~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 Behavior:\ We've had some problems (hangs 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|period } { 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 existing 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 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|period ~Format-,Online- INSIDE=BOF60|BOF61|ZMAG|PERIOD ~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. inside=period colors pixels according to the length of their eventual cycle. For example, points that approach a fixed point have color=1. Points that approach a 2-cycle have color=2. Points that do not approach a cycle during the iterations performed have color=maxit. This option works best with a fairly large number of iterations. ; ; ; ~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=) 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 options screen, or by giving the "finattract=yes" command-line option. 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 "finattract=yes" option (command-line or 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 "Look for finite attractor" to 1 with the "Y" 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 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. Finally, the finite attractor code will not work if it fails to detect a finite attractor. If the number of iterations is set too low, the finite attractor may be missed. 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). There is a second type of finite attractor coloring, which is selected by setting "Look for Finite Attractor" to a negative value. This colors points by the phase of the convergence to the finite attractor, instead of by the speed of convergence. For example, consider the Julia set for -0.1 + 0.7i, which is the three-lobed "rabbit" set. The Finite Attractor is an orbit of length three; call these values a, b, and c. Then, the Julia set iteration can converge to one of three sequences: a,b,c,a,b,c,..., or b,c,a,b,c,..., or c,a,b,c,a,b,... The Finite Attractor phase option colors the interior of the Julia set with three colors, depending on which of the three sequences the orbit converges to. Internally, the code determines one point of the orbit, say "a", and the length of the orbit cycle, say 3. It then iterates until the sequence converges to a, and then uses the iteration number modulo 3 to determine the color. ; ; ~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 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 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 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, GRAPHDEV) 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 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 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 "Fractal Sources" library of the GRAPHDEV 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: 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 713-524-6394). 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. In Europe, the latest versions are available from another Fractint enthusiast, Jon Horner - Editor of FRAC'Cetera, a disk-based fractal/chaos resource. Disk prices for UK/Europe are: 5.25" HD BP4.50/5.00 : 3.5" HD BP (British Pounds) 5.00/5.50. Prices include p&p (airmail to Europe). Contact: Jon Horner, FRAC'Cetera, Le Mont Ardaine, Rue des Ardaines, St. Peters, Guernsey GY7 9EU, CI, UK. Phone (44) 0481 63689. CIS 100112,1700 The X Windows port of Fractint maintained by Ken Shirriff is available via FTP from sprite.berkeley.edu. ; ; ~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 GRAPHDEV (Graphics Developers) Section 4 (Fractal Sources) of CompuServe (CIS). Most of the authors have never met except on Compuserve. Access to the GRAPHDEV 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 GRAPHDEV forum's data library 5. 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 twegner@.mitre.org on Internet Houston, TX 77004 (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 270 Moss St. Victoria, BC Canada, V8V 4M4 (604) 381-7164 Contributing authors (in alphabetic order); Joseph A Albrecht 9250 Old Cedar Ave #215 Bloomington, Mn 55425 (612) 884-3286 Kevin C Allen kevina@microsoft.com on Internet 9 Bowen Place Seven Hills NSW 2147 Australia +61-2-870-2297 (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 Juan J Buhler jbuhler@usina.org.ar Santa Fe 2227 1P "E" (54-1) 84 3528 Buenos Aires Argentina Michael D. Burkey burkey@sun9.math.utk.edu on Internet 6600 Crossgate Rd. Knoxville, TN 37912 Robin Bussell 13 Bayswater Rd Horfield Bristol Avon, England (044)-0272-514451 Lee Daniel Crocker [73407,2030] on CIS 5506 Camden Ave #D3 leecr@microsoft.com San Jose, CA 95124 (408) 267-2926 Monte Davis [71450,3542] on CIS 223 Vose Avenue South Orange, NJ 07079 (201) 378-3327 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 loewer@largo.star.harc.edu on INTERNET 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 [71062,3677] on CIS 4209 San Pedro NE #308 Albuquerque, NM 87109 (505) 884-7442 Jonathan Osuch [73277,1432] on CIS 2110 Northview Drive Marion, IA 52302 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 [75450,3631] on CIS P.O. Box 14944 Albuquerque, NM 87191 (505) 293-5723 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 2913 Somerville Drive Apt #1 scott@bohemia.metronet.org on Internet Ft. Collins, Co 80526 DGWM18A on Prodigy (303) 221-1206 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=Other Fractal Products (Forgive us, but we just *have* to begin this section with a plug for *our* fractal products...) Fractint's primary authors have written several books about fractals, Fractint, and Winfract (the Windows version of Fractint). The book about Fractint is The Waite Group's Fractal Creations (Copyright (C) 1991 Waite Group Press, ISBN # 1-878739-05-0). The original book was based on Fractint version 15 - the second edition (which should hit your favorite local bookstore sometime in the fall of 1993) is based on version 18. The book about Winfract is The Waite Group's Fractals for Windows (Copyright (C) 1992 Waite Group Press, ISBN # 1-878739-25-5). ~Format- Fractal Creations and Fractals for Windows include: o A guided tour of Fractint/Winfract. 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/Winfract. o Secrets on how the programs work internally. o 3-D red/blue glasses. o A fold-out color poster of the most spectacular fractals. o A disk containing either Fractint or Winfract and demonstration files. o (Fractals for Windows and the second edition of Fractal Creations only) A complete copy of the source code with a chapter explaining how the program works. ~Format+ If you enjoy Fractint, you're sure to enjoy Fractal Creations. The book includes Fractint and is an excellent companion to the program. If you use the Windows environment, be sure to pick up a copy of Fractals for Windows as well. ; ; ~OnlineFF A great fractals newsletter is "Amygdala" published by Rollo Silver. You'll find equal parts fractal algorithms, humor, reviews, and ideas. Write to: Amygdala\ Box 219\ San Cristobal, NM 87564\ USA\ Email:rsilver@lanl.gov\ Phone: 505-586-0197\ Another great fractals newsletter (this one based in the UK) is "FRAC'Cetera", a disk-based fractal/chaos resource published by Jon Horner. Contact: Jon Horner\ FRAC'Cetera\ Le Mont Ardaine\ Rue des Ardaines\ ST Peters\ Guernsey GY7 9EU, CI, UK\ Email: 100112.1700@compuserve.com\ PH: (44) 0481 63689\ ; ; ~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 (second edition, by Wegner and Tyler, due in the fall of 1993).\ 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! WEGNER, Timothy & PETERSON, Mark & TYLER, Bert, & Branderhorst, Pieter: "Fractals for Windows", Waite Group Press, 1992.\ This book is to Winfract (the Windows version of Fractint) what "Fractals for Windows" is 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 GRAPHDEV Lib 4, 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 GRAPHDEV Lib 4, 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 17} {Version 16} {Version 15} {Versions 12 through 14} {Versions 1 through 11} ; ~Topic=Version 17 Version 17.2, 3/92 - Fixed a bug which caused Fractint to hang when a Continuous Potential\ Bailout value was set (using the 'Y') screen and then the 'Z' screen\ was activated.\ - fixed a bug which caused "batch=yes" runs to abort whenever any\ key was pressed.\ - bug-fixes in the Stereo3D/Targa logic from Marc Reinig.\ - Fractint now works correctly again on FPU-less 8088s when\ zoomed deeply into the Mandelbrot/Julia sets\ - The current image is no longer marked as "not resumable" on a\ Shell-To-Dos ("D") command.\ - fixed a bug which prevented the "help" functions from working\ properly during fractal-type selection for some fractal types.\ Version 17.1, 3/92 - fixed a bug which caused PCs with no FPU to lock up when they attempted\ to use some fractal types.\ - fixed a color-cycling bug which caused the palette to single-step \ when you pressed ESCAPE to exit color-cycling.\ - fixed the action of the '<' and '>' keys during color-cycling.\ Version 17.0, 2/92 - New fractal types (but of course!): Lyapunov Fractals from Roy Murphy (see {Lyapunov Fractals} for details) 'BifStewart' (Stewart Map bifurcation) fractal type and new bifurcation parameters (filter cycles, seed population) from Kevin Allen. Lorenz3d1, Lorenz3d2, and Lorenz3d3 fractal types from Scott Taylor. Note that a bug in the Lorenz3d1 fractal prevents zooming-out from working with it at the moment. Martin, Circle, and Hopalong (culled from Dewdney's Scientific American Article) Lots of new entries in fractint.par. New ".L" files (TILING.L, PENROSE.L) New 'rand()' function added to the 'type=formula' parser - New fractal generation options: New 'Tesseral' calculation algorithm (use the 'X' option list to select it) from Chris Lusby Taylor. New 'Fillcolor=' option shows off Boundary Tracing and Tesseral structure inside=epscross and inside=startrail options taken from a paper by Kenneth Hooper, with credit also to Clifford Pickover New Color Postscript Printer support from Scott Taylor. Sound= command now works with rbits and ead commands. New 'orbitdelay' option in X-screen and command-line interface New "showdot=nn" command-line option that displays the pixel currently being worked on using the specified color value (useful for those lloooonngg images being calculated using solid guessing - "where is it now?"). New 'exitnoask=yes' commandline/SSTOOLS.INI option to avoid the final "are you sure?" screen New plasma-cloud options. The interface at the moment (documented here and here only because it might change later) lets you:\ - use an alternate drawing algorithm that gives you an earlier preview\ of the finished image. - re-generate your favorite plasma cloud (say, at a higher resolution) by forcing a re-select of the random seed.\ New 'N' (negative palette) option from Scott Taylor - the documentation at this point is: Pressing 'N' while in the palette editor will invert each color. It will convert only the current color if it is in 'x' mode, a range if in 'y' mode, and every color if not in either the 'x' or 'y' mode. - Speedups: New, faster floating-point Mandelbrot/Julia set code from Wesley Loewer, Frank Fussenegger and Chris Lusby Taylor (in separate contributions). Faster non-386 integer Mandelbrot code from Chris Lusby Taylor, Mike Gelvin and Bill Townsend (in separate contributions) New integer Lsystems logic from Nicholas Wilt Finite-Attractor fixups and Lambda/mandellambda speedups from Kevin Allen. GIF Decoder speedups from Mike Gelvin - Bug-fixes and other enhancements: Fractint now works with 8088-based AMSTRAD computers. The video logic is improved so that (we think) fewer video boards will need "textsafe=save" for correct operation. Fixed a bug in the VESA interface which effectively messed up adapters with unusual VESA-style access, such as STB's S3 chipset. Fixed a color-cycling bug that would at times restore the wrong colors to your image if you exited out of color-cycling, displayed a 'help' screen, and then returned to the image. Fixed the XGA video logic so that its 256-color modes use the same default 256 colors as the VGA adapter's 320x200x256 mode. Fixed the 3D bug that caused bright spots on surfaces to show as black blotches of color 0 when using a light source. Fixed an image-generation bug that sometimes caused image regeneration to restart even if not required if the image had been zoomed in to the point that floating-point had been automatically activated. Added autodetection and 640x480x256 support for the Compaq Advanced VGA Systems board - I wonder if it works? Added VGA register-compatible 320x240x256 video mode. Fixed the "logmap=yes" option to (again) take effect for continuous potential images. This was broken in version 15.x. The colors for the floating-point algorithm of the Julia fractal now match the colors for the integer algorithm. If the GIF Encoder (the "Save" command) runs out of disk space, it now tells you about it. If you select both the boundary-tracing algorithm and either "inside=0" or "outside=0", the algorithm will now give you an error message instead of silently failing. Updated 3D logic from Marc Reinig. Minor changes to permit IFS3D fractal types to be handled properly using the "B" command. Minor changes to the "Obtaining the latest Source" section to refer to BBS access (Peter Longo's) and mailed diskettes (the Public (Software) Library). ~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 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 '>'.\ 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 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 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 command allows changing fractal type-specific parameters without going back through the (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}. is a new command key which goes directly to video mode selection. New "cyclerange" option (command line and 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 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 command brings up IFS editor (used to be 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 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 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 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 ) 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 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 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\ and <3> commands now present list of video modes to pick from; 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 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 display and in 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 - 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\ dynamic 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 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\ nversion command for most fractal types\ uaternary decomposition toggle and "DECOMP=" argument\ 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 ave and Restore () commands\ ogarithmic and 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

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" () command\ 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 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 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 ( to )\ "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 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@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) 1990-93 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 kevina@microsoft.com Finite attractor, bifurcation engine Steve Bennett restore-from-disk logic Rob Beyer [71021,2074] Barnsley IFS, Lorenz fractals Francois Blais [70700,446] Lyapunov Fractals, LYAPUNOV.MAP Dennis Bragg [75300,2456] DXF Raytracing output option Juan J. Buhler jbuhler@gidef.edu.ar Diffusion options, inverse Julia type Mike Burkey 376x564x256, 400x564x256, and 832x612x256 VGA video modes Robin Bussell Palette-editor "freestyle" option 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 Dan Farmer [70703,1632] orbits enhancements 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 fp Mandel/Julia/Lyapunov, boundary trace, frothybasin Adrian Mariano [adrian@u.washington.edu] Diffusion & L-Systems Charles Marslett [75300,1636] VESA video and IIT math chip support 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, register-compatible 8514/A code 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 Ken Shirriff shirriff@sprite.berkeley.edu Quaternions, CA, Xfract port Lee Skinner [75450,3631] Tetrate fractal types and more Dean Souleles [75115,1671] Hercules Support Kurt Sowa [73467,2013] Color Printer Support Hugh Steele cyclerange feature John Swenson [75300,2136] Postscript printer features Chris Taylor Floating&Fixed-point algorithm speedups, Tesseral Option Scott Taylor [72401,410] 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 Aaron Williams Register-compatible 8514/A code 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 ; ;