where applicable, which makes a big difference on non-32-
- bit PCs.
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Limitations of Integer Math (And How We Cope)
-
- By default, Fractint uses 16-bit and/or 32-bit integer math to generate
- nearly all its fractal types. The advantage of integer math is speed: this
- is by far the fastest such plotter that we have ever seen on any PC. The
- disadvantage is an accuracy limit. Integer math represents numbers like
- 1.00 as 32-bit integers of the form [1.00 * (2^29)] (approximately
- a range of 500,000,000) for the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. Other integer
- fractal types use a bitshift of 24 rather than 29, so 1.0 is stored
- internally as [1.00 * (2^*24)]. This yields accuracy of better than 8
- significant digits, and works fine... until the initial values of the
- calculations on consecutive pixels differ only in the ninth decimal place.
-
- At that point, if Fractint has a floating-point algorithm handy for that
- particular fractal type (and virtually all of the fractal types have one
- these days), it will silently switch over to the floating-point algorithm
- and keep right on going. Fair warning - if you don't have an FPU, the
- effect is that of a rocket sled hitting a wall of jello, and even if you
- do, the slowdown is noticeable.
-
- If it has no floating-point algorithm, Fractint does the best it can: it
- switches to its minimal drawing mode, with adjacent pixels having initial
- values differing by 1 (really 0.000000002). Attempts to zoom further may
- result in moving the image around a bit, but won't actually zoom. If you
- are stuck with an integer algorithm, you can reach minimal mode with your
- fifth consecutive "maximum zoom", each of which covers about 0.25% of the
- previous screen. By then your full-screen image is an area less than
- 1/(10^13)th [\~0.0000000000001] the area of the initial screen. (If your
- image is rotated or stretched very slightly, you can run into the wall of
- jello as early as the fourth consecutive maximum zoom. Rotating or
- stretching by larger amounts has less impact on how soon you run into it.)
-
- Think of it this way: at minimal drawing mode, your VGA display would have
- to have a surface area of over one million square miles just to be able to
- display the entire M-set using the integer algorithms. Using the
- floating-point algorithms, your display would have to be big enough to fit
- the entire solar system out to the orbit of Saturn inside it. So there's
- a considerable saving on hardware, electricity and desk space involved
- here. Also, you don't have to take out asteroid insurance.
-
- 32 bit integers also limit the largest number which can be stored. This
- doesn't matter much since numbers outside the supported range (which is
- between -4 and +4) produce a boring single color. If you try to zoom-out
- to reduce the entire Mandelbrot set to a speck, or to squeeze
- it to a pancake, you'll find you can't do so in integer math mode.
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=The Fractint "Fractal Engine" Architecture
-
- Several of the authors would never ADMIT this, but Fractint has evolved a
- powerful and flexible architecture that makes adding new fractals very
- easy. (They would never admit this because they pride themselves on being
- the sort that mindlessly but happily hacks away at code and "sees if it
- works and doesn't hang the machine".)
-
- Many fractal calculations work by taking a rectangle in the complex plane,
- and, point by point, calculating a color corresponding to that point.
- Furthermore, the color calculation is often done by iterating a function
- over and over until some bailout condition is met.
- (See {The Mandelbrot Set} for a description of the iteration process.)
-
- In implementing such a scheme, there are three fractal-specific
- calculations that take place within a framework that is pretty much the
- same for them all. Rather than copy the same code over and over, we
- created a standard fractal engine that calls three functions that may be
- bolted in temporarily to the engine. The "bolting in" process uses the C
- language mechanism of variable function pointers.
-
- These three functions are:
-
- 1) a setup function that is run once per image, to do any required
- initialization of variables,
-
- 2) a once-per-pixel function that does whatever initialization has to
- be done to calculate a color for one pixel, and
-
- 3) a once-per-orbit-iteration function, which is the fundamental
- fractal algorithm that is repeatedly iterated in the fractal
- calculation.
-
- The common framework that calls these functions can contain all sorts of
- speedups, tricks, and options that the fractal implementor need not worry
- about. All that is necessary is to write the three functions in the
- correct way, and BINGO! - all options automatically apply. What makes it
- even easier is that usually one can re-use functions 1) and 2) written for
- other fractals, and therefore only need to write function 3).
-
- Then it occurred to us that there might be more than one sort of fractal
- engine, so we even allowed THAT to be bolted in. And we created a data
- structure for each fractal that includes pointers to these four functions,
- various prompts, a default region of the complex plane, and various
- miscellaneous bits of information that allow toggling between Julia and
- Mandelbrot or toggling between the various kinds of math used in
- implementation.
-
- That sounds pretty flexible, but there is one drawback - you have to be a
- C programmer and have a C compiler to make use of it! So we took it a step
- further, and designed a built-in high level compiler, so that you can
- enter the formulas for the various functions in a formula file in a
- straightforward algebra-like language, and Fractint will compile them and
- bolt them in for you!
-
- There is a terrible down side to this flexibility. Fractint users
- everywhere are going berserk. Fractal-inventing creativity is running
- rampant. Proposals for new fractal types are clogging the mail and the
- telephones.
-
- All we can say is that non-productivity software has never been so potent,
- and we're sorry, it's our fault!
-
- Fractint was compiled using Microsoft C 6.00A and Microsoft Assembler 5.1,
- using the "Medium" model. Note that the assembler code uses the "C" model
- option added to version 5.1, and must be assembled with the /MX or /ML
- switch to link with the "C" code. Because it has become too large to
- distribute comfortably as a single compressed file, and because many
- downloaders have no intention of ever modifying it, Fractint is now
- distributed as two files: one containing FRACTINT.EXE, auxiliary files and
- this document, and another containing complete source code (including a
- .MAK file and MAKEFRAC.BAT). See {Distribution of Fractint}.
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Inside=bof60|bof61|zmag
- ~Format-,Online-
-
- INSIDE=BOF60|BOF61|ZMAG
- ~Format+,Online+
-
- Here is an *ATTEMPTED* explanation of what the inside=bof60 and
- inside=bof61 options do. This explanation is hereby dedicated to Adrian
- Mariano, who badgered it out of us! For the *REAL* explanation, see
- "Beauty of Fractals", page 62.
-
- Let p(z) be the function that is repeatedly iterated to generate a fractal
- using the escape-time algorithm. For example, p(z) = z^2+c in the case of
- a Julia set. Then let pk(z) be the result of iterating the function p for
- k iterations. (The "k" should be shown as a superscript.) We could also
- use the notation pkc(z) when the function p has a parameter c, as it does
- in our example. Now hold your breath and get your thinking cap on. Define
- a(c) = inf\{|pck(0)|:k=1,2,3,...}. In English - a(c) is the greatest lower
- bound of the images of zero of as many iterations as you like. Put another
- way, a(c) is the closest to the origin any point in the orbit starting
- with 0 gets. Then the index (c) is the value of k (the iteration) when
- that closest point was achieved. Since there may be more than one,
- index(c) is the least such. Got it? Good, because the "Beauty of
- Fractals" explanation of this, is, ahhhh, *TERSE* ! Now for the punch
- line. Inside=bof60 colors the lake alternating shades according to the
- level sets of a(c). Each band represents solid areas of the fractal where
- the closest value of the orbit to the origin is the same. Inside=bof61
- show domains where index(c) is constant. That is, areas where the
- iteration when the orbit swooped closest to the origin has the same value.
- Well, folks, that's the best we can do! Improved explanations will be
- accepted for the next edition!
-
- inside=zmag is similar. This option colors inside pixels according to
- the magnitude of the orbit point when maxiter was reached, using the formula
- color = (x^2 + y^2) * maxiter/2 + 1.
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Inside=epscross|startrail
- ~Format-,Online-
-
- INSIDE=EPSCROSS|STARTRAIL
- ~Format+,Online+
-
- Kenneth Hooper has written a paper entitled "A Note On Some Internal
- Structures Of The Mandelbrot Set" published in "Computers and Graphics", Vol
- 15, No.2, pp. 295-297. In that article he describes Clifford Pickover's
- "epsilon cross" method which creates some mysterious plant-like tendrils in
- the Mandelbrot set. The algorithm is this. In the escape-time calculation of a
- fractal, if the orbit comes within .01 of the Y-axis, the orbit is terminated
- and the pixel is colored green. Similarly, the pixel is colored yellow if it
- approaches the X-axis. Strictly speaking, this is not an "inside" option
- because a point destined to escape could be caught by this bailout criterion.
-
- Hooper has another coloring scheme called "star trails" that involves
- detecting clusters of points being traversed by the orbit. A table of tangents
- of each orbit point is built, and the pixel colored according to how many
- orbit points are near the first one before the orbit flies out of the cluster.
- This option looks fine with maxiter=16, which greatly speeds the calculation.
-
- Both of these options should be tried with the outside color fixed
- (outside=<nnn>) so that the "lake" structure revealed by the algorithms can be
- more clearly seen. Epsilon Cross is fun to watch with boundary tracing turned
- on - even though the result is incorrect it is interesting! Shucks - what
- does "incorrect" mean in chaos theory anyway?!
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Finite Attractors
- ~Format-,Online-
-
- FINITE ATTRACTORS
- ~Format+,Online+
-
- Many of Fractint's fractals involve the iteration of functions of complex
- numbers until some "bailout" value is exceeded, then coloring the
- associated pixel according to the number of iterations performed. This
- process identifies which values tend to infinity when iterated, and gives
- us a rough measure of how "quickly" they get there.
-
- In dynamical terms, we say that "Infinity is an Attractor", as many
- initial values get "attracted" to it when iterated. The set of all points
- that are attracted to infinity is termed The Basin of Attraction of
- Infinity. The coloring algorithm used divides this Basin of Attraction
- into many distinct sets, each a single band of one color, representing all
- the points that are "attracted" to Infinity at the same "rate". These
- sets (bands of color) are termed "Level Sets" - all points in such a set
- are at the same "Level" away from the attractor, in terms of numbers of
- iterations required to exceed the bailout value.
-
- Thus, Fractint produces colored images of the Level Sets of the Basin of
- Attraction of Infinity, for all fractals that iterate functions of Complex
- numbers, at least. Now we have a sound mathematical definition of what
- Fractint's "bailout" processing generates, and we have formally introduced
- the terms Attractor, Basin of Attraction, and Level Set, so you should
- have little trouble following the rest of this section!
-
- For certain Julia-type fractals, Fractint can also display the Level Sets
- of Basins of Attraction of Finite Attractors. This capability is a by-
- product of the implementation of the MAGNETic fractal types, which always
- have at least one Finite Attractor.
-
- This option can be invoked by setting the "Look for finite attractor"
- option on the <Y> options screen, or by using the "inside=attractor"
- parameter.
-
- Most Julia-types that have a "lake" (normally colored blue by default)
- have a Finite Attractor within this lake, and the lake turns out to be,
- quite appropriately, the Basin of Attraction of this Attractor.
-
- The "inside=attractor" option (command-line or <Y> options screen)
- instructs Fractint to seek out and identify a possible Finite Attractor
- and, if found, to display the Level Sets of its Basin of Attraction, in
- addition to those of the Basin of Attraction of Infinity. In many cases
- this results in a "lake" with colored "waves" in it; in other cases there
- may be little change in the lake's appearance.
-
- For a quick demonstration, select a fractal type of LAMBDA, with a
- parameter of 0.5 + 0.5i. You will obtain an image with a large blue lake.
- Now set "inside=attractors" with the "X" menu. The image will be re-drawn
- with a much more colorful lake. A Finite Attractor lives in the center of
- one of the resulting "ripple" patterns in the lake - turn the <O>rbits
- display on to see where it is - the orbits of all initial points that are
- in the lake converge there.
-
- Fractint tests for the presence of a Finite Attractor by iterating a
- Critical Value of the fractal's function. If the iteration doesn't bail
- out before exceeding twice the iteration limit, it is almost certain that
- we have a Finite Attractor - we assume that we have.
-
- Next we define a small circle around it and, after each iteration, as well
- as testing for the usual bailout value being exceeded, we test to see if
- we've hit the circle. If so, we bail out and color our pixels according to
- the number of iterations performed. Result - a nicely colored-in lake
- that displays the Level Sets of the Basin of Attraction of the Finite
- Attractor. Sometimes !
-
- First exception : This does not work for the lakes of Mandel-types. Every
- point in a Mandel-type is, in effect, a single point plucked from one of
- its related Julia-types. A Mandel-type's lake has an infinite number of
- points, and thus an infinite number of related Julia-type sets, and
- consequently an infinite number of finite attractors too. It *MAY* be
- possible to color in such a lake, by determining the attractor for EVERY
- pixel, but this would probably treble (at least) the number of iterations
- needed to draw the image. Due to this overhead, Finite Attractor logic
- has not been implemented for Mandel-types.
-
- Secondly, certain Julia-types with lakes may not respond to this
- treatment, depending on the parameter value used. E.g., the Lambda Set
- for 0.5 + 0.5i responds well; the Lambda Set for 0.0 + 1.0i does not - its
- lake stays blue. Attractors that consist of single points, or a cycle of
- a finite number of points are ok. Others are not. If you're into fractal
- technospeke, the implemented approach fails if the Julia-type is a
- Parabolic case, or has Siegel Disks, or has Herman Rings.
-
- However, all the difficult cases have one thing in common - they all have
- a parameter value that falls exactly on the edge of the related Mandel-
- type's lake. You can avoid them by intelligent use of the Mandel-Julia
- Space-Bar toggle: Pick a view of the related Mandel-type where the center
- of the screen is inside the lake, but not too close to its edge, then use
- the space-bar toggle. You should obtain a usable Julia-type with a lake,
- if you follow this guideline.
-
- Thirdly, the initial implementation only works for Julia-types that use
- the "Standard" fractal engine in Fractint. Fractals with their own
- special algorithms are not affected by Finite Attractor logic, as yet.
-
- Despite these restrictions, the Finite Attractor logic can produce
- interesting results. Just bear in mind that it is principally a bonus
- off-shoot from the development of the MAGNETic fractal types, and is not
- specifically tuned for optimal performance for other Julia types.
-
- (Thanks to Kevin Allen for the above).
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Trig Identities
- ~Online-
-
- TRIG IDENTITIES
- ~Online+
-
- The following trig identities are invaluable for coding fractals that use
- complex-valued transcendental functions.
-
- ~Format-
- e^(x+iy) = (e^x)cos(y) + i(e^x)sin(y)
-
- sin(x+iy) = sin(x)cosh(y) + icos(x)sinh(y)
- cos(x+iy) = cos(x)cosh(y) - isin(x)sinh(y)
- sinh(x+iy) = sinh(x)cos(y) + icosh(x)sin(y)
- cosh(x+iy) = cosh(x)cos(y) + isinh(x)sin(y)
-
- cosxx(x+iy) = cos(x)cosh(y) + isin(x)sinh(y)
- (cosxx is present in Fractint to provide compatibility with a bug
- which was in its cos calculation before version 16)
-
- ln(x+iy) = (1/2)ln(x*x + y*y) + i(arctan(y/x) + 2kPi)
- (k = 0, +-1, +-2, +-....)
-
- sin(2x) sinh(2y)
- tan(x+iy) = ------------------ + i------------------
- cos(2x) + cosh(2y) cos(2x) + cosh(2y)
- ~OnlineFF
-
- sinh(2x) sin(2y)
- tanh(x+iy) = ------------------ + i------------------
- cosh(2x) + cos(2y) cosh(2x) + cos(2y)
-
- sin(2x) - i*sinh(2y)
- cotan(x+iy) = --------------------
- cosh(2y) - cos(2x)
-
- sinh(2x) - i*sin(2y)
- cotanh(x+iy) = --------------------
- cosh(2x) - cos(2y)
-
- z^z = e^(log(z)*z)
-
- log(x+iy) = 1/2(log(x*x + y*y) + i(arc_tan(y/x))
-
- e^(x+iy) = (cosh(x) + sinh(x)) * (cos(y) + isin(y))
- = e^x * (cos(y) + isin(y))
- = (e^x * cos(y)) + i(e^x * sin(y))
- ~Format+
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=GIF Save File Format
-
- Since version 5.0, Fractint has had the <S>ave-to-disk command, which
- stores screen images in the extremely compact, flexible .GIF (Graphics
- Interchange Format) widely supported on Compuserve. Version 7.0 added the
- <R>estore-from-disk capability.
-
- Until version 14, Fractint saved images as .FRA files, which were a
- non-standard extension of the then-current GIF87a specification. The
- reason was that GIF87a did not offer a place to store the extra
- information needed by Fractint to implement the
- <R> feature -- i.e., the parameters that let you keep zooming, etc.
- as if the restored file had just been created in this session.
- The .FRA format worked with all of the popular GIF decoders that we
- tested, but these were not true GIF files. For one thing,
- information after the GIF terminator (which is where we put the extra info)
- has the potential to confuse the
- online GIF viewers used on Compuserve. For another, it is the opinion of
- some GIF developers that the addition of this extra information violates
- the GIF87a spec. That's why we used the default filetype .FRA instead.
-
- Since version 14, Fractint has used a genuine .GIF format, using the
- GIF89a spec - an upwardly compatible extension of GIF87a, released by
- Compuserve on August 1 1990.
- This new spec allows the
- placement of application data within "extension blocks".
- In version 14 we changed our default savename extension from .FRA
- to .GIF.
-
- There is one significant advantage to the new GIF89a format compared to
- the old GIF87a-based .FRA format for Fractint purposes: the new .GIF
- files may be uploaded to the Compuserve graphics forums (such as
- Fractint's home forum, COMART) with fractal information intact. Therefore
- anyone downloading a Fractint image from Compuserve will also be
- downloading all the information needed to regenerate the image.
-
- Fractint can still read .FRA files generated by
- earlier versions. If for some reason you wish to save files in the older
- GIF87a format, for example because your favorite GIF decoder has not yet
- been upgraded to GIF89a, use the command-line parameter "GIF87a=yes".
- Then any saved files will use the original GIF87a format without any
- application-specific information.
-
- An easy way to convert an older .FRA file into true .GIF format suitable
- for uploading is something like this at the DOS prompt:\
- FRACTINT MYFILE.FRA SAVENAME=MYFILE.GIF BATCH=YES\
- Fractint will load MYFILE.FRA, save it in true .GIF format as MYFILE.GIF,
- and return to DOS.
-
- GIF and "Graphics Interchange Format" are trademarks of Compuserve
- Incorporated, an H&R Block Company.
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Using Fractint With a Mouse
- ; This topic is online only.
-
- ~FormatExclude-
- Left Button: Brings up and sizes the Zoom Box. While holding down the
- left button, push the mouse forward to shrink the Zoom Box,
- and pull it back to expand it.
- Double-clicking the left button performs the Zoom.
-
- Right Button: While holding the right button held down, move the mouse
- from side to side to 'rotate' the Zoom Box. Move the mouse
- forward or back to change the Zoom Box color.
- Double-clicking the right button performs a 'Zoom-Out'.
-
- Both Buttons: (or the middle button, if you have three of them) While
- holding down both buttons, move the mouse up and down to
- stretch/shrink the height of the Zoom Box, or side to side
- to 'squish' the Zoom Box into a non-rectangular shape.
-
- Zoom and Pan using the mouse typically consists of pushing in the left
- button, sizing the zoom box, letting go of the button, panning to the
- general area, then double-clicking the left button to perform the Zoom.
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Selecting a video mode when loading a file, Label=HELPLOADFILE
- ; This topic is only online, context-sensitive.
- ~Format-
-
- The most suitable video modes for the file are listed first.
-
- The 'err' column in the video mode information indicates:
- blank mode seems perfect for this image
- v image smaller than screen, will be loaded in a <v>iew window
- c mode has more colors than image needs
- * a major problem, one or more of the following is also shown:
- C mode has too few colors
- R image larger than screen, Fractint will reduce the image, possibly
- into a <v>iew window, and maybe with aspect ratio a bit wrong
- A mode has the wrong shape of pixels for this image
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Distribution of Fractint
- ~Format-,Online-
-
- DISTRIBUTION OF FRACTINT
- ~Format+,Online+
-
- New versions of FRACTINT are uploaded to the CompuServe network, and make
- their way to other systems from that point. FRACTINT is available as
- two self-extracting archive files - FRAINT.EXE (executable & documentation)
- and FRASRC.EXE (source code).
-
- The latest version can always be found on CompuServe in the "Fractals"
- library of the COMART forum. If you're not a Compuserve subscriber, but
- wish to get more information about Compuserve and its graphics forums,
- feel free to call their 800 number (800-848-8199) and ask for operator
- number 229.
-
- If you don't have access to Compuserve, many other sites tend to carry
- these files shortly after their initial release (although sometimes
- using different naming conventions). For instance...
-
- If you speak Internet and FTP, SIMTEL20 and its various mirror sites
- tend to carry new versions of Fractint shortly after they are released.
- look in the PD:<MSDOS.GRAPHICS> directory for files named FRA*.*. Then
- again, if you don't speak Internet and FTP...
- ~OnlineFF
-
- Your favorite local BBS probably carries these files as well (although
- perhaps not the latest versions) using naming conventions like FRA*.ZIP.
- One BBS that *does* carry the latest version is the "Ideal Studies BBS"
- (508)757-1806, 1200/2400/9600HST. Peter Longo is the SYSOP and a true
- fractal fanatic. There is a very short registration, and thereafter the
- entire board is open to callers on the first call. Then again, if you
- don't even have a modem...
-
- Many Shareware/Freeware library services will ship you diskettes containing
- the latest versions of Fractint for a nominal fee that basically covers
- their cost of packaging and a small profit that we don't mind them making.
- One in particular is the Public (Software) Library, PO Box 35705,
- Houston, TX 77235-5705, USA. Their phone number is 800-242-4775 (outside
- the US, dial 713-524-6398). Ask for item #9112 for five 5.25" disks, #9113
- for three 3.5" disks. Cost is $6.99 plus $4 S&H in the U.S./Canada, $11
- S&H overseas.
-
-
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Contacting the Authors
- ~Format-,Online-
-
- CONTACTING THE AUTHORS
- ~Format+,Online+
-
- Communication between the authors for development of the next version of
- Fractint takes place in COMART (Computer Art) Section 15 (Fractals) of
- CompuServe (CIS).
-
- Most of the authors have never met except on Compuserve.
- Access to the COMART forum is open to any and all interested
- in computer generated fractals.
- New members are always welcome!
- Stop on by if you have any questions or
- just want to take a peek at what's getting tossed into the soup.
-
- Also, you'll find many GIF image files generated by fellow Fractint fans
- and many fractal programs as well in the COMART forum's data library 15.
-
- If you're not a Compuserve subscriber, but wish to get more information
- about Compuserve and its graphics forums, feel free to call their 800
- number (800-848-8199) and ask for operator number 229.
-
- The following authors have agreed to the distribution of their addresses.
- Usenet/Internet/Bitnet/Whatevernet users can reach CIS users directly if
- they know the user ID (i.e., Bert Tyler can be reached as
- 73477.433@compuserve.com).
-
- Just remember that CIS charges by the minute, so it costs us a little bit
- to read a message -- don't kill us with kindness. And don't send all your
- mail to Bert -- spread it around a little!
-
- Main authors (in historical order):
-
- ~Format-
- Bert Tyler [73477,433] on CIS
- Tyler Software (which is also 73477.433@compuserve.com, if
- 124 Wooded Lane you're on the Internet - see above)
- Villanova, PA 19085
- (215) 525-5478
-
- Timothy Wegner [71320,675] on CIS
- 4714 Rockwood nmittiw@mwvm.mitre.org on Internet
- Houston, TX 77004 twegner@mwunix.mitre.org on Internet
- (713) 747-7543
-
- Mark Peterson [70441,3353] on CIS
- The Yankee Programmer
- 405-C Queen St., Suite #181
- Southington, CT 06489
- (203) 276-9721
-
- Pieter Branderhorst [72611,2257] on CIS
- Amthor Computer Consultants
- 645 Radcliffe Lane
- Victoria, B.C., Canada V8S 5B8
- (604) 598-1299
-
- Contributing authors (in alphabetic order);
-
- Joseph A Albrecht
- 9250 Old Cedar Ave #215
- Bloomington, Mn 55425
- (612) 884-3286
-
- Kevin C Allen kevin@brahman.syd.bull.oz.au on Internet
- PO Box 652
- Seven Hills
- NSW 2147
- Australia
- (02) 887-9187 (Work)
- (02) 831-4821 (Home)
-
- Rob Beyer [71021,2074] on CIS
- 23 Briarwood Lane
- Laguna Hills, CA, 92656
- (714) 957-0227
- (7-12pm PST & weekends)
-
- John W. Bridges (Author GRASP/Pictor, Imagetools, PICEM, VGAKIT)
- 2810 Serang Place Costa Mesa
- California 92626-4827 [75300,2137] on CIS, GENIE:JBRIDGES
-
- Michael D. Burkey burkey@sun9.math.utk.edu on Internet
- 6600 Crossgate Rd.
- Knoxville, TN 37912
-
- Lee Daniel Crocker [73407,2030] on CIS
- 5506 Camden Ave #D3 lee@mport.com (Microport)
- San Jose, CA 95124 ...!uunet!mport!lee
- (408) 267-2926
-
- Monte Davis [71450,3542] on CIS
- 31 Washington St
- Brooklyn, NY 11201
- (718) 625-4610
-
- Lutz Glagau glagau@hrz.uni-siegen.dbp.de on INTERNET
- Computer Center of the University of Siegen
- Hoelderlinstrasse 3
- D 5900 Siegen
- Germany
- Tel: (+)271/740-3283 (adm.)
- (+)271/79840 (priv.)
- (Lutz has volunteered to act as a contact point in Germany for info
- about latest version)
-
- David Guenther [70531,3525] on CIS
- 50 Rockview Drive
- Irvine, CA 92715
-
- Michael L. Kaufman kaufman@eecs.nwu.edu on INTERNET
- 2247 Ridge Ave, #2K (also accessible via EXEC-PC bbs)
- Evanston, IL, 60201
- (708) 864-7916
-
- Wesley Loewer
- 78 S. Circlewood Glen
- The Woodlands, TX 77381
- (713) 292-3449
-
-
- Adrian Mariano adrian@u.washington.edu on INTERNET
- 2729 72nd AVE SE
- Mercer Island, WA 98040
-
- Joe McLain [75066,1257] on CIS
- McLain Imaging
- 2417 Venier
- Costa Mesa, CA 92627
- (714) 642-5219
-
- Bob Montgomery [73357,3140] on CIS
- (Author of VPIC)
- 132 Parsons Road
- Longwood, Fl 32779
-
- Roy Murphy [76376,721] on CIS
- 9050 Ewing Ave.
- Evanston, IL 60203
-
- Ethan Nagel [70022,2552] on CIS
- PO Box 7
- Yarnell, Arizona 85362
- (602)427-3233
-
- Marc Reinig [72410,77] on CIS
- 3415 Merrill Rd. marco@sun.com!daver!cypress on Usenet
- Aptos, CA. 95003
- (408) 475-2132
-
- Prof. JM Richard-Collard mpi@frmop53.bitnet on BitNet
- mpi@cnuvx1.cnusc.fr on Internet
-
- Lee H. Skinner
- P.O. Box 14944
- Albuquerque, NM 87191
-
- Dean Souleles [75115,1671] on CIS
- 8840 Collett Ave.
- Sepulveda, CA 91343
- (818) 893-7558
-
- Chris J Lusby Taylor
- 32 Turnpike Road
- Newbury, England
- Tel 011 44 635 33270
-
- Scott Taylor [72401,410] on CIS
- 1901 South County Road 23E DGWM18A on Prodigy
- Berthoud, CO 80513
- (303) 651-6692
-
- Paul Varner [73237,441] on CIS
- PO Box 930
- Shepherdstown, WV 25443
- (304) 876-2011
-
- Phil Wilson [76247,3145] on CIS
- 410 State St., #55
- Brooklyn, NY 11217
- (718) 624-5272
- ~Format+
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=The Stone Soup Story
- ~Format-,Online-
- THE STONE SOUP STORY
- ~Format+,Online+
-
- Once upon a time, somewhere in Eastern Europe, there was a great famine.
- People jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even
- from their friends and neighbors. One day a peddler drove his wagon into a
- village, sold a few of his wares, and began asking questions as if he
- planned to stay for the night.
-
- [No! No! It was three Russian Soldiers! - Lee Crocker]\
- [Wait! I heard it was a Wandering Confessor! - Doug Quinn]\
- [Well *my* kids have a book that uses Russian Soldiers! - Bert]\
- [Look, who's writing this documentation, anyway? - Monte]\
- [Ah, but who gets it *last* and gets to upload it? - Bert]\
-
- "There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better
- keep moving on."
-
- "Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of
- making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron
- cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it.
- Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet
- bag and dropped it into the water.
-
- By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the
- square or watched from their windows. As the peddler sniffed the "broth"
- and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their
- skepticism.
-
- "Ahh," the peddler said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone
- soup. Of course, stone soup with CABBAGE -- that's hard to beat."
-
- Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved
- from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the
- peddler. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt
- beef as well, and it was fit for a king."
-
- The village butcher managed to find some salt beef...and so it went,
- through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was
- indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the peddler a great
- deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on
- the next day. And from that time on, long after the famine had ended, they
- reminisced about the finest soup they'd ever had.
-
- ***
-
- That's the way Fractint has grown, with quite a bit of magic, although
- without the element of deception. (You don't have to deceive programmers
- to make them think that hours of painstaking, often frustrating work is
- fun... they do it to themselves.)
-
- It wouldn't have happened, of course, without Benoit Mandelbrot and the
- explosion of interest in fractal graphics that has grown from his work at
- IBM. Or without the example of other Mandelplotters for the PC. Or without
- those wizards who first realized you could perform Mandelbrot calculations
- using integer math (it wasn't us - we just recognize good algorithms when
- we steal--uhh--see them). Or those graphics experts who hang around the
- Compuserve PICS forum and keep adding video modes to the program. Or...
- ~Doc-
- (continued in {A Word About the Authors})
- ~Doc+
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=A Word About the Authors
- ~Format-,Online-
-
- A WORD ABOUT THE AUTHORS
- ~Format+,Online+
-
- Fractint is the result of a synergy between the main authors, many
- contributors, and published sources. All four of the main authors have
- had a hand in many aspects of the code. However, each author has certain
- areas of greater contribution and creativity. Since there is not room in
- the credits screen for the contributions of the main authors, we list these
- here to facilitate those who would like to communicate with us on
- particular subjects.
-
- Bert Tyler is the original author. He wrote the "blindingly fast" 386-
- specific 32 bit integer math code and the original video mode logic. Bert
- made Stone Soup possible, and provides a sense of direction when we need
- it. His forte is writing fast 80x86 assembler, his knowledge of a variety
- of video hardware, and his skill at hacking up the code we send him!
-
- Bert has a BA in mathematics from Cornell University. He has been in
- programming since he got a job at the computer center in his sophomore
- year at college - in other words, he hasn't done an honest day's work in
- his life. He has been known to pass himself off as a PC expert, a UNIX
- expert, a statistician, and even a financial modeling expert. He is
- currently masquerading as an independent PC consultant, supporting the PC-
- to-Mainframe communications environment at NIH. If you sent mail from the
- Internet to an NIH staffer on his 3+Mail system, it was probably Bert's
- code that mangled it during the Internet-to-3+Mail conversion. He also
- claims to support the MS-Kermit environment at NIH. Fractint is Bert's
- first effort at building a graphics program.
-
- Tim Wegner contributed the original implementation of palette animation,
- and is responsible for most of the 3D mechanisms. He provided the main
- outlines of the "StandardFractal" engine and data structures, and is
- accused by his cohorts of being "obsessed with options". Tim is quite
- proud of having originally integrated the 256 color super VGA modes in
- Fractint, especially since he knows almost nothing about it!
-
- Tim has BA and MA degrees in mathematics from Carleton College and the
- University of California Berkeley. He worked for 7 years overseas as a
- volunteer, doing things like working with Egyptian villagers building
- water systems. Since returning to the US in 1982, he has written shuttle
- navigation software, a software support environment prototype, and
- supported strategic information planning, all at NASA's Johnson Space
- Center.
-
- Mark Peterson invented the periodicity detection logic, several original
- fractal types, transcendental function libraries, alternate math
- implementations, the formula compiler, and the "Julibrot" intrinsic 3D
- fractals - in other words, most of the truly original ideas in Fractint!
-
- Mark's knowledge of higher mathematics and programming was achieved almost
- entirely through self-study. Mark has written several magazine articles on
- computer programming and is coauthor of a book on Fractint called Fractal
- Creations. Mark is also a free-lance computer consultant specializing in high
- performance applications.
-
- Pieter Branderhorst is a late-comer to the group who likes to distract the
- other authors with enhancements impacting at least half of the source at
- once. His contributions include super solid guessing, image rotation,
- resume, fast disk caching, and the new user interface. More than any of
- the authors, he has personally touched and massaged the entire source.
-
- Pieter left high school to work with computers, back when huge machines
- had 64k of core. He's been happily computing since, mostly programming
- and designing software from comms firmware to database and o/s, and
- anything between, and large scale online transaction processing
- applications. He has worked as a free-lance computer consultant (whatever
- that means) since 1983.
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=A Plug for "Fractal Creations"
-
- Two of Fractint's primary authors, Timothy Wegner and Mark Peterson, have
- written a book about fractals and Fractint.
-
- The book is The Waite Group's Fractal Creations (Copyright (C) 1991 Waite
- Group Press).
-
- ~Format-
- Fractal Creations includes:
- o A guided tour of Fractint.
- o A detailed manual and reference section of commands.
- o A tutorial on fractals.
- o A reference containing tips, explanations, and examples of parameters
- for all the Fractals generated by Fractint.
- o Secrets on how the program works internally.
- o 3-D red/blue glasses.
- o A fold-out color poster of the most spectacular fractals.
- o A disk containing Fractint version 15.11 and demonstration files.
- ~Format+
-
- If you enjoy Fractint, you're sure to enjoy Fractal Creations. The book
- includes Fractint version 15.11 but is also an excellent companion to
- later versions of Fractint.
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Bibliography
-
- BARNSLEY, Michael: "Fractals Everywhere", Academic Press, 1988.
-
- DEWDNEY, A. K., "Computer Recreations" columns in "Scientific American" --
- 8/85, 7/87, 11/87, 12/88, 7/89.
-
- FEDER, Jens: "Fractals", Plenum, 1988.\
- Quite technical, with good coverage of applications in fluid
- percolation, game theory, and other areas.
-
- GLEICK, James: "Chaos: Making a New Science", Viking Press, 1987.\
- The best non-technical account of the revolution in our understanding
- of dynamical systems and its connections with fractal geometry.
-
- MANDELBROT, Benoit: "The Fractal Geometry of Nature", W. H. Freeman & Co.,
- 1982.\
- An even more revised and expanded version of the 1977 work. A rich and
- sometimes confusing stew of formal and informal mathematics, the
- prehistory of fractal geometry, and everything else. Best taken in
- small doses.
- ~OnlineFF
-
- MANDELBROT, Benoit: "Fractals: Form, Chance, and Dimension", W. H. Freeman
- & Co., 1977\
- A much revised translation of "Les objets fractals: forme, hasard, et
- dimension," Flammarion, 1975.
-
- PEITGEN, Heinz-Otto & RICHTER, Peter: "The Beauty of Fractals," Springer-
- Verlag, 1986.\
- THE coffee-table book of fractal images, knowledgeable on computer
- graphics as well as the mathematics they portray.
-
- PEITGEN, Heinz-Otto & SAUPE, Ditmar: "The Science of Fractal Images,"
- Springer-Verlag, 1988.\
- A fantastic work, with a few nice pictures, but mostly filled with
- *equations*!!!
-
- WEGNER, Timothy & PETERSON, Mark: "Fractal Creations", Waite Group Press,
- 1991.\
- If we tell you how *wonderful* this book is you might think we were
- bragging, so let's just call it: THE definitive companion to Fractint!
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Other Programs
-
- WINFRACT. Bert Tyler has ported Fractint to run under Windows 3! The same
- underlying code is used, with a Windows user interface. Winfract has
- almost all the functionality of Fractint - the biggest difference is the
- absence of a zillion weird video modes. Fractint for DOS will continue to
- be the definitive version. Winfract is available from CompuServe in
- COMART Lib 15, as WINFRA.ZIP (executable) and WINSRC.ZIP (source).
-
-
- PICLAB, by Lee Crocker - a freeware image manipulation utility available
- from Compuserve in PICS Lib 10, as PICLAB.EXE. PICLAB can do very
- sophisticated resizing and color manipulation of GIF and TGA files. It
- can be used to reduce 24 bit TGA files generated with the Fractint
- "lightname" option to GIF files.
-
- ~OnlineFF
-
- ~Label=@FDESIGN
- FDESIGN, by Doug Nelson (CIS ID 70431,3374) - a freeware IFS fractal
- generator available from Compuserve in COMART Lib 15, and probably on your
- local BBS. This program requires a VGA adapter and a Microsoft-compatible
- mouse, and a floating point coprocessor is highly recommended. It
- generates IFS fractals in a *much* more intuitive fashion than Fractint.
- It can also (beginning with version 3.0) save its IFS formulas in
- Fractint-style .IFS files.
-
- ~Label=@ACROSPIN
- ACROSPIN, by David Parker - An inexpensive commercial program that reads
- an object definition file and creates images that can be rapidly rotated
- in three dimensions. The Fractint "orbitsave=yes" option creates files that
- this program can read for orbit-type fractals and IFS fractals. Contact:
- David Parker 801-966-2580\
- P O Box 26871 800-227-6248\
- Salt Lake City, UT 84126-0871
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Revision History
-
- Please select one of:
-
- {Version 16}
-
- {Version 15}
-
- {Versions 12 through 14}
-
- {Versions 1 through 11}
- ;
- ~Topic=Version 16
-
- Version 16.12, 8/91
-
- Fix to cure some video problems reported with Amstrad
- 8088/8086-based PCs.
-
- Version 16.11, 7/91
-
- SuperVGA Autodetect fixed for older Tseng 3000 adapters.\
-
- New "adapter=" options to force the selection of specific SuperVGA
- adapter types. See {Video Parameters} for details.\
-
- Integer/Floating-Point math toggle is changed only temporarily
- if floating-point math is forced due to deep zooming.\
-
- Fractint now survives being modified by McAfee's "SCAN /AV" option.\
-
- Bug Fixes for Acrospin interface, 3D "Light Source Before
- Transformation" fill type, and GIF decoder.\
-
- New options in the <Z> parameters screen allow you to directly
- enter image coordinates.\
-
- New "inside=zmag" and "outside=real|imag|mult|summ" options.\
-
- The GIF Decoder now survives reading GIF files with a local color map.\
- Improved IIT Math Coprocessor support.\
-
- New color-cycling single-step options, '<' and '>'.\
- ;
- ;Transparent 3D and Antialiasing stuff, not documented yet, some initial
- ;notes:
- ; new command line parms:\
- ; solidcore=y|n y\
- ; antialias=0...8 0\
- ; transparent3d=n|y n\
- ; corecolor=nnn/nnn/nnn 128/128/128\
- ; mdcorners=nnn/nnn/nnn/nnn -1.5/1.5/0/0\
- ; numframes=nnn 1\
- ; antialiasing can be modified on X screen
- ; new keywords "xy" and "dt" in formulas
- ;
-
- Version 16.0, 6/91
-
- Integrated online help / fractint.doc system from Ethan Nagel.
- To create a printable fractint.doc file see {Startup Parameters}.
-
- Over 350 screens of online help! Try pressing <F1> just about anywhere!\
-
- New "autokey" feature. Type "demo" to run the included demo.bat and
- demo.key files for a great demonstration of Fractint.
- See {Autokey Mode} for details.
-
- New <@> command executes a saved set of commands. The <b> command has
- changed to write the current image's parameters as a named set of
- commands in a structured file. Saved sets of commands can subsequently
- be executed with the <@> command.
- See {Parameter Save/Restore Commands}.
- A default "fractint.par" file is included with the release.
-
- New <z> command allows changing fractal type-specific parameters without
- going back through the <t> (fractal type selection) screen.
-
- Ray tracer interface from Marc Reinig, generates 3d transform output for a
- number of ray tracers; see {"Interfacing with Ray Tracing Programs"}
-
- Selection of video modes and structure of "fractint.cfg" have changed. If
- you have a customized fractint.cfg file, you'll have to rebuild it based
- on this release's version. You can customize the assignment of your
- favorite video modes to function keys; see {Video Mode Function Keys}.
- <delete> is a new command key which goes directly to video mode selection.
-
- New "cyclerange" option (command line and <y> options screen) from Hugh
- Steele. Limits color cycling to a specified range of colors.
-
- Improved {Distance Estimator Method} algorithm from Phil Wilson.\
-
- New "ranges=" option from Norman Hills.
- See {Logarithmic Palettes and Color Ranges} for details.
-
- type=formula definitions can use "variable functions" to select
- sin, cos, sinh, cosh, exp, log, etc at run time;
- new built-ins tan, tanh, cotan, cotanh, and flip
- are available with type=formula; see Type {Formula}
-
- New <w> command in palette editing mode to convert image to greyscale\
-
- All "fn" fractal types (e.g. fn*fn) can now use new functions tan, tanh,
- cotan, cotanh, recip, and ident; bug in prior cos function fixed, new
- function cosxx (conjugate of cos) is the old erroneous cos calculation
-
- New L-Systems from Herb Savage\
- New IFS types from Alex Matulich\
- Many new formulas in fractint.frm, including a large group from
- JM Richard-Collard
- Generalized type manzpwr with complex exponent per Lee Skinner's request\
- Initial orbit parameter added to Gingerbreadman fractal type\
-
- New color maps (neon, royal, volcano, blues, headache) from Daniel Egnor\
-
- IFS type has changed to use a single file containing named entries
- (instead of a separate xxx.ifs file per type); the <z> command brings up
- IFS editor (used to be <i> command). See {=HT_IFS Barnsley IFS Fractals}.
-
- Much improved support for PaintJet printers; see {PaintJet Parameters}\
-
- From Scott Taylor:\
- Support for plotters using HP-GL; see {Plotter Parameters}\
- Lots of new PostScript halftones; see {PostScript Parameters}\
- "printer=PS[L]/0/..." for full page PostScript; see {PostScript Parameters}\
- Option to drive printer ports directly (faster); see {Printer Parameters}\
- Option to change printer end of line control chars; see {Printer Parameters}
-
- Support for XGA video adapter\
- Support for Targa+ video adapter\
- 16 color VGA mode enhancements:\
- Now use the first 16 colors of .map files to be more predictable\
- Palette editor now works with these modes\
- Color cycling now works properly with these modes
- Targa video adapter fixes; Fractint now uses (and requires) the "targa"
- and "targaset" environment variables for Targa systems
- "vesadetect=no" parameter to bypass use of VESA video driver; try
- this if you encounter video problems with a VESA driver
- Upgraded video adapter detect and handling from John Bridges; autodetect
- added for NCR, Trident 8900, Tseng 4000, Genoa (this code
- is from a beta release of VGAKIT, we're not sure it all works yet)
-
- Zoom box is included in saved/printed images (but, is not recognized as
- anything special when such an image is restored)
-
- The colors numbers reserved by the palette editor are now selectable with
- the new <v> palette editing mode command
-
- Option to use IIT floating point chip's special matrix arithmetic for
- faster 3D transforms; see "fpu=" in {Startup Parameters}
-
- Disk video cache increased to 64k; disk video does less seeking when
- running to real disk
- Faster floating point code for 287 and higher fpus, for types mandel,
- julia, barnsleyj1/m1/j2/m2, lambda, manowar, from Chuck Ebbert
-
- "filename=.xxx" can be used to set default <r> function file mask\
-
- Selection of type formula or lsys now goes directly to entry selection
- (file selection step is now skipped); to change to a different file, use
- <F6> from the entry selection screen
-
- Three new values have been added to the textcolors= parameter; if you use
- this parameter you should update it by inserting values for the new 6th,
- 7th, 9th, and 13th positions; see "textcolors=" in {Color Parameters}
-
- The formula type's imag() function has changed to return the result as
- a real number
-
- Fractal type-specific parameters (entered after selecting a new fractal
- type with <T>) now restart at their default values each time you select
- a new fractal type
-
- Floating point input fields can now be entered in scientific notation (e.g.
- 11.234e-20). Entering the letters "e" and "p" in the first column causes
- the numbers e=2.71828... and pi=3.14159... to be entered.
-
- New option "orbitsave=yes" to create files for Acrospin for
- some types (see {Barnsley IFS Fractals}, {Orbit Fractals},
- {=@ACROSPIN Acrospin})
-
- Bug fixes:\
- Problem with Hercules adapter auto-detection repaired.\
- Problems with VESA video adapters repaired (we're not sure we've got them
- all yet...)\
- 3D transforms fixed to work at high resolutions (> 1000 dots).\
- 3D parameters no longer clobbered when restoring non-3D images.\
- L-Systems fixed to not crash when order too high for available memory.\
- PostScript EPS file fixes.\
- Bad leftmost pixels with floating point at 2048 dot resolution fixed.\
- 3D transforms fixed to use current <x> screen float/integer setting.\
- Restore of images using inversion fixed.\
- Error in "cos" function (used with "fn" type fractals) fixed; prior
- incorrect function still available as "cosxx" for compatibility
-
- Old 3D=nn/nn/nn/... form of 3D transform parameters no longer supported\
-
- Fractint source code now Microsoft C6.00A compatible.
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Version 15
-
- Version 15.11, 3/91, companion to Fractal Creations, not for general
- release
-
- Autokey feature, IIT fpu support, and some bug fixes publicly released in
- version 16.
-
-
- Version 15 and 15.1, 12/90
-
- New user interface! Enjoy! Some key assignments have changed and some have
- been removed.
- New palette editing from Ethan Nagel.\
- Reduced memory requirements - Fractint now uses overlays and will run on a
- 512K machine.
- New <v>iew command: use to get small window for fast preview, or to setup
- an image which will eventually be rendered on hard copy with different
- aspect ratio
- L-System fractal type from Adrian Mariano\
- Postscript printer support from Scott Taylor\
- Better Tandy video support and faster CGA video from Joseph A Albrecht\
- 16 bit continuous potential files have changed considerably; see the
- Continuous Potential section for details. Continuous potential is now
- resumable.
- Mandelbrot calculation is faster again (thanks to Mike Gelvin) - double
- speed in 8086 32 bit case
- Compressed log palette and sqrt palette from Chuck Ebbert\
- Calculation automatically resumes whenever current image is resumable and
- is not paused for a visible reason.
- Auto increment of savename changed to be more predictable\
- New video modes:\
- trident 1024x768x256 mode\
- 320x480x256 tweak mode (good for reduced 640x480 viewing)\
- changed NEC GB-1, hopefully it works now\
- Integer mandelbrot and julia now work with periodicitycheck\
- Initial zoombox color auto-picked for better contrast (usually)\
- New adapter=cga|ega|mcga|vga for systems having trouble with auto-detect\
- New textsafe=no|yes for systems having trouble with garbled text mode\
- <r> and <3> commands now present list of video modes to pick from; <r> can
- reduce a non-standard or unviewable image size.
- Diffusion fractal type is now resumable after interrupt/save\
- Exitmode=n parameter, sets video mode to n when exiting from fractint\
- When savetime is used with 1 and 2 pass and solid guessing, saves are
- deferred till the beginning of a new row, so that no calculation time is
- lost.
- 3d photographer's mode now allows the first image to be saved to disk\
- textcolors=mono|12/34/56/... -- allows setting user interface colors\
- Code (again!) compilable under TC++ (we think!)\
- .TIW files (from v9.3) are no longer supported as input to 3D
- transformations
- bug fixes:\
- multiple restores (msc 6.0, fixed in 14.0r)\
- repeating 3d loads problem; slow 3d loads of images with float=yes\
- map= is now a real substitute for default colors\
- starfield and julibrot no longer cause permanent color map replacement\
- starfield parameters bug fix - if you couldn't get the starfield
- parameters to do anything interesting before, try again with this\
- release\
- Newton and newtbasin orbit display fixed
-
- Version 15.1:
-
- Fixed startup and text screen problems on systems with VESA compliant
- video adapters.
- New textsafe=save|bios options.\
- Fixes for EGA with monochrome monitor, and for Hercules Graphics Card.
- Both should now be auto-detected and operate correctly in text modes.
- Options adapter=egamono and adapter=hgc added.
- Fixed color L-Systems to not use color 0 (black).\
- PostScript printing fix.
- ;
- ~Topic=Versions 12 through 14
-
- Version 14, 8/90
-
- LAST MINUTE NEWS FLASH!\
- Compuserve announces the GIF89a on August 1, 1990, and Fractint supports
- it on August 2! GIF files can now contain fractal information! Fractint
- now saves its files in the new GIF89a format by default, and uses .GIF
- rather than .FRA as a default filetype. Note that Fractint still
- *looks* for a .FRA file on file restores if it can't find a .GIF file,
- and can be coerced into using the old GIF87a format with the new
- 'gif87a=yes' command-line option.
-
- Pieter Branderhorst mounted a major campaign to get his name in lights:\
- Mouse interface: Diagonals, faster movement, improved feel. Mouse button
- assignments have changed - see the online help.
- Zoom box enhancements: The zoom box can be rotated, stretched, skewed,
- and panned partially offscreen. See "More Zoom Box Commands".
- FINALLY!! You asked for it and we (eventually, by talking Pieter into it
- [actually he grabbed it]) did it! Images can be saved before
- completion, for a subsequent restore and continue. See "Interrupting
- and Resuming" and "Batch Mode".
- Off-center symmetry: Fractint now takes advantage of x or y axis symmetry
- anywhere on the screen to reduce drawing time.
- Panning: If you move an image up, down, left, or right, and don't change
- anything else, only the new edges are calculated.
- Disk-video caching - it is now possible, reasonable even, to do most
- things with disk video, including solid guessing, 3d, and plasma.
- Logarithmic palette changed to use all colors. It now matches regular
- palette except near the "lake". "logmap=old" gets the old way.
- New "savetime=nnn" parameter to save checkpoints during long calculations.\
- Calculation time is shown in <Tab> display.
-
- Kevin C Allen Finite Attractor, Bifurcation Engine, Magnetic fractals...\
- Made Bifurcation/Verhulst into a generalized Fractal Engine (like
- StandardFractal, but for Bifurcation types), and implemented periodicity
- checking for Bifurcation types to speed them up.
- Added Integer version of Verhulst Bifurcation (lots faster now). Integer
- is the default. The Floating-Point toggle works, too.
- Added NEW Fractal types BIFLAMBDA, BIF+SINPI, and BIF=SINPI. These are
- Bifurcation types that make use of the new Engine. Floating-
- point/Integer toggle is available for BIFLAMBDA. The SINPI types are
- Floating-Point only, at this time.
- Corrected the generation of the MandelLambda Set. Sorry, but it's always
- been wrong (up to v 12, at least). Ask Mandelbrot !
- Added NEW Fractal types MAGNET1M, MAGNET1J, MAGNET2M, MAGNET2J from "The
- Beauty of Fractals". Floating-Point only, so far, but what do you
- expect with THESE formulae ?!
- Added new symmetry types XAXIS NOIMAG and XAXIS NOREAL, required by the
- new MAGNETic Fractal types.
- Added Finite Attractor Bailout (FAB) logic to detect when iterations are
- approaching a known finite attractor. This is required by the new
- MAGNETic Fractal types.
- Added Finite Attractor Detection (FAD) logic which can be used by *SOME*
- Julia types prior to generating an image, to test for finite attractors,
- and find their values, for use by FAB logic. Can be used by the new
- MAGNETic Fractal Types, Lambda Sets, and some other Julia types too.
-
- Mike Burkey sent us new tweaked video modes:\
- VGA - 400x600x256 376x564x256 400x564x256\
- ATI VGA - 832x612x256
- New HP Paintjet support from Chris Martin\
- New "FUNCTION=" command to allow substition of different transcendental
- functions for variables in types (allows one type with four of these
- variables to represent 7*7*7*7 different types!
- ALL KINDS of new fractal types, some using "FUNCTION=": fn(z*z), fn*fn,
- fn*z+z, fn+fn, sqr(1/fn), sqr(fn), spider, tetrate, and Manowar. Most of
- these are generalizations of formula fractal types contributed by Scott
- Taylor and Lee Skinner.
- Distance Estimator logic can now be applied to many fractal types using
- distest= option. The types "demm" and "demj" have been replaced by
- "type=mandel distest=nnn" and "type=julia distest=nnn"
- Added extended memory support for diskvideo thanks to Paul Varner\
- Added support for "center and magnification" format for corners.\
- Color 0 is no longer generated except when specifically requested with
- inside= or outside=.
- Formula name is now included in <Tab> display and in <S>aved images.\
- Bug fixes - formula type and diskvideo, batch file outside=-1 problem.\
- Now you can produce your favorite fractal terrains in full color instead
- of boring old monochrome! Use the fullcolor option in 3d! Along with a
- few new 3D options.
- New "INITORBIT=" command to allow alternate Mandelbrot set orbit
- initialization.
-
-
- Version 13.0, 5/90
-
- F1 was made the help key.\
- Use F1 for help\
- Use F9 for EGA 320x200x16 video mode\
- Use CF4 for EGA 640x200x16 mode (if anybody uses that mode)\
- Super-Solid-guessing (three or more passes) from Pieter Branderhorst
- (replaces the old solid-guessing mode)
- Boundary Tracing option from David Guenther ("fractint passes=btm", or use
- the new 'x' options screen)
- "outside=nnn" option sets all points not "inside" the fractal to color
- "nnn" (and generates a two-color image).
- 'x' option from the main menu brings up a full-screen menu of many popular
- options and toggle switches
- "Speed Key" feature for fractal type selection (either use the cursor keys
- for point-and-shoot, or just start typing the name of your favorite
- fractal type)
- "Attractor" fractals (Henon, Rossler, Pickover, Gingerbread)\
- Diffusion fractal type by Adrian Mariano\
- "type=formula" formulas from Scott Taylor and Lee H. Skinner.\
- "sound=" options for attractor fractals. Sound=x plays speaker tones
- according to the 'x' attractor value Sound=y plays speaker tones
- according to the 'y' attractor value. Sound=z plays speaker tones
- according to the 'z' attractor value (These options are best invoked
- with the floating-point algorithm flag set.)
- "hertz=" option for adjusting the "sound=x/y/z" output.\
- Printer support for color printers (printer=color) from Kurt Sowa\
- Trident 4000 and Oak Technologies SuperVGA support from John Bridges\
- Improved 8514/A support (the zoom-box keeps up with the cursor keys now!)\
- Tandy 1000 640x200x16 mode from Brian Corbino (which does not, as yet,
- work with the F1(help) and TAB functions)
- The Julibrot fractal type and the Starmap option now automatically verify
- that they have been selected with a 256-color palette, and search for,
- and use, the appropriate GLASSESn.MAP or ALTERN.MAP palette map when
- invoked. *You* were supposed to be doing that manually all along, but
- *you* probably never read the docs, huh?
- Bug Fixes:\
- TAB key now works after R(estore) commands\
- PS/2 Model 30 (MCGA) adapters should be able to select 320x200x256 mode
- again (we think)\
- Everex video adapters should work with the Autodetect modes again (we
- think)
-
-
- Version 12.0, 3/90
-
- New SuperVGA Autodetecting and VESA Video modes (you tell us the
- resolution you want, and we'll figure out how to do it)
- New Full-Screen Entry for most prompting\
- New Fractal formula interpreter ('type=formula') - roll your own fractals
- without using a "C" compiler!
- New 'Julibrot' fractal type\
- Added floating point option to all remaining fractal types.\
- Real (funny glasses) 3D - Now with "real-time" lorenz3D!!\
- Non-Destructive <TAB> - Check out what your fractal parameters are without
- stopping the generation of a fractal image
- New Cross-Hair mode for changing individual palette colors (VGA only)\
- Zooming beyond the limits of Integer algorithms (with automatic switchover
- to a floating-point algorithm when you zoom in "too far")
- New 'inside=bof60', 'inside=bof61' ("Beauty of Fractals, Page nn") options\
- New starmap ('a' - for astrology? astronomy?) transformation option\
- Restrictions on the options available when using Expanded Memory
- "Disk/RAM" video mode have been removed
- And a lot of other nice little clean-up features that we've already
- forgotten that we've added...
- Added capability to create 3D projection images (just barely) for people
- with 2 or 4 color video boards.
- ;
- ~Topic=Versions 1 through 11
-
- Version 11.0, 1/90
-
- More fractal types\
- mandelsinh/lambdasinh mandelcosh/lambdacosh\
- mansinzsqrd/julsinzsqrd mansinexp/julsinexp\
- manzzprw/julzzpwr manzpower/julzpower\
- lorenz (from Rob Beyer) lorenz3d\
- complexnewton complexbasin\
- popcorn\
- Most fractal types given an integer and a floating point algorithm.
- "Float=yes" option now determines whether integer or floating-point
- algorithms are used for most fractal types. "F" command toggles the use
- of floating-point algorithms, flagged in the <Tab> status display
- 8/16/32/../256-Way decomposition option (from Richard Finegold)\
- "Biomorph=", "bailout=", "symmetry=" and "askvideo=" options\
- "T(ransform)" option in the IFS editor lets you select 3D options (used
- with the Lorenz3D fractal type)
- The "T(ype)" command uses a new "Point-and-Shoot" method of selecting
- fractal types rather than prompting you for a type name
- Bug fixes to continuous-potential algorithm on integer fractals, GIF
- encoder, and IFS editor
-
-
- Version 10.0, 11/89
-
- Barnsley IFS type (Rob Beyer)\
- Barnsley IFS3D type\
- MandelSine/Cos/Exp type\
- MandelLambda/MarksLambda/Unity type\
- BarnsleyM1/J1/M2/J2/M3/J3 type\
- Mandel4/Julia4 type\
- Sierpinski gasket type\
- Demm/Demj and bifurcation types (Phil Wilson), "test" is "mandel" again\
- <I>nversion command for most fractal types\
- <Q>uaternary decomposition toggle and "DECOMP=" argument\
- <E>ditor for Barnsley IFS parameters\
- Command-line options for 3D parameters\
- Spherical 3D calculations 5x faster\
- 3D now clips properly to screen edges and works at extreme perspective\
- "RSEED=" argument for reproducible plasma clouds\
- Faster plasma clouds (by 40% on a 386)\
- Sensitivity to "continuous potential" algorithm for all types except
- plasma and IFS
- Palette-map <S>ave and Restore (<M>) commands\
- <L>ogarithmic and <N>ormal palette-mapping commands and arguments\
- Maxiter increased to 32,000 to support log palette maps\
- .MAP and .IFS files can now reside anywhere along the DOS path\
- Direct-video support for Hercules adapters (Dean Souleles)\
- Tandy 1000 160x200x16 mode (Tom Price)\
- 320x400x256 register-compatible-VGA "tweaked" mode\
- ATI VGA Wonder 1024x768x16 direct-video mode (Mark Peterson)\
- 1024x768x16 direct-video mode for all supported chipsets\
- Tseng 640x400x256 mode\
- "Roll-your-own" video mode 19\
- New video-table "hot-keys" eliminate need for enhanced keyboard to access
- later entries
-
-
- Version 9.3, 8/89
-
- <P>rint command and "PRINTER=" argument (Matt Saucier)\
- 8514/A video modes (Kyle Powell)\
- SSTOOLS.INI sensitivity and '@THISFILE' argument\
- Continuous-potential algorithm for Mandelbrot/Julia sets\
- Light source 3D option for all fractal types\
- "Distance estimator" M/J method (Phil Wilson) implemented as "test" type\
- LambdaCosine and LambdaExponent types\
- Color cycling mode for 640x350x16 EGA adapters\
- Plasma clouds for 16-color and 4-color video modes\
- Improved TARGA support (Joe McLain)\
- CGA modes now use direct-video read/writes\
- Tandy 1000 320x200x16 and 640x200x4 modes (Tom Price)\
- TRIDENT chip-set super-VGA video modes (Lew Ramsey)\
- Direct-access video modes for TRIDENT, Chips & Technologies, and ATI VGA
- WONDER adapters (John Bridges). and, unlike version 9.1, they WORK in
- version 9.3!)
- "zoom-out" (<Ctrl><Enter>) command\
- <D>os command for shelling out\
- 2/4/16-color Disk/RAM video mode capability and 2-color video modes
- supporting full-page printer graphics
- "INSIDE=-1" option (treated dynamically as "INSIDE=maxiter")\
- Improved <H>elp and sound routines (even a "SOUND=off" argument)\
- Turbo-C and TASM compatibility (really! Would we lie to you?)
-
-
- Version 8.1, 6/89
-
- <3>D restore-from-disk and 3D <O>verlay commands, "3D=" argument\
- Fast Newton algorithm including inversion option (Lee Crocker)\
- 16-bit Mandelbrot/Julia logic for 386-class speed with non-386 PCs on
- "large" images (Mark Peterson)
- Restore now loads .GIF files (as plasma clouds)\
- TARGA video modes and color-map file options (Joe McLain)\
- 30 new color-cycling palette options (<Shft><F1> to <Alt><F10>)\
- "Disk-video, RAM-video, EMS-video" modes\
- Lambda sets now use integer math (with 80386 speedups)\
- "WARN=yes" argument to prevent over-writing old .GIF files
-
-
- Version 7.0, 4/89
-
- Restore from disk (from prior save-to-disk using v. 7.0 or later)\
- New types: Newton, Lambda, Mandelfp, Juliafp, Plasma, Lambdasine\
- Many new color-cycling options (for VGA adapters only)\
- New periodicity logic (Mark Peterson)\
- Initial displays recognize (and use) symmetry\
- Solid-guessing option (now the default)\
- Context-sensitive <H>elp\
- Customizable video mode configuration file (FRACTINT.CFG)\
- "Batch mode" option\
- Improved super-VGA support (with direct video read/writes)\
- Non-standard 360 x 480 x 256 color mode on a STANDARD IBM VGA!
-
-
- Version 6.0, 2/89
-
- 32-bit integer math emulated for non-386 processors; FRACT386 renamed
- FRACTINT
- More video modes
-
-
- Version 5.1, 1/89
-
- Save to disk\
- New! Improved! (and Incompatible!) optional arguments format\
- "Correct" initial image aspect ratio\
- More video modes
-
-
- Version 4.0, 12/88
-
- Mouse support (Mike Kaufman)\
- Dynamic iteration limits\
- Color cycling\
- Dual-pass mode\
- More video modes, including "tweaked" modes for IBM VGA and register-
- compatible adapters
-
-
- Version 3.1, 11/88
-
- Julia sets
-
-
- Version 2.1, 10/23/88 (the "debut" on CIS)
-
- Video table\
- CPU type detector
-
-
- Version 2.0, 10/10/88
-
- Zoom and pan
-
-
- Version 1.0, 9/88
-
- The original, blindingly fast, 386-specific 32-bit integer algorithm
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Topic=Version13 to 14 Conversion
-
- A number of types in Fractint version 13 and earlier were generalized in
- version 14. We added a "backward compatibility" hook that (hopefully)
- automatically translates these to the new form when the old files are
- read. Files may be converted via:
-
- FRACTINT OLDFILE.FRA SAVENAME=NEWFILE.GIF BATCH=YES
-
- In a few cases the biomorph flag was incorrectly set in older files. In
- that case, add "biomorph=no" to the command line.
-
- This procedure can also be used to convert any *.fra file to the new
- GIF89a spec, which now allows storage of fractal information.
-
-
- ~Format-
- TYPES CHANGED FROM VERSION 13 -
-
-
- V13 NAME V14 NAME + PARAMETERS
- -------- --------------------------------------
-
- LOGMAP=YES LOGMAP=OLD for identical Logmap type
-
- DEMJ JULIA DISTEST=nnn
-
- DEMM MANDEL DISTEST=nnn
-
- Note: DISTEST also available on many other types
-
- MANSINEXP MANFN+EXP FUNCTION=SIN
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- cos sinh cosh exp log sqr
-
- JULSINEXP JULFN+EXP FUNCTION=SIN
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- cos sinh cosh exp log sqr
-
- MANSINZSQRD MANFN+ZSQRD FUNCTION=SQR/SIN
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- cos sinh cosh exp log sqr
-
- JULSINZSQRD JULFN+ZSQRD FUNCTION=SQR/SIN
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- cos sinh cosh exp log sqr
-
- LAMBDACOS LAMBDAFN FUNCTION=COS
-
- LAMBDACOSH LAMBDAFN FUNCTION=COSH
-
- LAMBDAEXP LAMBDAFN FUNCTION=EXP
-
- LAMBDASINE LAMBDAFN FUNCTION=SIN
-
- LAMBDASINH LAMBDAFN FUNCTION=SINH
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- log sqr
-
- MANDELCOS MANDELFN FUNCTION=COS
-
- MANDELCOSH MANDELFN FUNCTION=COSH
-
- MANDELEXP MANDELFN FUNCTION=EXP
-
- MANDELSINE MANDELFN FUNCTION=SIN
-
- MANDELSINH MANDELFN FUNCTION=SINH
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- log sqr
-
- MANDELLAMBDA MANDELLAMBDA INITORBIT=PIXEL
-
- POPCORN SYMMETRY=NONE POPCORNJUL
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Formulas from FRACTINT.FRM in version 13
-
- MANDELGLASS MANDELLAMBDA INITORBIT=.5/0
-
- INVMANDEL V13 divide bug may cause some image differences.
-
- NEWTON4 V13 divide bug may cause some image differences.
-
- SPIDER V13 divide bug may cause some image differences.
-
- MANDELSINE MANDELFN FUNCTION=SIN BAILOUT=50
-
- MANDELCOSINE MANDELFN FUNCTION=COS BAILOUT=50
-
- MANDELHYPSINE MANDELFN FUNCTION=SINH BAILOUT=50
-
- MANDELHYPCOSINE MANDELFN FUNCTION=COSH BAILOUT=50
-
- SCOTTSIN PARAMS=nnn FN+FN FUNCTION=SIN/SQR BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTSINH PARAMS=nnn FN+FN FUNCTION=SINH/SQR BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTCOS PARAMS=nnn FN+FN FUNCTION=COS/SQR BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTCOSH PARAMS=nnn FN+FN FUNCTION=COSH/SQR BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTLPC PARAMS=nnn FN+FN FUNCTION=LOG/COS BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTLPS PARAMS=nnn FN+FN FUNCTION=LOG/SIN BAILOUT=nnn+3
- Note: New functions for this type are
- sin/sin sin/cos sin/sinh sin/cosh sin/exp
- cos/cos cos/sinh cos/cosh cos/exp
- sinh/sinh sinh/cosh sinh/exp sinh/log
- cosh/cosh cosh/exp cosh/log
- exp/exp exp/log exp/sqr log/log log/sqr sqr/sqr
-
- SCOTTSZSA PARAMS=nnn FN(Z*Z) FUNCTION=SIN BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTCZSA PARAMS=nnn FN(Z*Z) FUNCTION=COS BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- sinh cosh exp log sqr
-
- SCOTTZSZZ PARAMS=nnn FN*Z+Z FUNCTION=SIN BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTZCZZ PARAMS=nnn FN*Z+Z FUNCTION=COS BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- sinh cosh exp log sqr
-
- SCOTTSZSB PARAMS=nnn FN*FN FUNCTION=SIN/SIN BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTCZSB PARAMS=nnn FN*FN FUNCTION=COS/COS BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTLTS PARAMS=nnn FN*FN FUNCTION=LOG/SIN BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTLTC PARAMS=nnn FN*FN FUNCTION=LOG/COS BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- Note: New functions for this type are
- sin/cos sin/sinh sin/cosh sin/exp sin/sqr
- cos/sinh cos/cosh cos/exp cos/sqr
- sinh/sinh sinh/cosh sinh/exp sinh/log sinh/sqr
- cosh/cosh cosh/exp cosh/log cosh/sqr
- exp/exp exp/log exp/sqr log/log log/sqr sqr/sqr
-
- SCOTTSIC PARAMS=nnn SQR(1/FN) FUNCTION=COS BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- SCOTTSIS PARAMS=nnn SQR(1/FN) FUNCTION=SIN BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- TETRATE PARAMS=nnn TETRATE BAILOUT=nnn+3
-
- Note: New function type sqr(1/fn) with
- sin cos sinh cosh exp log sqr
-
- Note: New function type sqr(fn) with
- sin cos sinh cosh exp log sqr
- ~Format+
- ;
- ;
- ~Data=INTRO_AUTHORS
- ;
- ; FRACTINT intro screen primary authors
- ;
- Primary Authors
- Bert Tyler CompuServe (CIS) ID: [73477,433]
- Timothy Wegner CIS ID: [71320,675] Internet: twegner@mwunix.mitre.org
- Mark Peterson CIS ID: [70441,3353]
- Pieter Branderhorst CIS ID: [72611,2257]
- Contributing Authors
-
-
- ; room for 14 authors at a time here
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- SPACEBAR toggles scrolling off/on
- Copyright (C) 1990-92 The Stone Soup Group. Fractint may be freely copied
- and distributed but may not be sold. See help for more information.
- ;
- ;
- ;
- ~Data=INTRO_CREDITS
- ;
- ; FRACTINT intro screen contributing authors.
- ;
- ...
- Michael Abrash 360x480x256, 320x400x256 VGA video modes
- Joseph Albrecht Tandy video, CGA video speedup
- Kevin Allen Finite attractor and bifurcation engine
- Steve Bennett restore-from-disk logic
- Rob Beyer [71021,2074] Barnsley IFS, Lorenz fractals
- Francois Blais [70700,446] Lyapunov Fractals, LYAPUNOV.MAP
- Mike Burkey 376x564x256, 400x564x256, and 832x612x256 VGA video modes
- John Bridges [75300,2137] superVGA support, 360x480x256 mode
- Brian Corbino [71611,702] Tandy 1000 640x200x16 video mode
- Lee Crocker [73407,2030] Fast Newton, Inversion, Decomposition...
- Monte Davis [71450,3542] Documentation
- Chuck Ebbert [76306,1226] cmprsd & sqrt logmap, fpu speedups
- Richard Finegold [76701,153] 8/16/../256-Way Decomposition option
- Frank Fussenegger Mandelbrot speedups
- Mike Gelvin [73337,520] Mandelbrot speedups
- Lawrence Gozum [73437,2372] Tseng 640x400x256 Video Mode
- David Guenther [70531,3525] Boundary Tracing algorithm
- Norman Hills [71621,1352] Ranges option
- Richard Hughes [70461,3272] "inside=", "outside=" coloring options
- Mike Kaufman [kaufman@eecs.nwu.edu] mouse support, other features
- Wesley Loewer fast floating-point Mandelbrot/Julia logic
- Adrian Mariano [adrian@u.washington.edu] Diffusion & L-Systems
- Charles Marslett [75300,1636] VESA video, IIT math chip support, porting...
- Joe McLain [75066,1257] TARGA Support, color-map files
- Bob Montgomery [73357,3140] (Author of VPIC) Fast text I/O routines
- Bret Mulvey plasma clouds
- Roy Murphy [76376,721] Lyapunov Fractals
- Ethan Nagel [70022,2552] Palette editor, integrated help/doc system
- Jonathan Osuch [73277,1432] IIT detect
- Marc Reinig [72410,77] Lots of 3D options
- Kyle Powell [76704,12] 8514/A Support
- Matt Saucier [72371,3101] Printer Support
- Herb Savage [71640,455] 'inside=bof60', 'inside=bof61' options
- Lee Skinner Tetrate, Spider, Mandelglass fractal types and more
- Dean Souleles [75115,1671] Hercules Support
- Kurt Sowa [73467,2013] Color Printer Support
- Hugh Steele cyclerange feature
- Chris Taylor Floating&Fixed-point algorithm speedups, Tesseral Option
- Scott Taylor [72401,410] (DGWM18A) PostScript, Kam Torus, many fn types.
- Bill Townsend Mandelbrot Speedups
- Paul Varner [73237,441] Extended Memory support for Disk Video
- Dave Warker Integer Mandelbrot Fractals concept
- Phil Wilson [76247,3145] Distance Estimator, Bifurcation fractals
- Nicholas Wilt Lsystem speedups
- Richard Wilton Tweaked VGA Video modes
- ...
- Byte Magazine Tweaked VGA Modes
- MS-Kermit Keyboard Routines
- PC Magazine Sound Routines
- PC Tech Journal CPU, FPU Detectors
- ;
- ;
-