That's a wonderful 3D Image!

 The program itself  - I was going to send an email, like it asks, but may as well post here so more folks can see it.

I'm learning a whole new operating system as well as a new fractal program, so some of the issues I ran in to were unrelated to the software.  (I only ever used my OS9 mac for just 2 or 3 programs, and never tried to get used to the operating system) (plus that computer was mine briefly, then traded, then returned Years later!)

But I digress...


I think it's a great renderer, but I had a hard time figuring out how to play around with the formulas.  I must admit, I far prefer the "slider" style interfaces to hand typing numbers.  I do not have enough math to know what to expect when I do that, so I tried to use formulas from other generators - but many variables did not match or were missing. 

Can one change the Bailout value?

And looking at my Julia formulas from other renderers, there seems to be a third variable called Phi (as well as C-real and C-imaginary) but I can only find the C parameters in Fractalworks, the Phi seems to be ...  well...  missing?  Or maybe it's a fixed value?

I wish I understood more about how these generators actually work so I could give better feedback on those points.

The color palette is interesting, but I did not experiment too far with it - I spent too long trying to understand how to work the text editor so I could use the read me file!  The print was so small, and I needed time to figure out how to enlarge it.

Plus...  I have many other OSX Issues. I fail to see why people rave about it so much. I am still trying to figure out how to insert my own sound files to replace the HORRIBLE Noises this thing makes.  It's Terribly Annoying.  If that can't be customized...  mac sucks!  I need to enjoy my work environment, and some of the things I do with the noises to a computer are so much fun, I can't imagine one without them.  Can't seem to hide the hideous thing at the bottom with all the icons either - it's always there.  What ever happened to Full Screen Work?

But this is not the gripe about mac thread, so I'll just say that it is a very impressive program, with  very clean renders and good speed even when the iteration count gets very high.

One weirdness - when I zoomed in to the "tail" of the Mandlebrot set - where I usually find my Mandala Friends - I couldn't find any!  The iteration bands never really changed pattern no matter how deep I tried to look.

That must have been a fluke and I will try again.  It may be that I need to make custom color palettes to "draw them out" (Gads - PUNS!!)

Some suggestions - Try to get it all in one window.  It is better to be able to change parameters without having to go to a menu to open a new window for this purpose.  It makes the workflow awkward because I increase the iteration count as I zoom in, and it adds steps to the process which make it less fun to use the program.

It's not immediately obvious to a new user how to save an image to an image file.  The save as menu command defaults to the native format and is used for both saving the formula, and for saving images.  You out-efficiented yourself on that one, and I could not locate the save image feature easily (but did find it).  I need to make some interesting renders to post - so far I can only make very generic looking images, the like of which are everywhere a Mandlebrot zoomer can be found.  (That's one reason I hoped to change the bailout - I get good distortions with that parameter in other such programs).

Fractal Works makes Clean Lined Images and makes them reasonably fast, but possibly due to my unfamiliarity with the computer it's on (and possibly due to my brain being made entirely out of wood) I have difficulty doing much with it.

I look forward to the 3D featured version.  Those renders look great!

I'll have to play some more with this program after I understand and tame this operating system.  So far OSX is Unimpressive.  It seems like a crippled version of windows with a little more speed at the price of having to do things in a fixed work environment which can't be customized (Trust me - that's enough right there to condemn the whole thing - who cares about performance if the environment is annoying?)

Sorry to combine mac user reviews with Fractal Works reviews, but I am learning both together, and am unsure exactly where the line between the two is drawn...