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(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3038174/chaotica_propaganda.jpg) (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3038174/chaotica_0.1_32.zip)

after many years of working on ad hoc flame fractal renderers, i've developed one with flam3/apophysis compatibility  O0

a 32bit windows distribution can be found here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3038174/chaotica_0.1_32.zip


it aims to be faster and more efficient than flam3/apophysis, delivering much higher quality images with less noise in less time. for an idea of what's possible with this renderer, check out this 1920x1200 1:1 crop (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3038174/opioid_section.jpg) of platinus' opioid (http://platinus.deviantart.com/art/Opioid-167296990) or this (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3038174/aphasic%20final.jpg) render of meckie's aphasic (http://meckie.deviantart.com/art/Aphasic-129720020).

bug reports are appreciated, thanks :)

Downloaded this and had a quick go around.

Maybe it's because that darn animation in Mandelbulb 3D is *STILL* running, but it was a bit too slow right now.

It did run on Windows Vista Home Premium with no issues though :D

Will have more feedback if this animation ever finishes!!

I cannot load any of my apophysis flame files.  The test file included seems to work correctly, however when I try to load mine it encounters a problem and closes the window.  Beyond that I think it could be a very good program.

Edit:  I found the problem and the program is working fine, sorry for the false alarm. :)

Yes, it has been awhile since you first mentioned the program.  Got it downloaded, installed, and a few first tries with it.  Have already noticed one thing that seems to be left out, the ability to save images in the usual graphic file formats.  But I am assuming that is because .BMP is much easier, and the others usually require library inclusions.

Will have to spend more time with this later on.
 

Thanks for trying it out Paul :)

You're correct that BMP is currently the only output format because it doesn't require the use of external libraries; I've had the request to support PNG before, this is something I'd like to add quite soon. In the mean time though, I would suggest using the excellent IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/) to convert from BMP to other formats - it does an exceptional job of JPEG compression since you can tell it not to destroy the colour information via subsampling (which is notably lacking in most other such software). I figured since this conversion would usually happen anyway (even PNG can produce quite large files as it is lossless), and so left it at that.

I'm reluctant to add JPEG output though, since it would probably be the option selected by a casual user not aware of the potential for image degradation through repeated JPEG'ing. Chaotica is all about delivering the highest possible quality fractal renders :)

It is a difficult job keeping up with all the fractal related software available these days, but somebody has to do it.    :dink:


Yes, I have been a user and promoter of IrfanView (and the GIMP) for several years now.  I find its abilities much better than some of the high-end graphic editors that cost way too much money.  And adding JPEG is probably not really worth the effort, especially if you eventually add the .PNG file format.

Will be looking forward to playing with this some more, and seeing where you will go with it in further releases.

Thanks for making the download available!!!   :D
 

It would be nice if it ran on Macs. :-\

it should build on linux, so i'll give it a crack on mac os sometime :)

YEAH! :D

first mac version is out: http://www.fractalforums.com/chaotica/chaotica-v0-21-released-first-mac-version/