In article <3A5487CE.BC74CB31@my-dejanews.com>, 
gre### [at] my-dejanewscom wrote:

> Actually, in my Mandel and Julia zooms, I needed an exhaustive 
> color_map, but *never* changed the pattern itself: only the camera 
> angle changed in those anims. 

Then the number of iterations you used was large enough that you didn't 
need to change anything as you zoomed in...you might have gotten faster 
rendering if you reduced it at the higher scales.


> And I keep using the term "infinite complexity" because as I 
> understand it, the pure math behind the concept has detail literally, 
> ad infinitum--

If you used infinite octaves in the multifractal, it would have an 
infinite level of detail...and take an infinite amount of time to 
compute 1 pixel.


> it's just these finite clunky PC's that limit us to a mere 12 orders 
> of magnitude. 

Where did you get that number? The possible orders of magnitude of 
detail would depend on the fractal you are computing and the amount of 
time you have to do the calculations...and sometimes on available memory.


> I once heard a precise definition of fractal as something that has 
> interesting detail at many orders of magnification.

"many" != "infinite"
And that doesn't seem very precise to me...it generally has to be 
self-similar as well.


> I asked the question as I looked at the structures I'm making because 
> I'm beginning to doubt that it is fractal in the same sense or to the 
> same degree as the mandel. 

It is a fractal, in the same way the mandel pattern is a fractal. As for 
the "degree", that is a matter of the default settings...iterations of 
the mandel pattern or octaves of the multifractal.


> Yes, I'm thinking I'd have to keep changing parameters as I zoomed on 
> on it.  If I have to do that, I may as well just change the scale

Changing the scale as you zoom in is completely different from 
increasing octaves...

-- 
Christopher James Huff
Personal: chr### [at] maccom, http://homepage.mac.com/chrishuff/
TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg, http://tag.povray.org/

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