... the closer in I go with Walking, it comes back at me as if I am pressing the lower button. Sometimes I cannot pull out again at all ...
... sometimes the Navi bears NO resemblence whatsoever to whatever is in the Main window ...
I have been using the Navigator a lot; there are a few simple tricks to use it efficiently.
If - after importing the parameters to the Navigator window by pressing the "Parameter" button - the Navigator does not reflect what has been calculated in the main window, click on the downward button in the Nav window (showing the hint "open/close parameter pane" when hovering with the mouse) to access the Navigator's hidden, additional functionalities and check the box "Fixed zoom and steps". Now, when importing the parameters from the main window, the calculated images should be more or less identical (apart from color and lighting effects). The Nav's behaviour, as far as I know, is caused by an in-built auto pilot that tries to avoid settings which lead to cutting of parts of the fractal object that's being displayed, and it seems to try to do that by zooming in to the objects surface until all the parts that might have been cut by the viewplane come to lie outside (i.e., to the left, right, top or bottom) of the viewplane.
So, I usually keep the "Fixed zoom and steps" box checked when exploring (and stepping
through) a fractal. For this purpose, I use the walking and sliding buttons (sometimes adjusting the numbers in the "step" window" to be able to move faster or more cautiously)
in conjunction with the little arrow keys that appear beside the zoom factor when "Fixed zoom and steps" is active. However, when I finally want to zoom in somewhere and I do not want the viewplane to cut through any part of the fractal, I have to uncheck this box, of course.
But first, in order to prevent a sudden 'jump' in the image due to the 'autopilot' taking over (after unchecking, when resuming sliding and walking using either the mousewheel or the buttons), I use the zoom arrows to move close to the surface of the fractal object until I think that no parts of the fractal are cut by the viewplane. Then, I export the parameters to the main view ("View to main"; you do not have to press the "Calculate 3D" button yet) just in case I guessed wrong,
and only after this, I uncheck the "Fixed zoom and steps" box.
Now, you should be able to navigate freely and you might try to find out how much you can step back now from the surface of the fractal before you hit a fractal 'wall' with your back
With this strategy, you can even get
inside the tuber- or bulb-like features of some fractals (e.g.
http://www.fractalforums.com/gallery/deep-connections/, original parameters from HalTenny, see images and the par file for the indicated tuber's interior below); in order to get out again, however, you have to use the stepping-through possibilities of the "Fixed zoom and steps" option (or, more cumbersome, the cutting options in the main menu).
PS. Hitting a 'wall' when trying to move forward ("Fixed zoom and steps" unchecked) can also occur
; this happens when the Navigator's 'autopilot' (distance estimator) increases the zoom factor (in order to avoid cutting the fractal) and the value approaches a certain limit. This limit seems to be defined by the number in the input box beside the "Min distance" button and can be extended as desired by entering increasingly smaller values (e.g. 0.000001).
PPS.
... The navigator appearance issue really is all down to lighting and far-plane values most of the time ...
Yes, don't forget to increase the value in the "Far plane" box when the background starts to become visible and the fractal seems to end in front of you ... it's never a good sign when the light at the end of the tunnel is
approaching you ...
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