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Hi Everybody !
    Sorry I've been away from the forums for awhile, but I've got a great new version to share with you. This version has Gradient coloring methods of Normalized Iteration and "e Smoothing", and yes good old Escape Time is still there. There have been a number of improvements, some from version 1.40.05 that I forgot to post here about, Like rather good print services. Many Bug fixes, and odd behaviours have been removed. I've posted a few images in the galleries to give you an idea what the Gradient coloring is like, in case you're not familiar with the names of them.

Here's the break down of the new version as posted on ManyFractals.org :

Added: Two new COLORING METHODS: "Normalized Iteration" and "e Smoothing", and "Color Wrap". The logo graphic is an example of "e Smoothing". Also added a new file type to save, ICON, and by checking "pick transparent color", under Animated GIF (a little un-intuitive, sorry, it'll be improved soon), the transparent area can be selected. Also, the Bitmap color depth, like 256 colors or 32 bit color, is used to select the color depth for the icon. And lastly, "Save As" now makes a folder for ManyFractals saved images, called "My Fractals" and is located under "My Documents" folder (or where ever you have Windows looking to save your documents).

Improvements: Updated "Eye-Candy" to handle the new Coloring Methods. Very Impressive visuals now ... in fact, the old method of "Escape Time" coloring seems boring in Eye Candy in comparison. Also changed the way "Near Set Color" is applied, All methods, including Escape Time, now have a gradient color between "Near Set Color" and "Set Color" ! It added so little to the calculation times on Escape Time images, and SO VERY MUCH to the appeal and definition of the image in these areas, that I just had to make the change.

Fixes: Some new and some old 'Bugs' have been terminated (with extreme prejudice!) ... The Color Editor's colors (the big 'edit' box on the very bottom of the control panel's Color Tab) no longer mysteriously looses it's colors, which was very important to the new coloring methods. Saving PNG and TIFF no longer make black boxes, the problem was the Alpha channel was set to fully transparent. The Eye Candy Color Cycling Speed Slide bar now goes to lowest setting, and has also been improved, as it now tells you the speed value itself, and is self adjusting on the upper end to the color set you are using, so various optical illusions can almost always be made. Using Free Form images with maximize window bug has been 'zapped' and the whole issue surrounding using a maximized window has been fixed (hopefully !) ... basically, there are know 'bugs' left on my list ... but there's always more testing to be done, so who knows.
 
Next Version:  The speed performance of Eye Candy and "e Smoothing" both need improvement. I've got several ideas that will help. There also 'tracing out' set points and 2 more color methods to add, and the raw data for the new color methods doesn't compress well, so there's that to improve as well. Then there's 3 pages of items to pick from, so I'm not sure about everything that will be in the next version ... but good thing are on the way !

well ... Hope everyone's enjoying the New Year, and Hope you enjoy the new ManyFractals !

Hi.

I missed this program!

Just tried downloading it, but it wouldn't run - so I tried to download the "full" version...

But that link just leads to the download page, not a file    :nerd:

If you fix the link, I'll give the program a test run this weekend!

Sorry about that ! The Links are fixed ! they all had the same internal alias, so they all lead to the same place. That's what I get for trying to save a few steps ...

Happy Downloading !

Thanks for the heads up, Sockratease ! ... and I hope you like ManyFractals !

Great!

Got it downloaded and installed.  Started up easily and I'm exploring the controls now  (got the "no recording device found" about audio - but that isn't a big deal)  (I have a system wholly unsuited to fractals, but I use it anyhow!)

I'll post what I do with the program over the weekend...

Sounds great ! Thanks for the input ! email me at author@manyfractals.org if you have any questions ... the help file hopefully will be of help ... yeah, I've got to work on the sound recording device issue, I've seen it come up too many times, it's some old legacy code for backward compatibility, needs to be updated. I'll also check in here for the next 3-5 hours today, if you post here.

Happy exploring !