Hi Steve (Sr.), good to see you joining the discussion, hopefully soon with results!
One caveat: please don't selectively reply to my emails - it was nice discussing Chaotica details, but I do ask that you take down the misinformation on your product comparison page, or at least not refer to Chaotica by name with all those inaccuracies. I've taken the time to write you a detailed email with everything that's wrong on the list, and only ask that you stop representing my product on your page however you like. I'm posting this here since you seem to have time to make posts on Fractal Forums now, but I made that request some days ago...
[edit: Thank you, and sorry for mentioning it here unnecessarily I guess.]
These are the categories that were taken down from my web site. I will post only Fractal Architect's stats here.
I hereby publicly challenge the Chaotica developer to reveal his feature list comparison.
Price $50 FA 3D, FA Sampler - Free, No Trial period - useable forever
Product Version 3.1.0
Platforms Mac
GPU Rendering Available Yes
GPU Brands supported ATI, Nvidia, Intel Iris (HD 4000 & HD 5000)
Render Size License Limit FA 3D - None, FA Sampler - 1.23 Megapixels
Render Device Limit FA 3D - GPU or CPU, FA Sampler - CPU
# of Variation types included FA 3D - 330 FA Sampler - 45
3D Fractals FA 3D - Yes FA Sampler - No
Sub-Flame Support No
LayerZ Support No
Vector Objects as Flames No
Custom Variation Architecture FA 3D - Variation Sets FA Sampler - only 45 popular variations from Flam3
Max # of Variations Max per Variation Set 128 (typically you hit the limit on the next line first)
Max # of Variations and Variation Parameters Per Variation Set 216
# of Variation Sets Viewable and Editable at the Same time Unlimited (FA Sampler only its 1)
Pause/Resume Renders - Saveable Render State Yes
Progressive Rendering Yes
Photoshop-Like Color Curves No
Random Generator Yes, See randomization controls below
Random With Control Yes
Random Final Transforms and Linked Transforms Available Yes
Random Favorites (Memorized Settings that are Exportable/Importable) Yes
Stash FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Variant Editor FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Variant Editor Categories 15 See posting below for list of categories
Editor Fractal Image Quality High - its render quality is a user changeable setting
Editor Fractal Image Size Small to Large - it can be detached and resized as you like
Triangle Editor Yes
Color Gradient Editor Yes
Quicklook (open temporary larger view of a fractal - resize however you want) Yes
Keyframes FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Create PDF Folio of Keyframes FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Finder Thumbnails (Finder is the equivalent of Windows Explorer) Yes
Use PDF Folio or Video for Finder quicklook FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Make Video Animations FA 3D - Yes with full Motion Blur if desired, FA Sampler - No
Loop/Morph Video Animation FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Make Video Animations by Animation Parameters in Triangle Editor FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Render To File Yes
Render to Image File Sequence FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Convert Image File Sequence to Video FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No
Splice Videos FA 3D - Yes, FA Sampler - No