Hi,

Last week I decided to try my hand at making a fractal program, to test 
some ideas. I may have come up with a new variation of the Mandelbrot.

Here are some snapshots from a few areas:
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq199/stbenge/complex1o.jpg
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq199/stbenge/complex1p.jpg
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq199/stbenge/complex1q.jpg

The program itself is fairly simple. It can only zoom in and reset the 
view. To get different resolutions I have to recompile the code. I need 
to implement antialiasing. Also the logarithmic smoothing isn't perfect 
yet, but looks better than it would if I just returned the iteration steps.

I would rather just use a program already geared towards 
user-friendliness, since I'm lazy when it comes to the boring aspects of 
programming (Windows API stuff). Does anyone know of a good fractal 
generator that lets you alter the parameters at a low, less-abstract 
level? I don't mean z=z+c, but rather something like xx=x*x-y*y, 
yy=x*y*2. It would have to allow me to use mathematical expressions 
since I make use of min(n,n) for the more interesting fractals I've come 
up with. I wonder if Fractint would allow me to do that...

Sam

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stbenge wrote:

> I would rather just use a program already geared towards 
> user-friendliness, since I'm lazy when it comes to the boring aspects of 
> programming (Windows API stuff). Does anyone know of a good fractal 
> generator that lets you alter the parameters at a low, less-abstract 
> level? I don't mean z=z+c, but rather something like xx=x*x-y*y, 
> yy=x*y*2. It would have to allow me to use mathematical expressions 
> since I make use of min(n,n) for the more interesting fractals I've come 
> up with. I wonder if Fractint would allow me to do that...

Yeah, FractInt will do it. The syntax is something like

   x = real(z);
   y = imag(z);
   z = {x*x - y*y, 2*x*y};

off the top of my head...

The fun part - apparently - is getting FractInt to actually run any 
more. Being an old MS-DOS program that manually frobnicates the video 
hardware in advanced ways, it doesn't tend to run very happily under 
Windoze. (Indeed, you might have more luck with the Linux port...)

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On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:03:32 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>
>The fun part - apparently - is getting FractInt to actually run any 
>more. Being an old MS-DOS program that manually frobnicates the video 
>hardware in advanced ways, it doesn't tend to run very happily under 
>Windoze. (Indeed, you might have more luck with the Linux port...)

Winfract?
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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>> The fun part - apparently - is getting FractInt to actually run any 
>> more. Being an old MS-DOS program that manually frobnicates the video 
>> hardware in advanced ways, it doesn't tend to run very happily under 
>> Windoze. (Indeed, you might have more luck with the Linux port...)
> 
> Winfract?

If you check the other newsgroup, Warp posted a lovely little Haskell 
program that prints out the Mandelbrot set in ASCII art. ;-)

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On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:41:39 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>>> The fun part - apparently - is getting FractInt to actually run any 
>>> more. Being an old MS-DOS program that manually frobnicates the video 
>>> hardware in advanced ways, it doesn't tend to run very happily under 
>>> Windoze. (Indeed, you might have more luck with the Linux port...)
>> 
>> Winfract?
>
>If you check the other newsgroup, Warp posted a lovely little Haskell 
>program that prints out the Mandelbrot set in ASCII art. ;-)

Sorry, what other newsgroup?
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 29-Sep-08 10:29, Stephen wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:03:32 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> 
>> The fun part - apparently - is getting FractInt to actually run any 
>> more. Being an old MS-DOS program that manually frobnicates the video 
>> hardware in advanced ways, it doesn't tend to run very happily under 
>> Windoze. (Indeed, you might have more luck with the Linux port...)
> 
> Winfract?

For some reason I read that as "Winfarct?". That would even have made 
sense as a description of the what happens when you manipulate the video 
directly under windoze.

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Stephen wrote:

>> If you check the other newsgroup, Warp posted a lovely little Haskell 
>> program that prints out the Mandelbrot set in ASCII art. ;-)
> 
> Sorry, what other newsgroup?

I was actually kidding.

(But if you have a look at the Haskell groups on this news server...)

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On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:44:39 +0200, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:

>On 29-Sep-08 10:29, Stephen wrote:
>> On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:03:32 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> 
>>> The fun part - apparently - is getting FractInt to actually run any 
>>> more. Being an old MS-DOS program that manually frobnicates the video 
>>> hardware in advanced ways, it doesn't tend to run very happily under 
>>> Windoze. (Indeed, you might have more luck with the Linux port...)
>> 
>> Winfract?
>
>For some reason I read that as "Winfarct?". 

Is it my accent? ;)

>That would even have made 
>sense as a description of the what happens when you manipulate the video 
>directly under windoze.

Too true :)
And Winfract does not do colour cycling :(
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:56:41 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>Stephen wrote:
>
>>> If you check the other newsgroup, Warp posted a lovely little Haskell 
>>> program that prints out the Mandelbrot set in ASCII art. ;-)
>> 
>> Sorry, what other newsgroup?
>
>I was actually kidding.
>
You got me :) but I've seen a Mandelbrot in ASCII art.

>(But if you have a look at the Haskell groups on this news server...)

Lordy, there is a lot there :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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>> I was actually kidding.
>
> You got me :) but I've seen a Mandelbrot in ASCII art.

And there is, in fact, a Haskell program from Warp that generates one. 
(He's learning Haskell, apparently.) Obviously, being a beginner's 
program, it's not really useful for much other than learning about 
Haskell - so my suggestion to use it instead of FractInt was the part I 
was joking about.

>> (But if you have a look at the Haskell groups on this news server...)
> 
> Lordy, there is a lot there :)

There is indeed a lot there - and much of it is from a Finnish guy, but 
I'm fairly sure there's no Lordy in there. ;-)

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stbenge wrote:
> Last week I decided to try my hand at making a fractal program, to test 
> some ideas. I may have come up with a new variation of the Mandelbrot.

Pretty.  JPG is probably not the way to go with fractal images, tho. :-)

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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Invisible wrote:
> 
>   x = real(z);
>   y = imag(z);
>   z = {x*x - y*y, 2*x*y};
> 
> off the top of my head...

I checked around and found ChaosPro(free), which allows one to build 
expressions like the one you placed above. It uses a C-like syntax which 
is just fine with me :) You can built your own functions. For instance, 
I made new min() and max() functions to manipulate complex numbers. Now 
if I can just replicate the same fractal I posted here with the program 
:/ I came up with something which looks like it superficially, but upon 
closer examination, looks like a cheap knock off. Less detail... I must 
be doing something wrong. (like staying up till three working on 
fractals ;))

> The fun part - apparently - is getting FractInt to actually run any 
> more. Being an old MS-DOS program that manually frobnicates the video 
> hardware in advanced ways, it doesn't tend to run very happily under 
> Windoze. (Indeed, you might have more luck with the Linux port...)

It pisses me off that MS dropped DOS. Now all I can do is run this lousy 
DOS-box. It supports some games, but not any programs I have made to run 
under DOS SVG modes >:(

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stbenge wrote:

> I must 
> be doing something wrong. (like staying up till three working on 
> fractals ;)

Er... yuh-huh. ;-)

> It pisses me off that MS dropped DOS. Now all I can do is run this lousy 
> DOS-box. It supports some games, but not any programs I have made to run 
> under DOS SVG modes >:(

I'd say "use a virtual machine", except that'll be... a tad... slow.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Darren New wrote:
> stbenge wrote:
>> Last week I decided to try my hand at making a fractal program, to 
>> test some ideas. I may have come up with a new variation of the 
>> Mandelbrot.
> 
> Pretty.  JPG is probably not the way to go with fractal images, tho. :-)
> 
Not if I want to preserve the detail and color intensity... but I have 
dialup over here, so posting PNGs might have been prohibitive. That's 
life in the sticks :/

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stbenge wrote:

> http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq199/stbenge/complex1q.jpg

After hacking and slashing my way through ChaosPro's syntax and coloring 
methods, I have finally recreated one of my fractals:
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq199/stbenge/complex1qCP.jpg

It's exactly the same fractal! Up until a little while ago all my 
attempts looked like cheap toy replicas of the real thing, and I was 
beginning to wonder about the quality of ChaosPro. I still need to work 
on the coloring method, to make it more smooth, but this is some 
progress :) I can now convert all my fractals over to CP and render them 
with AA, changed resolutions, etc.

Well I'm excited anyway, even if nobody else is :)

Sam

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