A beta formula for Ultrafractal

[David Makin]

Hi all,

I have been working on a beta IFS formula for Ultrafractal for a while now and thought members here with UF (or ChaosPro) may like to try it out - any feedback gratefully received.

The main formula allows you to generate fractals using either the chaos game or the deterministic method or the inverse (escape-time) method. Because of the way they had to be implimented in UF you won't see the fractal until it's finished being generated when using the chaos game or deterministic methods.
One advantage of the inverse method is that you can do deep zooms into the fractals which is pretty much impossible using the other methods.

There is a main formula file (ufm), a colouring (ucl) and some quick example parameters (upr).

Jason has put the zip of the files here:
http://www.fractalforums.com/for_users/mmfrifsbeta/mmfrifsbeta.zip

If for some strange reason you can't use a zip file, then they're here uncompressed:
http://www.fractalforums.com/for_users/mmfrifsbeta/mmfrifsbeta.ucl
http://www.fractalforums.com/for_users/mmfrifsbeta/mmfrifsbeta.ufm
http://www.fractalforums.com/for_users/mmfrifsbeta/mmfrifsbeta.upr

The main thing I'm still not happy with is the way the colouring works when the "RIFS" codes are used in earnest - as with the example "Sierpinski Fern".
Also I'm still meaning to do a direct colouring formula to go with the main formula as well as the current indirect one.

Note that those of you interested in the actual code who don't have UF can still look at it - the UFM file is just a disguised text file.

bye
Dave

[Nahee_Enterprises]

Has the "beta" fromula been posted in the "UFBeta" list on Google Groups??  I do not recall seeing it there before.  Was just curious as to how well this has been tested out by others, or will this be the testing phase??

Also, if some interesting images get created, will future modifications to the formula make the saved UPRs not render the same??  Should we be keeping track of the different versions of this formula to go with specific UPRs??

[David Makin]

Has the "beta" fromula been posted in the "UFBeta" list on Google Groups??  I do not recall seeing it there before.  Was just curious as to how well this has been tested out by others, or will this be the testing phase??

Also, if some interesting images get created, will future modifications to the formula make the saved UPRs not render the same??  Should we be keeping track of the different versions of this formula to go with specific UPRs??

It was previously posted on the UFbeta group (on the old WiKi site) but I'm still after more feedback and also thought there's probably others here interested in taking a look at it.

Also as far as images are concerned - I will be creating "new" formulas from this one (i.e. in itself it won't get changed) so images won't get "broken".
I'm just not happy enough with the formula to put it in the UF database - there are many things in it that could be done better and many that need expanding on - also it really needs more documentation for release as an official "finished" UF formula.
Also specifically I'm going to split it into two different versions - one using the chaos game and deterministic methods and one using the inverse method - that's mainly because when you use non-linear transforms/modifiers the behaviours of these algorithms is quite different but also because the chaos game and deterministic methods require the "render=false" setting in the formula whereas the inverse method doesn't (unfortunately Frederik didn't impliment that so that an end-user can switch the setting without editing the formula).

[Nahee_Enterprises]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback, not only on the stability of this formula, but the history and where you are going with it.  With all of the numerous formulas, it helps to know these things, especially before one uses it to create an image they wish to recreate at a future time.