Fractal Viewer

This program explores Mandelbrot and Julia Sets Fractals. It creates images which can be saved in BMP and JPG format, enables you to edit the colors and zoom in and out - with a theotical limit of 10³⁵ to one! You can also alter manually almost every parameter with importance.

The program is working, though some options should not be used, others are not completed and the source is quite messy. These have to do with the environment "make-ups" mostly and not with basic functions. The results are quite qood though, and I plan to make a final version soon. I always liked fractals and this is the second attempt to create a program to explore them, using separate engine, multiple windows, different color engine, etc, which added up creating a chaotic for my standards source.

Note that help is not available (is it me or every developper writes the help files last and in a hurry?), so you may want to check the how-to-use stuff that follows:

Step-by-step fractal-exploring!

OK, let's start the program: Run Fractal.exe!

Select Fractal

Select File -> New from the menu (you may also use the left-most speed button). A dialog will come up asking for the fractal type. Fractal Mandelbrot will be already selected, so just click OK.

Go explore!

There are many ways to do that actually. You may

• Select an area with the mouse
• Left-click on a point to zoom in 50%
• Right-click on a point to zoom out 50%
• Press Ctrl+I to zoom in the center
• Press Ctrl+O to zoom out from the center
• Enter coordinates then click update
• Try F6 or Image->Center to center in a point
• You can go to the previous image at any time by Image->Back
• With Image->Reset you return to the original position

Adjust size

You may maximize the windows if you like, but the fractal size will remain stable. To maximize it go to Image -> Resize Image -> Use client area. If you want a custom sized image go to Image -> Resize Image -> Enter resolution and type in the width and height in pixels (like 640x480 or 320x200, etc). Don't forget the 'x' between! You may also left-click the resolution button in the Fractal Properties tab (right) to do this.

Sometimes the resizing will produce an image with an altered aspect ratio. This means that the width will be very large or very small regarding the height. You can fix this by selecting Image -> Resize Image -> Maintain aspect ratio. A dialog will come up where you can enter the desired ratio (I find 4:3 comfortable).

Save your image!

Go to File->Save As... or press the Save button. A dialog will appear so that you can select a filename and the file type. You may save the image as a Bitmap or in JPEG format, or a "Fractal Screenshot". If you select JPEG, you will be prompted to select compression ratio thus adjusting filesize and quality. Fractal Screenshot type just stores the fractal parameters and colors and creates a small file (about 2 KB). This can be opened by the program (File->Open) for further exploring or color editing. If you have multiple windows at the same time, you can select File->Save All and save all the images in one Screenshot file.

Color editing

Select Image->Edit Colors to open the color editor. You may edit any color individually by double-clicking it. You can also load an existing palette or save the palette you created. 'Special' button will open a more advanced editor where you can edit groups in the palette and create fade effects to move from a color to another.

The fractal properties

Coordinates: They determine the part of the fractal that you see.

Resolution: The size of the image in pixels (Width x Height). Alter this by clicking in the button right of the text. A dialog will appear requesting the new size in the same format (with the 'x' between). Pressing 'Shift' while clicking will result in another dialog (same as selecting 'resize image -> maintain aspect ratio'). Here you must select the aspect ratio (default: 4:3, or the current) which is width / height. You must select also what to change (width, height, both). Some values may result in a quite 'stretched' image that cannot be 'unstretched' by the menu option.

Maximum iterations: How many times to run the test before ending the calculation process. Actually, the more, the slower but with more 'depth' the fractal will be. That means that areas shown after the 256 cycle, will not be visible if maximum iterations are 256, but then again areas that actually aren't visible until 1000 will not trouble the processor that long. In this program, more than 256 iterations are needed only in higher zoom levels, and even the higher zoom may be shown with 1024. Note that changing iterations alters the colors if the maximum colors are less than the iterations.

Maximum colors: How many colors will be used (the color depth is always 24-bit). With 256 iterations and 256 colors, each area shown in the same cycle has the same (and unique in the palette) color. If the iterations are more, then areas shown in 257th cycle will have the same colors with these shown in the first, and so on.

Fractal detail: Actually the limit after which we say that the point goes to infinity. Change it and see (try 2, 3, 4, 9). Larger values will make the image 'wider' if seen from away (zoom out a bit).

That's enough! Let's get it!

OK, you asked for it: Fractal.zip Filesize 321KB. The source isn't available yet as it is *very* messy and probably buggy as well. Don't worry it wont blow your CPU or become a portal to the domains of Chaos (I hope...). In the zip you will also find some screenshots and colormaps.