Chaospro - Am I retarded?

[Squish]

I dropped out of computer science in college; maybe that's why I can't load a file in chaospro... ughgh... I don't need like a tutorial, I just need someone to tell me how to load a $#$%#$% file =).  I've been through all the menus, FAQs, help files I can find, and I can't... save... and... load... a... file.  I hit save and it lets me name a file, but there doesn't seem to be a way to open it, and I've been at it for an hour.  I think I took my retarded pills this morning. Could someone help? =(  Thanks.

[Timeroot]

Have you tried File->Folder->Load? Or the "open Folder" picture in the toolbar? Or Ctrl+O? They all should load a parameter file. To run it (maybe this where you stuck?), go to the little drop down menus on the toolbar. On the right menu, select your .par file. On the right, select the fractal. Then hit the Green stoplight button.

If you need more help, please tell exactly what type of file you are trying to open: .par, an image, .ufr, or what. Good luck! 

[fractalwizz]

i sometimes have that problem too, but i dont use chaospro anymore

[Nahee_Enterprises]

I sometimes have that problem too,
but I don't use ChaosPro anymore

Since the first part of your statement is about the current time frame (the present and possible future), and the latter portion concerns the past, then whatever applications you are having such difficulties with might be the wrong ones for you to use.  Maybe going back to ChaosPro would keep you from "sometimes having that problem".    

Or try something completely new to use.
 

[Squish]

Timeroot: lol.  ok, it was the green button I didn't know to press.  I'd go back through the help files to see where it explained that to see exactly how dumb I am, but I'd probably mess up my self-evaluation too!

Could I ask a second question about resolution?  (Pretty please).  Is there any way to resize an image so that the fractal doesn't stretch to fit the screen?  They seem to look normal in the default (3:4) but warp to fit another ratio rather than simply changing the viewing space of the fractal.  Also, is the resolution supposed to only go up to my set monitor resolution?  It won't let me set above 1280x800, my native resolution, which is mostly pointless because I do huge hi-rez wallpapers... THANKS...

[Timeroot]

Haha, the green button stumped me for ages too. And occasionally I forget about it, and when I go back onto ChaosPro, I get all confused again. :-P

For resolution, I'm not sure what you mean exactly... I see that, when the fractal is "full screen", and you change the size of the ChaosPro window, the fractal changes size as well. If the fractal is just a "floating window", though, nothing goes wrong. If you want to set the size of the window to a specific amount, use the "Fractal Size" box on the right. If it's not there, go to Fractalwindows->Fractal Size or hit F6. Once you make the fractal "fullscreen" again, it might reset size - you'll just have to keep it in a regular floating window. If you are rendering (from the "Render Jobs" window on the right), you should be able to type in any size you want for the size. Good luck!

P.S. - ChaosPro is a great program, but it's controls are definitely somewhat confusing. Just pull through, and ask any more questions if necessary. :-)

[Squish]

Thanks, phew, I didn't see the Render Jobs... at least I can render large images now (nothing else will allow resolutions bigger than my screen, but that's no biggie)... But even with those I still can't figure how to change the image size to a different aspect ratio without changing the actual fractal itself.  I.e. The mandelbrot set that pops up when ChaosPro opens looks like a standard one, and the image is a 4:3 aspect ratio.  But if I want a 16:9 wallpaper, this stretches/warps the fractal horizontally; it actually changes the fractal image rather than resizing the portion of the image we're looking at.  Let's say I want a 400x50 horizontal bar, would I really have to render an image six times as big just to get the slice I need?  Thanks...

[Timeroot]

As far as I can tell, to change the aspect ratio and avoid stretching, you will also need to adjust the image coordinates. If you're planning to make a 16:9 wall paper, just start each fractal with the coordinates -4,2.5,4,-2.5. Or if you have a deep zoom and you don't want to lose the coordinates, but you want to convert to 16:9, you could find the x span (3rd number - 1st number in the coords), multiply by 4, and multiply the y span (2nd - 4th numbers) by 3. Keep the 3rd and 2nd numbers the same, but subtract the new x span from the 3rd and type it in for the first - and add the new y span the second and type it in for the fourth. Then zoom back in a bit to get the right picture. It's a bit tricky to do it this way, that's why it's better just to start with a properly scaled one.

For a 400x5 banner, a similar thing: multiply the x span by 60, and leave the y span alone. In general, to go from 4:3 to A:B, multiply x span by A*3, and y span by B*3. Or start with the coordinates -A,B,A,-B.

[stigomaster]

If you're planning to make a 16:9 wall paper, just start each fractal with the coordinates -4,2.5,4,-2.5.

Sure, that's the coordinates for 8:5. For 16:9 you still need to shave off a little height (-4, 2.25) - (4, -2.25) should do the trick

[Squish]

Aaahh!  Timeroot, thank you so much!!  I never ever would have figured all this out on my own, and I'm sure it would be hard to find someone to explain all that so thoroughly.  Now I can finally create art  & wallpapers in this thing!  I'm working toward professional fractal wallpapers/artwork & fractal-related online reading material in need of both (though I suppose they can't ever be "professional" if I keep giving them both away for free!), so this is absolutely invaluable help.  [Some of the wallpapers I've done are here if you want to take a look; my full projects are in my sig.]

Do you know if ChaosPro renders faster than Fractal Explorer, or is it just the interface/options that are different?  I have all my old projects in FE and I can't find any way to convert .frs to .par (??)  Transposing the equations manually looks really difficult...

[Nahee_Enterprises]

Do you know if ChaosPro renders faster than Fractal Explorer, or is it just the interface/options that are different?  I have all my old projects in FE and I can't find any way to convert .frs to .par (??)  Transposing the equations manually looks really difficult...  

Luckily, the two file formats are both plain text files, and can easily be read.  It is just a matter of knowing what needs to go where when doing a conversion between the two.

As to which one is the fastest, I do not believe I have ever seen any extensive benchmarks run on either of the applications, nor any comparison tests between the two.  Though it would be interesting to have a full set of benchmarks run on the top two dozen fractal applications, something similar as to what Chris Martin compiled last year:

    http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark%20results.htm
    http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark2.htm
 

[David Makin]

Do you know if ChaosPro renders faster than Fractal Explorer, or is it just the interface/options that are different?  I have all my old projects in FE and I can't find any way to convert .frs to .par (??)  Transposing the equations manually looks really difficult...  

Luckily, the two file formats are both plain text files, and can easily be read.  It is just a matter of knowing what needs to go where when doing a conversion between the two.

As to which one is the fastest, I do not believe I have ever seen any extensive benchmarks run on either of the applications, nor any comparison tests between the two.  Though it would be interesting to have a full set of benchmarks run on the top two dozen fractal applications, something similar as to what Chris Martin compiled last year:

    http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark%20results.htm
    http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark2.htm
 

I'm not certain but it may be that one of those benchmark UPRs could be tried in ChaosPro.

[teamfresh]

Is there any way to resize an image so that the fractal doesn't stretch to fit the screen?  They seem to look normal in the default (3:4) but warp to fit another ratio rather than simply changing the viewing space of the fractal. 

just click on the "fractal" dropdown menu and then click on "proportional"
hope this helps

[chaospro]

Haha, the green button stumped me for ages too. And occasionally I forget about it, and when I go back onto ChaosPro, I get all confused again. :-P

I never knew that this little green and red traffic light is soo confusing... I thought it is intuitive
What I wanted to achive (what was annoying for me), was, that it should be possible to "load" a fractal without rendering it so that I can have a close look at the parameters. As in good old FractInt stlye: You load a parameter set, it starts to render, you press stop, and can view the parameters. Just wanted to make it better.

Well, people seem to be confused...will change that.

Kind regards,
Martin

[chaospro]

Do you know if ChaosPro renders faster than Fractal Explorer, or is it just the interface/options that are different?  I have all my old projects in FE and I can't find any way to convert .frs to .par (??)  Transposing the equations manually looks really difficult...

A very difficult question! ChaosPro uses an internal compiler to compile code, so it should run quite fast.
But both programs have various options (in other words: "tricks") to speed up rendering times. So saying that one is faster than the other is not easy, it might change! Additionally, ChaosPro compared to UltraFractal does not use all CPU cores for the most used fractal type "Escapetime", so UltraFractal will be at least twice as fast if only a single fractal is rendered. But this might change...

And now imagine what happens if ChaosPro uses all CPU cores and you compare it to FE: It will be faster, yes, but this is not because the rendering algorithm is better than in FE (Sirotinsky Arthur and Olga Fedorenko did a great job!), but only due to more machine power...

Regarding import of frs parameters: It's quite much work implementing an import routine. I wrote one for some programs like Tierazon, but then saw, that the program itself between new and old version as not capable of handling its old parameter sets. No real chance for me to write a stable importer.

Kind regards,
Martin