New Java Applet Fractal Explorer Program on CodingMagic.com

[starplasm]

Hello everyone! I would like to share with you a Java applet creation of mine at http://www.codingmagic.com:

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html

The Java applet allows the user to explore the Mandelbrot set with real time responsiveness. The image is generated in stages as opposed to pixel-by-pixel. The GUI is very responsive to user inputs.

I have also made an informational page regarding the Mandelbrot set describing the math behind the images:

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractalHelp.html

I intend on adding descriptions of the coding behind the applet as well in due time. There are other nifty java applet coding projects on there for your amusement as well.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Enjoy!

Regards,
Pierre

[cKleinhuis]

hello there, welcome to the forum !

  please be sure not to double posting/spammin !

the rendering method is interesting, do you render by iteration depth ? isn 't that a problem to manage the calculated areas ?
has the rendering method some speed gains ? do you use guessing inside the stripes ?  :

nice work !

 

[starplasm]

Hello! Sorry, I did not mean to spam.   

Yes, you are correct! Each frame is generated via the iteration depth. The calculated areas go untouched once they exceed the boundary limit. So, less pixels get altered as the rendering process continues. I suppose a speed gain could be considered to be the fact that you get to see the fractal as it's generated.   I set an upper limit on the maximum number of iterations, but you don't have to wait for it to finish rendering to see the results. The longer you wait, the more detailed and accurate the image.

I don't use any guessing techniques in generating the fractal. I prefer to have it mathematically as accurate as possible.  The exponential color smoothing takes care of the coloring for each pixel.

Thanks for the great observations and comments!
Pierre

[Sockratease]

Welcome to the forum.

That's a fun little toy!

Nice work and thanks for sharing.

[cKleinhuis]

it is nice to lookat when it builds the fractal ! 

a hint for the current/iteration would be nice, so that when black screen, the user sees that something goes on ...

beside of that an estimation should be made of the first line visible, i would suggest you calc a 9x9 rectangle of dots the border, and the center, and take the lowest iteration depth as estimator when the first thing is visible on screen ... 

 

[starplasm]

Hi Trifox,

Thank you for the suggestions! I have updated the applet - it will now show the iteration number in the status bar of the web browser. 

I have a few ideas for improving the zoom feature. I'll have a look at that this weekend.

Thanks again!
Pierre

[cKleinhuis]

nicely done, now you can check the number in the status bar when the first pixel becomes visible,
that should be the 'hinting' number...

but some further notes:
ok, i like the option to continue a started calculation, but i do not like to wait for the result on the screen is visible,
i thought before of a similar method, but i was rendering the image up to a certain iteration depth ( e.g. 25 ) to see the contours,
after that i have a list of not-escaped points, and then i start to continue those pixels who have not diverged yet.

another thing to mention:
by using the browser bar as a status display, you are using an external component dependant to your program, what happens if the applet is run standalone?

continue the good work!

 

[starplasm]

Hi Trifox,

I made the applet work a bit differently now in terms of the user interface for the zoom rectangle. I forced the applet to be square, i.e. 1:1 aspect ratio. I forced the rectangle for the zoom interface to always show exactly the area into which the user will be zooming into the fractal. Previously I used a resize method based upon the user input while maintaining the aspect ratio. With the new method, what you see in the blue selection rectangle will be exactly what you get. I also made sure that the applet indicates in the status bar when it has completed the maximum number of iterations or when no pixels need any further refinement.

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html

I'll look into making the zoom function give more feedback initially when zoomed in deep into the fractal in the next couple of days.

Thanks again for the great suggestions!
Pierre

[starplasm]

Hello again fractal fanatics!

StarFractal has been upgraded to v1.1 Beta!

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html

It has been rewritten such that it will now store the previous fractal view such that the user can return to it and continue the fractal calculation! A feature for previewing the area of the fractal into which the applet zooms will be added in the near future.

Enjoy!
Pierre

[starplasm]

Hi Trifox,

I updated StarFractal to v1.1, which now includes a bicubic resize routine that runs immediately after each zoom command that the user performs. So, instead of seeing a black screen initially, you see a preview image of the fractal from the data in the previous iteration. The preview image gets updated after each iteration and becomes the exact fractal calculation in the end.

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html

Cheers!
Pierre

http://www.codingmagic.com

[cKleinhuis]

hi there, ok, that is better,

but i have pixel trash in the black areas when zooming, and this trash areas do not get correctly overdrawn

 

[starplasm]

hi there, ok, that is better,

but i have pixel trash in the black areas when zooming, and this trash areas do not get correctly overdrawn

 

Hi Trifox,

If you allow the iterations to go to completion (300 iterations total), then the black areas will get correctly drawn after the 300th iteration is completed.

I didn't realize that the bicubic resize was not working correctly at first. Thank you for pointing that out.  The "trash areas" were caused by the fact that I was interpolating between color indices in my color table as opposed to the actual RGB color values. That's what caused the "trash areas" to occur. I have fixed the problem as of today, and everything is now working properly. 

Check it out! http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html

Pierre

http://www.codingmagic.com

[GFWorld]

>Check it out! http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html

Pierre - it´s really fascinating ! :-)))
Margit

[Duncan C]

Hello everyone! I would like to share with you a Java applet creation of mine at http://www.codingmagic.com:

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html

The Java applet allows the user to explore the Mandelbrot set with real time responsiveness. The image is generated in stages as opposed to pixel-by-pixel. The GUI is very responsive to user inputs.

I have also made an informational page regarding the Mandelbrot set describing the math behind the images:

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractalHelp.html

I intend on adding descriptions of the coding behind the applet as well in due time. There are other nifty java applet coding projects on there for your amusement as well.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Enjoy!

Regards,
Pierre

Your applet won't load on my machine (Mac running Leopard and Safari browser.)