Shareware Extravaganza

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Extravaganza - Disc 1 / ShareWare Extravaganza 1 of 4 (The Ultimate Shareware Company).iso / sblaster / part1.zip / FRAGUIDE.TXT

Wrap

Text File | 1990-12-16 | 138KB | 3,879 lines

********************************** *................................* *. .* *. .* *. A Guide to Using .* *. .* *. FRACTINT .* *. .* *. .* *. .* *. .* *. (for Version 15.0) .* *. .* *. .* *................................* ********************************** A TOY FOR PEOPLE WHO THINK (brought to you by the Ideal Studies BBS) ------------------------------------------------------- NONLINEAR DYNAMICS, FRACTAL GEOMETRY, CELLULAR AUTOMATA Worcester, MA (508) 757-1806 Sysop: Peter Longo ------------------------------------------------------- (and by reed/write & Company) December, 1990 Version 1.0 ======================= = = = Table of Contents = = = ======================= Preface A QuickStart Tutorial 1 An Introduction to Fractals 4 Chapter 1: Introduction to Fractint 6 Chapter 2: Modes 13 2.1 Credit Screen Mode 13 2.2 Video Mode Selection Mode 14 2.3 Main Menu Mode 16 2.4 Help Screen Mode 18 2.5 Display Mode 19 2.6 Color-Cycling Mode 22 2.7 Palette Editor Mode 23 2.8 Zoom Box Mode 27 2.9 Information Display Mode 29 2.10 Parameter Box Mode 30 Chapter 3: Options 31 3.1 Command Line Options 33 3.2 View Window Options 34 3.3 Fractal Image Control Options 35 3.3.1 Basic Options and Doodads 36 3.3.2 Extended Options and Doodads 42 Chapter 4: Files 46 Appendix A: Feedback and Comments 50 B: Key Summary 51 Preface This is Part I of "A Guide to Using Fractint". This part describes the basics of using Fractint which should be understood by all users. It has been reviewed by the developers on CompuServe, but all errors and omissions are the responsibility of the author and not of the deve- lopers or editors. Part II will describe advanced usage of Fractint to create 3D fractals, to reproduce exactly a fractal image from a published book of fractals, to add new fractal types, and to create variants of the various fractal types by manipulating the parameters for each type. It will also cover advanced color manipulation. Part II is currently being written (in mid-December, 1990). Part III will describe each of the fractal types individually and in depth. Each of the parameters for each fractal type will be explored. The mathematics for the generation of the many kinds of fractals will be explained. This documentation is copyrighted freeware, and we encourage you to share copies and upload it to bulletin-board systems. There is no warranty of its suitability for any purpose, nor any acceptance of liability, express or implied for any omissions or errors. Contribution policy: Don't want money. Got money. Want feedback. A Guide to Using Fractint ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: QuickStart Tutorial ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: You can get started with Fractint without reading the rest of (or even any of) this Guide. Step 1: At the DOS prompt, type: fractint Result: The initial Fractint credits screen will appear and remain until you press the <Enter> key. You can press the <F1> key to obtain the help screens. This also lets you skip the rest of this QuickStart tutorial. Step 2: After you press <Enter> on the credits screen, you will get the Main Menu screen. The highlight will be on the Select Video Mode selection. Press <Enter>. Result: You will get the Select Video Modes screen. Move the highlight up and down the list to select the appropriate mode for your computer. For now, select one of the following choices: <F2> -- for EGA (16 colors) <F3> -- for VGA, MCGA, and SVGA (256 colors) <F4> -- for CGA (4 colors) <F6> -- for monochrome (1 color) Step 3: Press <Enter>. Page 1 A Guide to Using Fractint Result: The Mandelbrot Set will be drawn. On a VGA monitor, this usually takes three passes. The first pass uses large, blocky bits of color. The second and third passes break up the blocks of the previous pass into smaller blocks. For the Mandelbrot Set, this process is quite fast (usally about 3-6 seconds) for all three passes. The actual speed you get depends upon many factors, not the least of which is your processor speed. Step 4: Press the <PageUp> key 29 times. A "zoom box" will appear on the screen and grow progressively smaller for each keypress until it reaches a minimum size. Sometimes the zoom box will become hard to see. This happens when the color of the box is the same as that of the background. You can change the zoom box color with the <ctrl>-<insert> key combination. Each time you press these keys, the box color will change. Use the <arrow> keys to move the zoom box. Move it to the left. The Mandelbrot Set is shaped somewhat like a sideways snowman. On top of the snowman's head is a top knot with a spike coming out of it to the left. If your computer has an enhanced keyboard then holding down the <Ctrl> key at the same time as the arrow key will make it move more quickly. Move the zoom box so that the right edge of the box just touches the left edge of the top knot. Press <Enter>. Result: The area within the zoom box will expand to fill the entire screen. One thing to note is that in about the center of the screen is a midget of the Mandelbrot Set. Step 5: Press the <c> key twice. Result: See for yourself--you will probably be astounded. Page 2 A Guide to Using Fractint Step 6: Watch the color-cycling for a while and then press the <Enter> key. Watch, then press it again. While the fractal is cycling, press the <2> through <9> keys in sequence, watching the result each time. Press the <up arrow> key to speed up cycling and <down arrow> to slow it down. After you have pressed the <9> key, press the <down arrow> key until each cycle lasts about a third of a second. Press the <gray -> key to reverse cycling and <gray +> to make it go forward again. Step 7: To stop color cycling, press the <Esc> key. You can press <c> again to restart it. While it is stopped, you can save the fractal to a file by pressing the <s> key. If you press <Esc> again you will return to the Main Menu. Result: You should be getting the hang of this by now. Zoom in on the midget to verify that it is another Mandelbrot Set. Zoom again on part of that fractal. Have fun, hang loose, and enjoy! Step 8: While you are color-cycling this fractal, press <Esc> once and then the <spacebar>. Result: You will get the Julia transform of the point on the Mandelbrot fractal which was at the center of the fractal. Zoom in on the center of the Julia form. Press <c> twice to color-cycle. Julia fractals are often fruitful sources of particularly beautiful fractals. There is a different Julia for each point of the corresponding Mandelbrot. Step 9: You can press <PageUp> to get a zoom box. After changing the size of the zoom box and moving it to where you want on the image, you can press the <spacebar> key to obtain the Julia (or, in reverse: Mandelbrot) transfor- mation of the point at the middle of the box. If you do this on a Mandelbrot you will get the Julia form and if you do it on a Julia then you'll get the Mandelbrot form. The <spacebar> is a toggle between these two forms. Step 10: To exit back to DOS, press the <Esc> key three times. The first <Esc> will halt color-cycling mode. The second <Esc> will take you to the Main Menu. The third <Esc> will exit Fractint. Result: Press <Enter> and you'll be back to boring ol' DOS. Page 3 A Guide to Using Fractint ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Introduction To Fractals ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Fractint creates fractals using integer arithmetic, hence the name of the program. A fractal is a mathematical object which: 1) is created by iterating simple formulas 2) has a dimension which is a real number 3) is infinitely complex 4) is self-similar 5) is astonishingly beautiful 6) is very common in nature Each of these points is described briefly below: 1) A Fractal Is Created Iteratively Mathematically, a fractal is created by taking certain kinds of formulas and calculating the formula repetitively with the the result of each iteration used to create the next result. In simple terms, if the initial formula used is: z1 = f(x) this produces a result which is z1. The formula is then calculated again, using z1 as input and producing z2 as the result. Z2 is then used to create z3 etc. Thus, iterations two through five are: z2 = f(z1) z3 = f(z2) z4 = f(z3) z5 = f(z4) and so forth. When the function defined by the f of f(x) involves complex numbers then the result is a fractal. Page 4 A Guide to Using Fractint 2) A Fractal Has Real Number Dimension Objects we are familiar with in daily life have 1 dimension (such as a line), 2 dimensions (such as a sheet of paper), 3 dimensions (a block of wood), or 4 dimensions (a block of wood and its history). Fractals are different. A fractal can have a dimension of 1.38782. The dimension of a fractal is usually a real number, not a whole number. 3) A Fractal Is Infinitely Complex When you have a fractal on your screen, you can enlarge a small part of it (i.e. zoom in) to full size. You can then zoom in on the result, zoom in again, and so forth. In theory, you can zoom in an infinite number of times. Every time you do, you will find yet more detail. However, in some instances a part of a fractal has no detail and although you can zoom there forever, it still won't have any detail. 4) A Fractal Is Self-Similar In many fractal images you will find a form which is a spiral. If you zoom in on its details, you will find that they are also made of the same spiral shape. Perhaps the most famous fractal is the Mandelbrot Set (which is the one which comes up when you first start Fractint). If you zoom in on most areas around the border of the cental lake you will find many smaller copies of the Mandelbrot set. These are called midgets. If you zoom in on a midget you will find yet more midgets. Incidentally, all of these midgets are connected to each other. The central lake of the Mandelbrot Set is "inside" the set. All of the lakes of all of the midgets are connected together by filaments which are inside of the Set. 5) A Fractal Is Astonishingly Beautiful Oh, yeah! 6) A Fractal Is Common in Nature Examples of fractal shapes which occur in nature are: ferns, clouds, tree branches, crinoids, treetops, the universe, coastlines, and many other shapes. There is a reason that Michael Barnsley named his book "Fractals Everywhere". Page 5 A Guide to Using Fractint ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Chapter 1: Introduction to Fractint ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The Main Menu contains the following command groups: CURRENT IMAGE NEW IMAGE OPTIONS FILE COLORS The Main Menu is not the same at all times. When you first execute Fractint the Main Menu contains the following command groups: NEW IMAGE OPTIONS FILE After you display an image and return to the Main Menu then all of the command groups are displayed. Within the groups, the selections listed also depend upon whether an image has already been displayed or not. If you bring up the Main Menu while a fractal is displayed then it will appear in graphic mode rather than text mode. It will be in black and white with big chunky lettering. Page 6 A Guide to Using Fractint A short summary of the functions within each of these groups is: ======================================================================= NEW IMAGE The choices in this group are all related to the generation of a new fractal. select video mode This choice is used to tell Fractint how many colors and pixels to use to create the image. There are many choices. Once you have selected one, it will become the default whenever you enter the Select Video Mode display. For now you should probably select a generic type for your system (i.e. either a 16-color EGA or 256-color VGA mode). See Section 2.2 (Page 14) below for further details about choosing a video mode. When you initially bring up the Main Menu, the highlight is on the "select video mode" choice by default. Thus, you can simply press <Enter> to go on to specify which video mode to use. select fractal type <t> Selecting this choice causes a list of the kinds of fractals Fractint can generate to appear. You select the kind you want by moving the highlight to your choice and pressing the <Enter> key. You can also press the key for the first letter of the fractal type and the highlight will move to the first type beginning with that letter. Press another letter key and it will move to the first fractal with that as the second letter, etc. Depending upon your choice, the next thing to happen may be that the fractal you have requested will be drawn. Or, a table may come up which lists parameters you can change (for now, if this happens then simply press <Enter> to accept the defaults). Or, a list of subtypes of fractals may appear. This occurs when you select either the formula or the lsystem choice from the list. Both of these are families of fractal types. Page 7 A Guide to Using Fractint If a fractal is being displayed in color-cycling mode, you can press <Esc> and <t> to obtain the list of fractal types. If the fractal being displayed is already static then you can simply press <t>. You can also obtain the list by pressing <t> while on the Credits Screen. The two following selections in the NEW IMAGE group appear on the Menu only after an image has been generated: toggle to/from julia <spacebar> In general, you would not pick this choice from the menu. Instead, you would simply press <spacebar> while a Mandelbrot or Julia fractal is displayed. It causes the display of the opposite of this pair. This does not work on every type of Mandelbrot or Julia fractal, but for those on which it doesn't you'll get a message telling you this. return to prior image <\> As above, you usually press the <\> key rather than selecting this menu choice. It returns to the last image. If an image is currently being displayed then the image before that one is re-displayed. If there is no prior image then the current image is re-displayed. Pressing <\> works while an image is displayed (or the Main Menu is displayed). It does not work from a Help Screen or on a Parameter Setting screen or any options box. For some combinations of different fractal types, this feature may not work properly. ======================================================================= OPTIONS These are options which affect the appearance of the fractal to be created. basic options <x> When you select this menu choice (or when you press the <x> key while a static image is being displayed), you will get a table of parameters. For details about these, see Section 3.3.1 (on Page 36). Not all fractal types can use all, or even any, of the basic options. Page 8 A Guide to Using Fractint extended options <y> Basically the same as above, for details about these options, see Section 3.3.2 (Page 42). view window options <v> These options affect the appearance of the display window in which the fractal image appears. For example, you can shrink it way down in size. This allows you to explore quite deeply into a fractal and do it quickly. Because of the small number of pixels in the window, an image which would take many hours to appear in a fullsize window can be developed in minutes. This mini-window can be expanded to fullsize at any time. It may take many hours for it to appear fullsize (and some fractals can take 80 hours or more to develop even on very fast PCs), but it is much faster to find a worthwhile image to develop now. See if you can find the fractal image which has an NC-17 rating. For anyone who has been using earlier versions of Fractint, the mini-window is the most valuable new option. However, the palette editor is probably the most "fun" new feature. 3D, IFS type parameters These are parameters which may be changed when creating a 3-dimensional or an IFS fractal. This is an advanced topic which is discussed in Part II of this Guide. ======================================================================= FILE This group of selections relates to the handling of external files. Most of these are advanced options in the sense that you do not need to understand them to begin exploring fractals. For information about handling Fractint files, see Chapter 4: Files on Page 46. Page 9 A Guide to Using Fractint ======================================================================= COLORS You would not normally select any of the choices within this group from the Main Menu. Instead, you use the corresponding keys while a fractal is displayed. color cycling mode <c> Pressing <c> while a fractal display is static causes it to go into Color-Cycling Mode. The indicator of this is that a white border appears around the image. Press <c> again. Now the colors will begin cycling. To end cycling, press <ESC>. You can also use <spacebar> to suspend color-cycling. It is a toggle. There are a number of ways in which you can change the way in which Fractint cycles the image. For details, see Section 2.5 on Page 19. rotate palette (<gray +>, <gray ->) While the colors are cycling, pressing the <-> key on the numeric keypad will cause the direction of the color cycling to reverse. Pressing <gray +> will cause it to reverse backwards. Note that the <gray +> and <gray -> keys referred to here are those on the numeric keypad only and not on the qwerty keyboard. On many keyboards, the physical keycaps for these keys are in a darker gray color than the regular keys. Thus, the <gray +> key is called that even though it is not always gray. Incidentally, the <up arrow> key speeds the cycling up and <down arrow> slows it down. When speeding up, you can simply lay finger on the key and hold it down for a while. This won't work as well with the <down arrow> key. If you hold it down long enough it will start beeping. This is because when it is running slow it also reacts slowly to keystrokes. Holding the key down sends too many slowdown commands for the system to absorb at once, so it beeps. When cycling is slow then press <down arrow> once and wait for the result. Repeat if necessary. Some fractals look their best at very slow speeds. Others can cycle colors in a completely different way when cycling slowly. When cycling very slowly, always press a key and wait for the result, which will occur at the beginning of the next cycle. Page 10 A Guide to Using Fractint You can also alter color cycling by pressing the <1> to <9> keys on the qwerty keyboard. See also Part II. Colors are an involved topic. palette editing mode <e> Pressing <e> while in static display mode will cause you to enter Color Editing Mode. If a fractal is cycling then you should press <Esc> then <e> in order to first exit Color-cycling Mode. Initially, all you will see is an empty dotted box. You can move the box elsewhere with the <arrow> keys. Pressing the <PageUp> key will make the box smaller; <PageDown> makes it bigger. The reason the box is initially empty is so that you can move it around while you can still see through it. After the box is where you want it, press <Enter> and the Palette Editor will appear in the box. You can change any of the 255 colors available to any of 256k possible colors. A cross-hair may be used to point to the color you wish to change. For details, see Section 2.7 (on Page 23). map selection mode <l> This is NOT a menu selection. If you press the letter <l> key while color-cycling (or palette editing) then you will get a list of the available map files. Each file contains a different set of color settings (color map). There is also a special color map called "altern.map" which can be loaded by just pressing <a>. You can later re-load the default map with a press of the <n> key. No matter which map you are currently using, pressing <Enter> will change the color set which will be used to cycle the colors. You can press <Enter> as often as you like. Page 11 A Guide to Using Fractint ======================================================================= CURRENT IMAGE This group of menu selections does not appear unless an image was previously displayed. It is not on the Main Menu which comes up initially. The three commands listed in this group are quite different from each other. return to image This command returns to display the last fractal which was being viewed. Pressing the <\> key will return you to the image before the last one, assuming such an image exists. continue calculation This is a variant of the selection above. It appears in place of "return to image" whenever you have left an image which was in the process of being generated. info about image <tab> This command displays a table of information about the last image displayed. While you are displaying a fractal you can press the <tab> key to obtain this same information. After viewing the information, press <Enter> or <Esc> to return to the image. To return to the Main Menu, press <m>. For details about the fields in this image information display, see Section 2.9 (Page 29). zoom box functions Selecting this menu choice causes a Help screen to appear which describes the keys you can use while a zoom box is displayed over the fractal image. You can obtain the zoom box by pressing <PageUp>. You can then move the box around, reshape it, turn it over, make it move slowly or quickly, and so forth using the keys described on this Help screen. For more details, see Section 2.8 (Page 27). Page 12 A Guide to Using Fractint ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Chapter 2: Modes ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Fractint runs in a number of different modes. Some of the keys have different actions depending upon the mode. Fractint's modes are: 1. Credit Screen Mode 2. Video Mode Select Mode 3. Main Menu Mode 4. Help Screen Mode 5. Display Mode 6. Color-Cycling Mode 7. Palette Editing Mode 8. Zoom Box Mode 9. Information Display Mode 10. Parameter Box Mode The following sections summarize each of these modes by listing the keys which may be used in each mode and their functions. Section 2.1: Credit Screen Mode This mode is the first one to appear when Fractint starts. It lists the contributors to the Fractint program. The principals are listed at the top of the display. Below this is a long list of individual contributors. This list will begin scrolling since it is longer than can fit on one page. Pressing the <spacebar> key will halt the scrolling. <F1> Obtain help <Enter> Done. Continue to next screen <Esc> Done. Return to DOS <spacebar> Freeze scrolling list of good guys <videomode> Use <videomode> <t> Display fractal types list <x> Display basic options box <y> Display extended options box <r> Restore image file <3> 3d transform from file 3d, IFS parameters <v> Viewing Options box Page 13 A Guide to Using Fractint The key called <videomode> represents a whole family of keys, each of which tells Fractint to use a different video mode. If you know the mode you want to use then press that <videomode> key and you will bypass the Select Video Mode screen. Section 2.2: Video Mode Selection Mode In this mode, the Select Video Mode screen is displayed. The keys which work in this mode are: <down arrow> Move highlight down one line <up arrow> Move highlight up one line <PageDown> Page down <PageUp> Page up <Enter> Select mode highlighted; display image <Esc> Return to Main Menu <videomode> Select video mode by key The video modes may be selected by moving the highlight to the mode you want and pressing <Enter>. They may also be selected by pressing the <videomode> key. The <videomode> key names have two naming conventions. The first of these is shown by the following examples: F2 <F2> key SF2 <Shift>-<F2> key combination CF2 <Ctrl>-<F2> key combination AF2 <Alt>-<F2> key combination the other naming convention is shown in the following examples: Alt-2 <Alt>-<2> key combination Ctl-A <Ctrl>-<A> key combination Thus, to select the SF1 videomode you can press the corresponding <videomode> key, which is <Shift>-<F1>. The table of Video Display modes will tell you that the SF1 mode is a tweaked mode for IBM computers (and extremely close clones, such as Compaq). SF1 mode provides 256 colors with 360 rows and 480 columns of pixels. You will want to find a small subset of the video modes which are the ones you use. You'll probably need one which is simple and quick, such as a 16-color EGA mode. Then you will need a 256-color mode which is at the highest resolution your computer will bear. This will become the mode you use most often to create fractals for your own enjoyment. Page 14 A Guide to Using Fractint At times, you may wish to create fractals at other resolutions than the one you use for yourself. For example, you may wish to send a fractal image file to a friend, or to a bulletin board. You may wish to run one at work, where the highest resolution is only SVGA. You can also create fractal images which have higher resolution than your monitor will support. Instead of being displayed on the screen, the image is written directly into a file. You can then move the file to a computer with a monitor which supports the higher resolution and display it. Specifically, this means you can use that old PC you have laying around to run all day creating an image file. When it's done, you can move it to the color computer and display it. If you are using multi-tasking software (such as Windows or Desqview) you can generate fractals as a back- ground task. The video modes marked "Disk/RAM" write the image to a file rather than display it on the monitor. You find the highest resolution your computer can handle by successively trying possible candidates until one is obviously not working correctly. When you select a video mode which is too high then quite often the attempt to draw the fractal will be entirely corrupt. You will get visual noise. In many cases, there will be no trace of the fractal image. When this happens, press <Esc> and then select a different video mode. In some cases, you will get a fractal image but there will also be serious degradation of the image--snow, flickering lines, etc. This also means the resolution is too high. If possible, arrange it so that the image is fairly dark so you can see certain kinds of flickers. When you get it right, you'll have a crystal-clear image of the fractal. Note that when the video modes of interest to you appear in a series, sometimes one mode will not work correctly but the next higher will work fine. For example, if the modes are: Ctl-G 704 x 528 x 16 Ctl-K 720 x 540 x 16 Ctl-L 736 x 552 x 16 Ctl-N 752 x 564 x 16 If you try Ctl-K and it doesn't work, this does not necessarily mean that Ctl-L won't work. Page 15 A Guide to Using Fractint By the way, it may be possible to pick a video mode which will damage your video hardware. Do not pick a mode which is obviously incompatible. Do not pick a TARGA mode, for example, unless you know you have a TARGA video controller board. Section 2.3: Main Menu Mode The keys which function on the Main Menu are: <Enter> Select this choice <down arrow> Move to next choice <up arrow> Move to previous choice <Esc> Exit Fractint (back to DOS) <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <F1> Help In addition, the action keys described on this Menu can also be used while the Menu is displayed, these are: <t> Fractal types list <x> Basic Options box <y> Extended Options box <v> Viewing Options box <r> Restore image from file <3> 3d transform from file 3d, IFS parameters <d> Shell to DOS Finally, the following keys may be used on the Main Menu only after an image has been displayed: <s> Save image to file Write batch parameters Print image <o> 3d overlay The following keys may also be used while on the Main Menu, but are much more likely to be used while in Display Mode: <tab> Fractal Description <c> Cycle colors <e> Edit palette <a> Make starfield <Enter> Continue computations <\> Previous image <+> Cycle forward <-> Cycle backward Page 16 A Guide to Using Fractint The four groups of Main Menu keys described above may be named: General Keys Option Keys File Keys Display Keys Each of these key groups is described below. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: GENERAL KEYS (Main Menu Mode) The general keys are: <Enter> Select this choice <down arrow> Move to next choice <up arrow> Move to last choice <Esc> Exit Fractint (back to DOS) <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <F1> Help Initially, the highlight bar cursor is on the "select video mode" choice, which is at the top of the left column of choices. You can move this cursor with the <down arrow> key. You can move it to the rightside column with the <right arrow> key. However, you must do this from the same line as the choice you are moving to is on. Thus, if the cursor is in the leftmost column at the bottom then pressing <right arrow> will do nothing since there is no right column choice on that same row of the screen. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: OPTION KEYS (Main Menu Mode) The option keys are: <t> Fractal types list <x> Basic Options box <y> Extended Options box <v> Viewing Options box <r> Restore image from file <3> 3d transform from file <d> Shell to DOS For a description of those keys which change modes, see the appropriate section of this guide, except for the <3> key which is described in Part II. Page 17 A Guide to Using Fractint The <r> key and "Restore image from file" menu selection are used to display an image which is stored in an external file. You will get a list of the image files available. In general, these are images that you have created and then stored with the <s> key. Fractint can read most standard GIF files, even those which were not created using Fractint. It cannot read interlaced GIFs, multiple-image GIFS, or those created on the McIntosh. Fractint does not dither. A GIF picture is input as a plasma landscape fractal. If the GIF was created using the GIF89a standard then it will appear normally. For these GIFs, Fractint may be used as a GIF viewer. For earlier GIFs, the picture may not have the clarity it does when using a GIF viewer. You can also download GIF files created with Fractint by others and which have been posted to your local BBS or to a service such as CompuServe. Earlier versions of Fractint used a non-standard method of writing image files. Such files have an extension of .FRA and these will be listed on the <t> display if you have any. Section 2.4: Help Screen Mode Keys which work while you are on a Help Screen are: <Esc> Return to previous screen <PageDown> Page down <PageUp> Page up <F1> Obtain Help Menu When you are on a help screen, pressing <F1> will obtain the Help Menu. From the Help Menu, you can pick one of the numeric items to obtain information. You should do this at least once. The help information you get is context-sensitive in the sense that the text you get depends upon the mode you are currently in. Page 18 A Guide to Using Fractint Section 2.5: Display Mode Keys which may be used while a static fractal is displayed are: <Esc> Return to Main Menu <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <F1> Help <tab> Fractal Description <Enter> Continue computations <\> Previous image <PageDown> Zoom Box <a> Make starfield Write batch parameters <c> Cycle colors <d> Shell to DOS <e> Edit palette <m> Main Menu Print image <r> Restore image from file <s> Save image to file <t> Fractal types list <v> Viewing Options box <x> Basic Options box <y> Extended Options box <3> 3d transform from file Keys which may be used while a fractal is in the process of being developed (i.e. during computations), are: <Esc> Halt computations <Enter> Restart computations <tab> Display fractal information <x> Basic options <y> Advanced options <s> Save fractal to file <o> Show orbits (letter oh) All of the other keys available in Display Mode may also be used. Page 19 A Guide to Using Fractint While a fractal is being computed, the <s> key will save the incomplete fractal into a file. You can then recall the file to continue developing. This is useful when a fractal takes a long time to develop. You can run it overnight, save it in the morning, re-start that evening, save it the next morning, and so forth until it is done. You can turn the monitor off while the fractal is computing. It may help to post a sign on the monitor so that some turkey (i.e. yourself) doesn't come along in the morning and flip the hardware power switch and thus turn the computer off before the image is saved. Pressing the <tab> key will cause a display of information about the fractal to appear. This includes how long it has been computing, which screen line and pixel position are currently being computed, and similar information. After viewing this information, press <Enter> and not only will you return to the image, but it will automatically continue computing. Pressing the <x> or <y> keys gets you a list of the parameters for the current fractal which you can change. For some of these parameters, after you enter a new parameter value and press <Enter> to return to the image, the image simply continues developing; for others a new image is started. For now, the option you should know about is on the <x> Options and Doodads display. You can move down to where it says: Savename <.GIF implied> fract001 This tells you that when you press the <s> key that the name of the file the image will be written into will be fract001.gif. Actually, if fract001.gif already exists then the system will detect this and automatically write to fract002.gif instead. You can overwrite "fract001" with any name of your own choosing, thus if you change it to: Savename <.GIF implied> myfirst1 then when the <s> key is pressed a file named myfirst1.gif will be created. You can later recall it with the <r> key and if the image is incomplete it will automatically begin computing. Page 20 A Guide to Using Fractint If you press <s> and myfirst1.gif already exists then Fractint will not overwrite it. Instead, it will write to myfirst2.gif. Incidentally, don't get the impression from this that it takes overnight to develop a fractal. A few fractals, at high resolutions, can, but most fractals will complete in far less time. Most simple Mandelbrots and Julias develop in just a few minutes. Some of the more complex fractals can take a couple of hours. The main difference is if you go deep (several zooms down) into a fractal then Fractint is forced to give up on integer arithmetic and uses floating point. Especially if you do not have a math co-processor, floating point calculations can be very, very slow. Also, as you go deeper, you need to increase the number of iterations, which also slows down development. If you have a math co-processor chip then Fractint will automatically detect it and run much more quickly. You can also use a software which emulates a co-processor. This may speed up the development of fractal images--but not always. Try turning floating point on and use a stop- watch to time the development of the default M-set while a software co-processor is running and is not to decide whether it is worthwhile to use it. The implication here is that in some cases development may actually be slower when using a co-processor emulator. Page 21 A Guide to Using Fractint Section 2.6: Color-Cycling Mode The keys you can use while in Color-Cycling mode are: <c> Start/stop color-cycling <spacebar> Suspend color-cycling [toggle] <up arrow> Faster <down arrow> Slower <1>..<9> Cycle nth colors <gray -> Reverse <gray +> Forward <Esc> Stop color-cycling <tab> Image Information box <F1> Help <Enter> Cycle palette <a><c> Load append.map file <d><c> Load default.map file <l> Load external map file (letter ell) <any> Any other key halts cycling <Esc> Write batch parameters file <Esc><c> Cycle palette <Esc><d> Shell to DOS <Esc><e> Palette Editor <Esc><f> Use floating-point arithmetic <Esc> Edit Options (2D, 3D) <Esc><o> Overlay file selection list <Esc> Print image <Esc><s> Save current image to file <Esc><t> Fractal Type list <Esc><v> View Window Parameters box <Esc><x> Basic Options and Doodads <Esc><y> Extended Options and Doodads You can color-cycle any image, whether it is complete or not. Page 22 A Guide to Using Fractint Pressing one of the qwerty numeric keys <1> through <9> alters the cycling pattern. For example, in EGA mode there are 16 colors. Normally, cycling is sequential (i.e. 0, 1,2,3,....15, 0, 1, 2 ...). If you press <2> then every second color is used in sequence (i.e. 0,2,4,6...14). If you press <3> then every third color is used in sequence (i.e. 0,3,6,9,...15). For a palette with smooth color gradations, pressing <2> makes it cycle faster and <9> makes it go very fast. When using a cycling count value of <8> or <9>, the results are best if you also use <down arrow> to slow the cycling rate way down. While a fractal is color-cycling, pressing <Enter> will cause the arrangement of colors to change. This can have a very dramatic affect on the way the fractal looks. You can press <Enter> as often as you wish. Fractint cannot do fractal slide shows, but you can obtain programs from CompuServe (or a BBS) which can. The image files are saved in the standard GIF89a format. A program such as CompuShow or VPIC can do slide shows, but cannot cycle the colors. Section 2.7: Palette Editor Mode You must be using a <videomode> with 256 colors to use the Palette Editor. The keys you can use while the empty Palette Editor box is displayed on the screen are: <arrow> Move box <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <PageDown> Make box larger <PageUp> Make box smaller <Enter> Use editor <Esc> Exit Palette Editor Shrinking or enlarging the palette frame works only in video modes higher than CGA. When the full Palette Editor is displayed, pressing the <\> key will cause the empty Editor frame to appear. It can then be resized or moved. Press <Enter> to restore the full Editor. Page 23 A Guide to Using Fractint The keys you can use while the full Palette Editor box is displayed are: <arrow> Move crosshair [or move mouse] <\> <arrow> Move editor box <\> <PageDown> Make editor box larger <\> <PageUp> Make editor box smaller <h> Hide editor box/restore editor box <c> Cycle colors (removes Editor) <<> Cycle colors in reverse (keeps Editor) <>> Cycle colors forward (keeps Editor) <spacebar> Select other sample box [toggle] <,> Rotate palette one step in reverse <.> Rotate palette one step forward <r> Select red component <g> Select green component Select blue component <Insert> Move down through component list <Delete> Move up through component list <+> Increase component by 1 step <-> Decrease component by 1 step <PageUp> Increase component by 4 steps <PageDown> Decrease component by 4 steps <s> Save palette <y> Enter color-exclusion mode (see <x>) <x> Exclude all but current colors [toggle] <d> Copy inactive color sample to active <=> Create shade between active & inactive Note 1: <t><digit> Create stripes between active & inactive <a> Enter/Exit Auto Mode [toggle]. <Enter> (if in Auto Mode): Does nothing <Enter> (if NOT in Auto Mode): Edit this color Invert editor frame [toggle] Note 2: <SF2> Save current palette to <F2> key <F2> Recall palette from <F2> key ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Note 1: <digit> can be 1 to 9. It colors every nth entry, where n is <digit> Note 2: Palettes may be stored in the F2 through F9 <register> keys. Use <Shift>-<register> to store the palette being edited and press <register> to recall it. Initially, all of the keys from F2 to F9 are pre-loaded with monochrome palettes. Page 24 A Guide to Using Fractint When you first start Palette Editing Mode (by selecting "palette editing mode" from the Main Menu, or by pressing the <e> key or by pressing <Esc><e> if you are in Color-Cycling mode) then a box of white dashed lines appears overlaying the fractal image in the upper left corner of the screen. You can move the box with the <arrow keys> or resize it with <PageUp> and <PageDown> After you press <Enter>, the box will fill in. It has three sections. Across the top of the box are two sections. Both are similar in their structure, which is: _______ R 33 | | G 26 | | B 41 |_____| The box contains a sample of the color described by the RGB values. There are two sample boxes so you can edit two colors side-by-side. The active sample has a solid line around it and the inactive sample has a dashed line. You can switch between the two by pressing the <spacebar> key. The locations of the primary and secondary samples are shown in the color array at the bottom of the Palette Editor box. If you press the < or > keys, the colors will begin cycling. Press any key to stop. You can select a color to edit with either the <arrow> keys or with a mouse. A mouse works better. Overlaying the fractal image is a crosshair. The color in the middle of the crosshair is shown in the active sample box. If you move the crosshair into the Palette Editor box then it becomes a rectangle which moves from one color to another. You cannot edit colors 0 or 255. Color 0 is black and stays black no matter what. Color 255 appears black but is really not. There is a non-black color underneath the black you see. You can see (and edit) this color by rotating the palette one place to the left so that this color is now in the Color 254th position. Normally, the color in the active sample box is the one under the crosshairs. As you move them then the color changes. This is the default behavior when Auto Mode is set to ON. If you turn it off (by pressing the <a> key), then you can move the crosshair anywhere in the image and the color in the active sample box will not track it. When you press <Enter> then the color currently under the crosshair will be copied to the sample box. Page 25 A Guide to Using Fractint After you press <a> then if you press the LEFT mouse button while the crosshair is over the fractal and hold it then moving the mouse away from you (north) will increase the current color component in jumps of 5 units. Pulling the mouse south (i.e. towards you) while holding the LEFT button down decrements by color by jumps of 5 units. Once you have selected a color to edit, you can change the color by first specifying whether to change the Red, Green, or Blue component of the color. You can press the <r>, <g>, or keys to select the component or you can press the <Insert> and <Delete> keys, which will cycle through the component list. If you want to change, for example, 100 colors so that they are all the same (such as all black) then the simplest way is to exit Fractint and use an ASCII editor to change the contents of the MAP file directly. When you are in the Palette Editor, you can note your place by the RGB combination. Thus, if it shows: R 63 G 0 B 0 then you will find a record in the MAP file which is: 252 0 0 Within the Palette Editor, each R,G,B component has 64 divisions, which are numbered from 0 to 63. Within the MAP file, each R,G,B component has 256 divisions, which are numbered from 0 to 255. This means that to get the MAP equivalent, you should multiply by 4 the R,G,B value shown in the Palette Editor sample box. For example, if it says the color is: R 20 G 50 B 09 Then you would look in the MAP file for this color as: 80 200 36 For more information, see the chapter about colors in Part II of of this documentation. Page 26 A Guide to Using Fractint Section 2.8: Zoom Box Mode The keys you can use while the Zoom Box is displayed are: <PageUp> Make the box smaller <PageDown> Make the box larger <arrow> Move box (or move with mouse) <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <ctrl>-<Insert> Cycle box color upward <ctrl>-<Delete> Cycle box color downward <ctrl>-<Home> Tilt box to left <ctrl>-<End> Tilt box to right <ctrl>-<PageUp> Narrow box horizontally <ctrl>-<PageDown> Narrow box vertically <ctrl>-<gray -> Rotate box counter-clockwise <ctrl>-<gray +> Rotate box clockwise <Enter> Enlarge the box contents fullscreen <spacebar> Mandelbrot/Julia toggle <Esc> Main Menu screen In addition, all of the keys which operate while a fractal is being displayed also work. You can also have a zoom box on the screen while the colors are cycling. Mouse buttons: LEFT click Display zoom box LEFT hold and move mouse north Shrink zoom box LEFT hold and move mouse south Expand zoom box LEFT double-click Redraw image RIGHT double-click Zoom out The Zoom Box is used to pick an area of the screen for enlargement into a fullscreen image. It is simply a box you can shrink or enlarge and move around the screen. You can even distort the box, tilting it to one side or the other or turning it on end. Whatever shape it has, when <Enter> is pressed the area within the box will become the next fullscreen image. The new image will fill the viewing window, no matter what the shape of the zoom box at the time. This implies that the geometry of shapes will change from a distorted zoom box shape to the rectangular image. The image will be distorted. Not that this is bad, of course. When in Display Mode, you can press the <PageUp> key to display the Zoom Box. Initially it is the same size as the display window, so press <PageUp> again to make it visible. Each successive press of <PageUp> will make the box smaller until it reaches its minimum size. Pressing <PageDown> will make it larger. If you save a fractal with a zoom box displayed, it will also be saved. Page 27 A Guide to Using Fractint You do not have to wait for the image to finish calculating to use the zoom box. If the complete image would take three passes to complete, you can stop after the first pass and zoom in. In fact, you don't even have to wait for the first pass to be complete. You can put the zoom box into an undeveloped part of the image (i.e. where it is all black) and press <Enter>. Of course, this way the image you get will be a surprise, but so what. The zoom box can be used both on complete and incomplete fractals. Thus, while a fractal is in the process of being computed, you can press <PageUp>, size the zoom box, move it to a specific location, and press <Enter>. The area in the zoom box will become the next fullscreen image. If you press <spacebar> instead then the Mandelbrot or Julia transform of the fractal will appear, based upon the point at the center of the zoom box. As mentioned above, the border of the Zoom Box can sometimes be difficult to see if it is the same color as its background. You can press the <Ctrl>-<Insert> key combination and the color of the box border will change and become visible. Repeat presses of this key combination until the box is colored so it is clearly visible. The zoom box has another feature which is often useful. You can move the box so that it is partially outside of the visible image and press <Enter> to redraw. Suppose you zoom in on a fractal which looks best if it is perfectly centered, but when the image is done the center is off-center. You can use <PageUp> to obtain a zoom box which is the same size as the image. Press <left arrow> to move the entire box leftward, off the screen. Make a guess how much is enough so the image is centered. Press <Enter>. Only the new part of the image will be calculated. The zoom box can also be used to change the video mode of an image. Simply press <PageUp> to get a zoom box border around the image and then press the <videomode> key you want. The entire image will be redrawn using the new video mode. You can zoom up to 25 levels deep in a fractal. This is a limitation of the software, since the fractal itself is infinitely deep. One tradeoff is that after you reach a certain depth, Fractint is forced into using floating point arithmetic, which can be considerably slower than integer arithmetic. For the most part, fractals of interest can be found from 1 to 5 zooms deep. After a while the self-similar nature of fractals makes itself apparent as you go deeper at one spot and find variations of the same theme. Some fractal types (such as Lorenz attractors) do not let you zoom more than one level deep. For some kinds, such as L-system fractals, you cannot zoom at all. Page 28 A Guide to Using Fractint Section 2.9: Information Display Mode The Information Display box is obtained by pressing the <tab> key while a fractal is being developed or displayed. A box showing information about that fractal is presented. Keys you can use while the Information Box is displayed are: <any> any keypress returns to the image When you return to the image it will be in the same state it was before you pressed <tab>. Thus, if it was cycling it will continue to cycle; if it was developing, it will continue to develop. The <F1> Help key is the only other that does this. For all other keys, you must press <Enter> to restart calculation or <c> to restart cycling. The fields in the Information Display box are: Fractal Type Image Status Calculation Time Corner Locations Center Location Parameters Iteration Maximum Effective bailout value The Image Status field is not labeled on the screen. The status message itself is all that appears. It will tell you whether the current image is complete, is being calculated, is resumable, and similar possibilities. For details about these fields, see Part II. Page 29 A Guide to Using Fractint Section 2.10: Parameter Box Mode The term "Parameter Box" is used to describe any "box" into which you can type some values. These boxes are used to define options and doodads, among other things. The term "doodad" is a technical term used in fractal geometry to mean a "cerniptitious frimble". For further details, refer to the notorious Footnote 12 in Mandelbrot's 1975 manuscript "Fractals: So What's the Big Deal?". The keys you can press while a Parameter Box displayed are: a. Between fields <Esc> Cancel <Enter> Done <down arrow> Move highlight down <up arrow> Move highlight up <PageDown> Move to last field <PageUp> Move to first field b. Within a field <left arrow> Move right one character <right arrow> Move left one character <Home> Move to first character <End> Move to last character <spacebar> Erase field <Backspace> Erase previous character <Delete> Erase current character <Insert> Insert character <F5> Restore original entry In addition, you can type a number into any numeric field and an alphanumeric into any character field. For details about the fields within any of the boxes, see the following sections: Basic options and doodads Section 3.3.1 (Page 36) Extended options and doodads Section 3.3.1 (Page 42) View Window parameters Section 3.2 (Page 34) 2D, 3D parameters Part II IFS parameters Part II Page 30 A Guide to Using Fractint ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Chapter 3: Options ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The number of different fractals which can be created with Fractint is infinite. The number of Fractint options appears to be infinite, but is really not. There are 67 kinds of fractals listed on the Select a Fractal Type screen (obtained by pressing <t>). Of these, some are families of fractals. The "formula" family consists of 27 kinds of fractals. The "L-system" family consists of over 50 more kinds. In addition, each of the fractals listed on the Select a Fractal Type screen which has the letters "fn" is a family of fractals. Several of these have 49 family members. Thus, there are several hundred kinds of fractals which can be created with Fractint. Furthermore, there are other programs (such as Fractal Grafics or FDESIGN) which can produce fractals which can be imported into Fractint. Finally, the basic Mandelbrot fractal which is Fractint's default is the source of thousands of incredibly beautiful fractals. The top level Mandelbrot is not all that exciting looking. It does not cycle colors very well. In fact, whenever a fractal has a fair percentage of its area which is inside the fractal then it will not cycle well. The large blocks of color tend to flash annoyingly. The way around this is to set the inside color so that it is always black. Black is not the default color, so you should change the inside color for most fractals. To do this, press the <x> key, move down to the INSIDE COLOR field, and enter a zero. To prove this, zoom in on one of the points at the snowman's neck with the default blue inside color and then with black as the inside color. The advantage of black is that it does not change color during color cycling. While doing this, you should press <spacebar> since some of the best Julia dragons lurk about the points on the M-Set. The lake in the middle of the Mandelbrot fractal is the inside. However, this inside permeates throughout the entire body of the Mandelbrot. A large terminology has developed based on this fractal. All of the various lobes and inlets have names. Numerous Page 31 A Guide to Using Fractint systems have been developed to define location coordinates. Several movies have been made which explore inside the Mandelbrot fractal. There is an immense amount of material of interest, value, and beauty within the M-Set. The term "M-Set" is another way of referring to the basic Mandelbrot fractal. Furthermore, Fractint's default M-Set Mandelbrot fractal is two-dimensional. The M-Set can also be displayed as a three-dimensional image. In actual fact the M-Set is neither 2 nor 3-dimensional but has a dimension which is a real number between these two integers. To see the three-dimensional M-Set fractal, press the <3> key to begin the process of creating a 3-dimensional fractal. For details about these, see Part II. The interconnected inside of a fractal is easily visible in white when you press the <c> key once. The other set is the J-Set. This refers to the Julia fractal. This is a mathematical transformation which can be made at any point on the Mandelbrot fractal. You make this transformation by pressing the <spacebar> key while the zoom box is over the M-Set. There are many shapes of Julia fractals and these shapes have been classified and mapped for different locations within the M-Set. Julia fractals are easily among the most beautiful. They always cycle well. How to find a beautiful fractal: zoom. Zoom wherever the colors seem to be changing the most. For the M-Set, this is along the border between the land and the lake. Press <Enter>. This will obtain the Julia for the point at the center of the current image (or of the zoom box). Actually, even the featureless areas of the M-Set can produce gorgeous fractals, but in this case zooming won't do you any good whatsoever. What will help is fiddling with the options. It is possible to get a neat bullseye fractal out of the lake. It can be obtained by turning the distance estimator on. Fractint provides many ways of exploring fractals and fractal geometry. For example, you can write your own mathematical fractal formulas and have Fractint run them. Also, since the source code is available, you can add new features. Incidentally, if you are into C programming and appreciate superb coding, you should examine the code. It is very elegant (but somewhat sparse of comment statements). Page 32 A Guide to Using Fractint Fractint's options fall into the following groups: 1. command-line options 2. view window options 3. fractal image control options A. Basic options and doodads a. 2D b. 3D B. Advanced options and doodads a. 2D b. 3D 4. color options 5. file options 6. other options Section 3.1: Command-line Options Earlier it was shown that you can start Fractint by typing the program name at the DOS prompt: C\>: fractint You can also pass the program the name of a GIF file to be brought up immediately, for example: C\>: fractint myimage Fractint will bring up the fractal stored in MYIMAGE.GIF when it starts. You need not enter the .GIF extension, although it doesn't hurt if you do. If you have any .FRA extension images (created by versions of Fractint earlier than V14.0) then these may also be used. In fact, the GIF file need not even contain a fractal image. It can be a picture of a horse. It will be treated by Fractint as a landscape fractal. Page 33 A Guide to Using Fractint When you specify the name of an image file which Fractint is to display then Fractint will derive the <videomode> from the file and stop on the Select Video Modes screen with the highlight on this <videomode>. Most of the time you simply press <Enter>, since most of the time it was you who created the fractal in the first place. If you change the <videomode> then Fractint will re-do the image using the new mode. Fractint takes many options on the command line. These are covered in Part II of this guide. Basically, any option or parameter which can be set from within Fractint can also be passed to it as a command line argument. Thus, Fractint can be controlled completely in batch mode with no interactive use. Section 3.2: View Window Options You press the <v> key to obtain the Viewing Area Parameters box which contains the following parameter fields: Preview display? Autowindow size reduction factor Final media overall aspect ratio y/x Crop starting coordinates to new aspect ratio Explicit size x pixels y pixels The view window does not have a border. It is simply the area of the screen which contains a fractal image. By default, the window is as large as your screen will allow. It has the standard aspect ratio of 0.75 of the y axis relative to the x axis. This is the normal aspect ratio for the majority of monitors. You can change the window to be any rectangular size. There are three reasons to do this. First, a small window lets you explore quickly since Fractint can compute the image for a small window faster than for a large one. The second reason is aesthetics. Some fractals will look best as a square image. Some might look best in a wide, thin window. Despite the size or shape of the window, you can do anything you can do in a fullsize window. Thirdly, you may have a monitor with portrait orientation instead of the more common landscape aspect ratio. Page 34 A Guide to Using Fractint The meaning of the parameter fields in this box are: Preview display? The default is NO and the system generates a fullsize window. Change this to YES and the window will shrink. Auto window size reduction factor The default is 4.2. The resulting window will be 4.2 sizes smaller than the fullscreen window. If you set this value to 1 then you will get a fullscreen window. If you set it to 18 you will get a window about the size of a postage stamp. If you set this parameter at too high a factor then you will get an error message and the image will be drawn at the fullscreen size. Final media overall aspect ratio y/x The default is 0.75. The y-axis is 3/4 the length of the x-axis. Most monitors use this aspect ratio. If you enter a value of 1 then the image will be square. A value of .333 will create a wide, narrow image. An aspect ratio of 1.33333 is appropriate for portrait monitors. Crop starting coordinates to new aspect ratio The default is YES. With this default, the image will be cropped to fit the window. Change this to NO and the image will be distorted to fit in the window. Explicit size You can specifically tell Fractint how many pixels to use for both the x and y axes of the window. Section 3.3 Fractal Image Control Options This section describes use of the <x> and <y> keys in detail. The <x> key obtains the Basic Options and Doodads box and the <y> key obtains the Advanced Options and Doodads box. Page 35 A Guide to Using Fractint Section 3.3.1 Basic Options and Doodads The fields on the Basic Options box obtained with the <x> key are (in the order they appear in the Options and Doodads box): Passes Floating point algorithm Maximum iterations Inside color Outside color Savename File Overwrite (overwrite=) Sound Log Palette Distance Estimator Method Decomp Option Biomorph Color The meanings of these fields are, in this same order: Passes This field takes one of four codes: 1 = make one pass 2 = make two passes g = make best-guess number of passes b = boundary trace The default is "g". If you change the Passes value to a "1" then Fractint will make one pass as it creates the fractal image rather than several. One of the reasons for having multiple-passes is so you can see a quick (but rough) vision of your new fractal on the first pass. Then you can decide whether to continue development, zoom further down, return to the previous image, and so forth. In some cases, the fractal looks best with the choppy blocks of color of the first pass than it does after later passes, so you may wish to save after the first pass. Another reason to save after the first pass is that this pass is generally better for printing than later passes. Page 36 A Guide to Using Fractint The "b" boundary trace code is actually a quite different thing than the other codes for the Passes field. It causes the colors to appear in colored polygons. The algorithm used to select colors is changed. The result is what is called the "gravestone effect". To see this for yourself, set Passes to "b" and display Fractint's default Mandelbrot set. Even the basic M-Set at the very top level need not be boring, if you play with the options a bit. For some fractal types, the "b" boundary tracing feature has no function and does not work. It produces interesting results with the Newton type. Floating point algorithm This field accepts either "yes" or "no". The default is "no". You can force it to perform the calculations using floating point arithmetic either by changing this field to "yes" or by pressing the <f> key. Pressing <f> always causes the image to be drawn over again. Computations are performed much more quickly with integer arithmetic than with real arithmetic. However, as you get several zooms down in a fractal, the numbers can become so small that Fractint is forced to use real values. In some cases Fractint will change this parameter to a "yes" and, in some cases, you can override back to a "no" to force the faster method. Sometimes Fractint will override your override and do it real anyway. You may also be required to use floating point math if you are using high bailout values. Incidentally, Fractint automatically senses whether you have a real (or emulated) math co-processor in your computer and uses it when it is present. Page 37 A Guide to Using Fractint Maximum Iterations The default number of maximum iterations is 150. As you increase this value the shoreline of a Mandelbrot (or Julia) fractal will become increasingly more convoluted. Changing the number of iterations probably has the most obvious effect with the Newton fractal type. You may also try very low iteration counts when using the Decomp option, described below. In general, increasing the iteration count lengthens the amount of time it takes to complete the fractal image. Inside color The default value for inside color is 1, which is blue. You can enter any of the following values or codes as the inside color: 0 black -1 maxiter maxiter maxiter bof60 see below bof61 see below The specific colors you can set the inside to are: 0 black 1 blue 2 green 3 cyan 4 red 5 magenta 6 brown 7 light gray 8 dark gray 9 light blue 10 light green 11 cyan 12 orange 13 pink 14 yellow 15 white to: 255 some color Page 38 A Guide to Using Fractint If you set the inside color to "bof60" then the method described on Page 60 of the "Beauty of Fractals" by Peitgen and Richter will be used. It brings out detail within the lake of the M-Set. The "bof61" entry is similar but from Page 61. A value of "-1" or "maxiter" will cause the inside color to be the same color as that of the maximum iteration. A good way of finding very small midgets (midget midgets?) on the outer border of the M-set is to set the inside to a bright, distinctive color. All insides will be colored brightly including the lakes of midgets. This is sometimes useful in high dwell regions and at high magnifications where a kind of pixellated slush can obscure the locations of midgets. Outside color The outside color refers to everything outside of the lake and its interconnections. The entire shoreline and everything outside of it becomes this color. A neat table like the one above cannot be made because the colors 0-15 are sometimes strange and would have odd names (such as "wet putty with a violet tinge"). One reason for setting the outside color is so that you can see the tiny dots of inside which are scattered just outside of the periphery of the main inside body. These dots often lead to interesting Julias. In fact, this is prime Julia-hunting territory. Unfortunately you lose all the rays and tendrils when the outside color is set. You get them back a bit at a time as you zoom in; the sense of connectedness is lost. Savename This is the the filename to be used when the <s> key is used to save a fractal image. The default name is fract001. However, it will increment to fract002 if a file named "fract001.gif" already exists in the current directory. Page 39 A Guide to Using Fractint File Overwrite (overwrite=) The default is NO. If you set this to YES then Fractint will save the current image into a file which already contains something. It will overwrite the file. You will get a warning before this occurs. In general, it is better not to use this option. Suppose you are doing a fractal which is developed over several overnight sessions. You can save the intermediate results as myfract1, myfract2, myfract3, myfract4, and so forth. When the image is complete, rename the final file to some other name (i.e. such as myfract.sav), erase all of the intermediate files (erase myfract?.gif), and rename the final file to myfract.gif. The alternative is to run each night's results into myfract.gif directly. This will work fine unless something goes wrong and you lose the entire effort. Sound The default is YES. You can set sound ON for each of the three axes independently by entering a value of "x" for the X-axis, "y" for the Y-axis, or "z". Entering "NO" Will turn the sound feature off. Sound works best when showing orbits or with some specific fractal types such as Lorenz Attractors. Log Palette The default is 0 (zero), which means NO. The log palette feature is turned off by default. You can turn it on by entering: 1 yes, turn on -1 yes, use old method +n yes, use cmprsd method -n yes, use sqrt method This feature was added for when the number of iterations is greater than the number of available colors. If you have 256 colors and set the number of iterations to 1000 then the colors roll close to the lake and create a jumbled mish-mash of color. The log palette creates a logarithmic map of colors which stretches them out to the full range of the maximum number of iterations. Page 40 A Guide to Using Fractint Setting this feature to 1 provides the best viewing when using the default palette. Setting it to -1 provides the best viewing when using palettes with smooth color transitions, such as ALTERN.MAP and FIRESTRM.MAP. The -1 setting is also true logarithmic, whereas 1 is compensated to make all of the colors of the palette available. Distance Estimator Method The default is 0 (zero) which means OFF. This option only affects Mandelbrot and Julia fractals. But, none of the Scott/Taylor equations function properly with DEM on for videomodes of VGA or higher. This is a bug. It is unfortunate because it prevents the creation of some very interesting fractal images. This option can be used to produce higher-quality images of M- and J-Sets suitable for printing in black and white. When this option is selected, the method of logic used to assign colors is changed. It often causes broad line patterns to occur in otherwise blank areas of the fractal, such as inside the lake or outside of the body of the fractal. Do not set a new DEM (Distance Estimator) with any of the sqr(1/fn) and similar functional fractal types. Fractint will come to a messy halt. Incidentally, for the fn families of fractals, the LOG versions are somewhat temperamental. For example, the Fn + Fn type will fail terribly with the LOG and SIN function combination. To use this feature, enter a number between 1 and 32000. Decomp Option The default is 0 (zero) which means OFF. If you enter a value, it must be: 2,4,8,16,32,64,128, 256. These values were chosen at random. The number tells Fractint how many colors to decompose. The only way to describe the effect of this option is to try it. It completely changes the image. The results generally cycle very well. Page 41 A Guide to Using Fractint Using decomposition (around 128 cycles enough colors to look good), you can make "fractal clocks", or objects that cycle like the hands on a clock face. This raises the curious philosophical question of whether time exists in or for the M-set or other fractals. The Decomp Option cannot be used with all fractal types. Biomorph Color The default is -1, which means OFF. You can enter the number of any color from 0 to 15 and all Pickover biomorphs will appear in that color. The Pickover Mandelbrot/Julia types are: manfn+zsqrd julfn+zsqrd manzpowr (and julzpowr) manzzpwr (and julzzpwr) manfn+exp (and julfn+exp) Biomorph color sometimes provides interesting results when used with DEM and/or decomposition. Also, you get much different fractal images with floating point arithmetic turned ON from the ones you get with it OFF. Section 3.3.2 Extended Options and Doodads The fields on the Extended Options box obtained with the <y> key are (in the order they appear in the Options and Doodads box): Look for finite attractor Potential Max Color Slope Bailout 16-bit Values Inversion radius Center X Coordinate Center Y Coordinate Page 42 A Guide to Using Fractint The meanings of these fields are, in order: Look for finite attractor The default is NO. You can change it to YES. It works with Julia, magnet, lambda, and some Julia variant fractal types. It also works well with any of the "fn" fractals. It changes the method by which iteration of the fractal equation is completed. If you generate one of these fractal types and it has a large, boring blue lake then try turning this option on. Potential Max Color The default is 0 (zero) which is OFF. It is used if you are also using logarithmic palettes and have a high Maximum Iteration value (at or near the 32000), and you are zooming in or near a small lake. The result will be spectacularly different images as you change this option. You may enter a number between 1 and 256. Slope The default is 0 (zero) which is OFF. This is the slope of the potential curve and is one of the values used in determining the maximum color value. Slope affects how rapidly the colors of the "mountains" created in a 3D image change. Bailout The default is 0 (zero) which means OFF. Changing the bailout value changes one of the ways Fractint determines when to stop iterating to determine a point in the fractal. The other consideration is the Maximum Iteration value. Page 43 A Guide to Using Fractint In some cases, changing the bailout value by even one whole unit (say from 15 to 16) can change the way the fractal looks. Decomposed fractals and Unity fractals are particularly sensitive to changes in bailout value. If you do not assign a bailout value, the system will compute a best-case one for you. 16-bit Values The default is NO. Change it to YES and Fractint will use 16-bit values internally rather than 32-bit. This may be faster. It only works for the first few levels down in M-Set or J-set fractals. Inversion radius This is an archtypical doodad. The default is 0 (zero) which means it is off. You can enter either the keyword "auto" or a real number which will be used as the radius of the inversion. If you use "auto" then Fractint will figure out the radius for you. You can not zoom in on the inverted fractal if you use the auto option. However, you can always use auto to find a suitable radius, quit, and re-start giving it the same radius as a value in this field. Then you can zoom. Inversion basically turns a fractal inside out. You must try it yourself to see what this means. Not all fractal types can be inverted. What you are doing is defining a center point and a radius of a circle. Each point within the circle is mapped to a corresponding point outside of the circle and vice versa. You can enter the value -1 which will set the radius to be 1/6th of the smaller dimension of the current image. The default center for the inversion circle is the point at the center of the image. This also lets you center the image on the screen. Changing the sign of the number also results in flipping the image right (+) to left (-). Inversion works particularly well with the Newton fractal type and with a radius of 1.0. Page 44 A Guide to Using Fractint Center X Coordinate Center Y Coordinate These two parameters are used to specify the location of the center when you are inverting the fractal. If you don't enter a value here then the center of the image will be used. You can use the keyword "auto" for either or both of these parameters. For a description of the options which are used to create 3D fractal images, see Part II of this documentation. Page 45 A Guide to Using Fractint ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Chapter 4: Files ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The files which are part of Fractint may be identified by function according to the filename extension. The extensions used are: .EXE Executable .DOC Documentation .MAP Palette Map file .FRM Formula file .L L-system file .IFS IFS definition file .BAT Frabatch file .GIF Image file (GIF89a format) .FRA Image file (old style) Each of these file types is discussed below. EXE Executable File The only executable file is FRACTINT.EXE. It is the only file which is required to run Fractint. DOC Documentation File The FRACTINT.DOC file contains the Fractint User's Manual. It is in straight ASCII text. It is layed out at 60 lines per page. To print it, enter: COPY FRACTINT.DOC PRN: at the DOS command line. Page 46 A Guide to Using Fractint MAP Palette File There are many MAP files provided. Each of these contains a list of the R, G, and B components for each of the 256 colors in the map. This is an ASCII file and may be edited. If you press the <l> key while in color-cycling mode then a list of these MAP files will be presented. You can modify a MAP file (or create a new one) with the Palette Editor. One palette at a time can be edited, but up to 8 variants of it may be stored in the <F2> to <F9> palette register keys. The file named DEFAULT.MAP is automatically loaded first by Fractint and used for the default M-Set image. You can change to a different default by renaming this file to any other name and then naming the new map to this name. After you have changed map files in Fractint, you can recall the default map by pressing the <d> key. The file named ALTERN.MAP is automatically loaded when the <a> key is pressed while in color-cycling mode. You can define your own alternate map by assigning this name to the map file of your choice. Should you create an interesting palette, you might consider uploading it to CompuServe (COMART forum, section 15: fractals), or to a BBS. FRM Formula File L L-system File These two kinds of files are similar. Both contain the definitions of formulas which create fractals. The contents of the formula file is displayed when you select the "formula" fractal type from the list provided by the <t> key. Picking "l-system" from this list shows you the content of the L-system file. In both cases, you can then pick a specific fractal type to generate. Both files are ASCII. You can add new formulae to either file, but you must first understand the syntax. This is covered in Part II of this Guide. Page 47 A Guide to Using Fractint IFS Formula Files A filename with an extension of .IFS contains the formulae for creating IFS fractals. These are the ones which look like ferns, leaves, feathers, and so forth. To create an IFS fractal, pick the IFS fractal type from the list of fractals obtained with the <t> key. This will produce a fern-shaped fractal. It uses the file FERN.IFS. Fractint comes with thirteen IFS files. In addition, you can create other IFS files with other programs (such as Fractal Grafics or FDESIGN). You cannot use the TREE.IFS file directly, interactively from within Fractint without special preparation. Thus, you must tell Fractint which IFS file is to be used at the time you start Fractint. Therefore, to create a tree fractal, you need to enter: fractint ifs=tree at the DOS prompt. This tells it to use the TREE.IFS file for IFS fractals. This mechanism is a bit klutzy and will be fixed in the next release of Fractint. BAT Frabatch File The only batch file is FRABATCH.BAT. It is created by pressing the key while an image is displayed. A fractint command statement and all of the batch options needed to recreate the image are written to the frabatch file. Thus, to re-create the image, you just type: frabatch at the DOS prompt. Each time you press the key another entry is made into the frabatch file. Therefore, if you want it to contain only a single invocation of fractint to create a single fractal, then you should first press then exit from Fractint and rename FRABATCH.BAT to some other name. Page 48 A Guide to Using Fractint One use of the frabatch utility is to transfer the instructions about how to create a fractal. Simply bring up the image, press , exit, and then mail the FRABATCH.BAT file to someone else who can then run it to create the image. Naturally, you could also have just mailed the image itself, but an image file can be fairly large (depending upon resolution, of course, but 150-200K files aren't unusual) whereas the BAT file is quite small. The batch utility and command line options are discussed in the infamous Part II to this Guide. GIF Image File Images are kept in GIF89a format files. When you press the <s> key to save the image it is written into a GIF file. The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) type is one which was developed by CompuServe as a universal graphics file format. Because the GIF file format is a standard one, you will be able to find many utilities available for displaying and manipulating GIF image files. Since GIF files can consume a fair bit of hard disk space, you may wish to copy them to a diskette. You can build up a library of fractal images on this medium. You can read the image in directly from the diskette, for example: C:\> fractint a:myfract will load the gif image stored in a:myfract.gif. However, whenever you press the <r> key to restore another image, it will list the gif files on the a: drive, not on c:. Naturally, you can also store images in a separate directory. For example: C:\> fractint ..\images\myfract will obtain myfract.gif from the parallel directory named "images". Page 49 A Guide to Using Fractint FRA Image File Files with .FRA extension names were created with earlier versions of Fractint. It is possible you may obtain such a file from a BBS or online service. You may have old fractal images you created with an earlier version. In any case, such images are read in perfectly by the latest version of Fractint. Should you save the image, it will be written out to a GIF file in GIF format. POT File This is a GIF-type file which contains xdots*2 per real row. It is viewable by Fractint and usable as input to line3d. A pot file is created by setting the 16bit option on the <y> Extended Options box. A pot file can be converted by an 8-bit GIF file by bringing it in, changing the 16bit option and saving it. TGA File TGA files are still supported as input to 3d transforms but will probably be dropped in the next release of Fractint. TGA files differed from screen image in maxit coloring; both now follow usual rules; to generate same .pot as old .tga, use inside=maxit. There can be a long delay at start of 16bit pot image while diskvid clears the ems or disk "screen" TIW File The TIW file format was used only in Version 9.3 and is no longer supported. Page 50 A Guide to Using Fractint APPENDIX A: Feedback and Comments Please communicate any comments about this Guide to: Peter Longo Sysop: Ideal Studies BBS Host: Fractals conference, RIME network Ideal Studies BBS: (508) 757-1806 CompuServe: [76507,2772] Internet/Bitnet: "plongo@clarku.bitnet" Tobey J.E. Reed [76437,375] reed/write & Company 70 Main Street Medfield, MA 02052 (508) 359-8982 CompuServe: [76437,375] Messages may be left in the Fractals Section of the COMART forum on CompuServe. Page 51 A Guide to Using Fractint APPENDIX B: KEY SUMMARY BY MODE _______________________________________________________________________ Credit Screen Mode <F1> Obtain help <Enter> Done. Continue to next screen <Esc> Done. Return to DOS <spacebar> Freeze scrolling list of good guys <videomode> Use <videomode> <t> Display fractal types list <x> Display basic options box <y> Display extended options box <r> Restore image file <3> 3d transform from file 3d, IFS parameters <v> Viewing Options box _______________________________________________________________________ Video Mode Selection Mode <down arrow> Move highlight down one line <up arrow> Move highlight up one line <PageDown> Page down <PageUp> Page up <Enter> Select mode highlighted; display image <Esc> Return to Main Menu <videomode> Select video mode by key _______________________________________________________________________ Main Menu Mode <Enter> Select this choice <down arrow> Move to next choice <up arrow> Move to previous choice <Esc> Exit Fractint (back to DOS) <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <F1> Help In addition, the action keys described on this Menu can also be used while the Menu is displayed, these are: <t> Fractal types list <x> Basic Options box <y> Extended Options box <v> Viewing Options box <r> Restore image from file <3> 3d transform from file 3d, IFS parameters <d> Shell to DOS Page 52 A Guide to Using Fractint Finally, the following keys may be used on the Main Menu only after an image has been displayed: <s> Save image to file Write batch parameters Print image <o> 3d overlay The following keys may also be used while on the Main Menu, but are much more likely to be used while in Display Mode: <tab> Fractal Description <c> Cycle colors <e> Edit palette <a> Make starfield <Enter> Continue computations <\> Previous image <+> Cycle forward <-> Cycle backward GENERAL KEYS (Main Menu Mode) <Enter> Select this choice <down arrow> Move to next choice <up arrow> Move to last choice <Esc> Exit Fractint (back to DOS) <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <F1> Help OPTION KEYS (Main Menu Mode) <t> Fractal types list <x> Basic Options box <y> Extended Options box <v> Viewing Options box <r> Restore image from file <3> 3d transform from file 3d, IFS parameters <d> Shell to DOS _______________________________________________________________________ Help Screen Mode Keys which work while you are on a Help Screen are: <Esc> Return to previous screen <PageDown> Page down <PageUp> Page up <F1> Obtain Help Menu Page 53 A Guide to Using Fractint _______________________________________________________________________ Display Mode Keys which may be used while a static fractal is displayed are: <Esc> Return to Main Menu <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <F1> Help <tab> Fractal Description <Enter> Continue computations <\> Previous image <PageDown> Zoom Box <a> Make starfield Write batch parameters <c> Cycle colors <d> Shell to DOS <e> Edit palette <m> Main Menu Print image <r> Restore image from file <s> Save image to file <t> Fractal types list <v> Viewing Options box <x> Basic Options box <y> Extended Options box <3> 3d transform from file Keys which may be used while a fractal is in the process of being developed (i.e. during computations), are: <Esc> Halt computations <Enter> Restart computations <tab> Display fractal information <x> Basic options <y> Advanced options <s> Save fractal to file <o> Show orbits (letter oh) All of the other keys available in Display Mode may also be used. Page 54 A Guide to Using Fractint _______________________________________________________________________ Color-Cycling Mode The keys you can use while in Color-Cycling mode are: <c> Start/stop color-cycling <spacebar> Suspend color-cycling [toggle] <up arrow> Faster <down arrow> Slower <1>..<9> Cycle nth colors <gray -> Reverse <gray +> Forward <Esc> Stop color-cycling <tab> Image Information box <F1> Help <Enter> Cycle palette <a><c> Load append.map file <d><c> Load default.map file <l> Load external map file (letter ell) <any> Any other key halts cycling <Esc> Write batch parameters file <Esc><c> Cycle palette <Esc><d> Shell to DOS <Esc><e> Palette Editor <Esc><f> Use floating-point arithmetic <Esc> Edit Options (2D, 3D) <Esc><o> Overlay file selection list <Esc> Print image <Esc><s> Save current image to file <Esc><t> Fractal Type list <Esc><v> View Window Parameters box <Esc><x> Basic Options and Doodads <Esc><y> Extended Options and Doodads Page 55 A Guide to Using Fractint _______________________________________________________________________ Palette Editor Mode The keys you can use while the empty Palette Editor box is displayed: <arrow> Move box <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <PageDown> Make box larger <PageUp> Make box smaller <Enter> Use editor <Esc> Exit Palette Editor The keys you can use while the full Palette Editor box is displayed: <arrow> Move crosshair [or move mouse] <\> <arrow> Move editor box <\> <PageDown> Make editor box larger <\> <PageUp> Make editor box smaller <h> Hide editor box/restore editor box <c> Cycle colors (removes Editor) <<> Cycle colors in reverse (keeps Editor) <>> Cycle colors forward (keeps Editor) <spacebar> Select other sample box [toggle] <,> Rotate palette one step in reverse <.> Rotate palette one step forward <r> Select red component <g> Select green component Select blue component <Insert> Move down through component list <Delete> Move up through component list <+> Increase component by 1 step <-> Decrease component by 1 step <PageUp> Increase component by 4 steps <PageDown> Decrease component by 4 steps <s> Save palette <y> Enter color-exclusion mode (see <x>) <x> Exclude all but current colors [toggle] <d> Copy inactive color sample to active <=> Create shade between active & inactive Note 1: <t><digit> Create stripes between active & inactive <a> Enter/Exit Auto Mode [toggle]. <Enter> (if in Auto Mode): Does nothing <Enter> (if NOT in Auto Mode): Edit this color Invert editor frame [toggle] Note 2: <SF2> Save current palette to <F2> key <F2> Recall palette from <F2> key ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Note 1: <digit> can be 1 to 9. It colors every nth entry, Note 2: Palettes may be stored in the F2 through F9 <register> keys. Use <Shift>-<register> to store the palette being edited and press <register> to recall it. Page 56 A Guide to Using Fractint _______________________________________________________________________ Zoom Box Mode The keys you can use while the Zoom Box is displayed are: <PageUp> Make the box smaller <PageDown> Make the box larger <arrow> Move box (or move with mouse) <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <ctrl>-<Insert> Cycle box color upward <ctrl>-<Delete> Cycle box color downward <ctrl>-<Home> Tilt box to left <ctrl>-<End> Tilt box to right <ctrl>-<PageUp> Narrow box horizontally <ctrl>-<PageDown> Narrow box vertically <ctrl>-<gray -> Rotate box counter-clockwise <ctrl>-<gray +> Rotate box clockwise <Enter> Enlarge the box contents fullscreen <spacebar> Mandelbrot/Julia toggle <Esc> Main Menu screen In addition, all of the keys which operate while a fractal is being displayed also work. Mouse buttons: LEFT click Display zoom box LEFT hold and move mouse north Shrink zoom box LEFT hold and move mouse south Expand zoom box LEFT double-click Redraw image RIGHT double-click Zoom out _______________________________________________________________________ Information Display Mode Keys you can use while the Information Box is displayed are: <any> any keypress returns to the image Page 57 A Guide to Using Fractint _______________________________________________________________________ Parameter Box Mode The keys you can press while a Parameter Box (Options box) is displayed are: a. Between fields <Esc> Cancel <Enter> Done <down arrow> Move highlight down <up arrow> Move highlight up <PageDown> Move to last field <PageUp> Move to first field b. Within a field <left arrow> Move right one character <right arrow> Move left one character <Home> Move to first character <End> Move to last character <spacebar> Erase field <Backspace> Erase previous character <Delete> Erase current character <Insert> Insert character <F5> Restore original entry In addition, you can type a number into any numeric field and an alphanumeric into any character field. Page 58 A Guide to Using Fractint *********************************************************************** KEY SUMMARY ASCII SORT ORDER BY KEYNAME *********************************************************************** <+> Increase component by 1 step <,> Rotate palette one step in reverse <-> Decrease component by 1 step <.> Rotate palette one step forward <1>..<9> Cycle nth colors <3> 3d transform from file <<> Cycle colors in reverse (keeps Editor) <=> Create shade between active & inactive <>> Cycle colors forward (keeps Editor) <a> Enter/Exit Auto Mode [toggle]. <a> Make starfield <a><c> Load append.map file <any> Any keypress returns to the image <any> Any other key halts cycling <arrow> Move box <arrow> Move box (or move with mouse) <arrow> Move crosshair [or move mouse] Select blue component Write batch parameters <Backspace> Erase previous character <c> Cycle colors <c> Start/stop color-cycling <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <ctrl>-<Delete> Cycle box color downward <ctrl>-<End> Tilt box to right <ctrl>-<gray +> Rotate box clockwise <ctrl>-<gray -> Rotate box counter-clockwise <ctrl>-<Home> Tilt box to left <ctrl>-<Insert> Cycle box color upward <ctrl>-<PageDown> Narrow box vertically <ctrl>-<PageUp> Narrow box horizontally <d> Copy inactive color sample to active <d> Shell to DOS <d><c> Load default.map file <Delete> Erase current character <Delete> Move up through component list <down arrow> Move highlight down <down arrow> Move to next choice <down arrow> Slower color-cycling <e> Edit palette <End> Move to last character Page 59 A Guide to Using Fractint <Enter> (if in Auto Mode): Does nothing <Enter> (if NOT in Auto Mode): Edit this color <Enter> Continue computations <Enter> Cycle palette <Enter> Done <Enter> Enlarge the box contents fullscreen <Enter> Restart computations <Enter> Select mode highlighted; display image <Enter> Select this choice <Enter> Use editor <Esc> Cancel <Esc> Done. Return to DOS <Esc> Exit Fractint (back to DOS) <Esc> Exit Palette Editor <Esc> Halt computations <Esc> Main Menu screen <Esc> Return to Main Menu <Esc> Return to previous screen <Esc> Stop color-cycling <Esc> Write batch parameters file <Esc><c> Cycle palette <Esc><d> Shell to DOS <Esc><e> Palette Editor <Esc><f> Use floating-point arithmetic <Esc> Edit Options (2D, 3D) <Esc><o> Overlay file selection list <Esc> Print image <Esc><s> Save current image to file <Esc><t> Fractal Type list <Esc><v> View Window Parameters box <Esc><x> Basic Options and Doodads <Esc><y> Extended Options and Doodads <F1> Help <F1> Obtain Help Menu <F2> Use <videomode> F2 <F2> Recall palette from <F2> key <F5> Restore previous entry <g> Select green component <gray +> Forward <gray -> Reverse <h> Hide editor box/restore editor box <Home> Move to first character Invert editor frame [toggle] <Insert> Insert character <Insert> Move down through component list <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <l> Load external map file (letter ell) <left arrow> Move right one character <m> Main Menu <o> Show orbits (letter oh) Print image Page 60 A Guide to Using Fractint <PageDown> Decrease component by 4 steps <PageDown> Make box larger <PageDown> Move to last field <PageDown> Page down <PageDown> Obtain zoom box <PageUp> Increase component by 4 steps <PageUp> Make box smaller <PageUp> Move to first field <PageUp> Page up <r> Restore image from file <r> Select red component <right arrow> Move left one character <s> Save image to .GIF file <s> Save palette to .MAP file <SF2> Use <videomode> SF2 <SF2> Save current palette to <F2> key <spacebar> Erase field <spacebar> Freeze scrolling list of good guys <spacebar> Mandelbrot/Julia toggle <spacebar> Select other sample box [toggle] <spacebar> Start/stop color-cycling <t> Display fractal types list <t> Fractal types list <t><digit> Create stripes between active & inactive <tab> Display fractal information <tab> Fractal Description <tab> Image Information box <up arrow> Faster <up arrow> Move highlight up <up arrow> Move highlight up one line <up arrow> Move to previous choice <v> Viewing Options box <videomode> Select video mode by key <videomode> Use <videomode> <x> Basic Options box <x> Display basic options box <x> Exclude all but current colors [toggle] <y> Advanced options <y> Display extended options box <y> Enter color-exclusion mode (see <x>) <y> Extended Options box <\> Previous image <\> <arrow> Move editor box <\> <PageDown> Make editor box larger <\> <PageUp> Make editor box smaller Page 61 A Guide to Using Fractint *********************************************************************** KEY SUMMARY ALPHABETIC BY DESCRIPTION *********************************************************************** <y> Advanced options <any> Any keypress returns to the image <any> Any other key halts cycling <Esc><x> Basic Options and Doodads (while cycling) <x> Basic Options box <Esc> Cancel <Enter> Continue computations <d> Copy inactive color sample to active <=> Create shade between active & inactive <t><digit> Create stripes between active & inactive <ctrl>-<Delete> Cycle box color downward <ctrl>-<Insert> Cycle box color upward <c> Cycle colors <>> Cycle colors forward (keeps Editor) <<> Cycle colors in reverse (keeps Editor) <1>..<9> Cycle nth colors <Enter> Cycle palette <Esc><c> Cycle palette (while cycling) <-> Decrease component by 1 step <PageDown> Decrease component by 4 steps <x> Display basic options box <y> Display extended options box <tab> Display fractal information <t> Display fractal types list <Enter> Done <Esc> Done. Return to DOS <Esc> Edit Options (2D, 3D) (while cycling) <e> Edit palette <Enter> Enlarge the box contents fullscreen <y> Enter color-exclusion mode (see <x>) <a> Enter/Exit Auto Mode [toggle]. <Delete> Erase current character <spacebar> Erase field <Backspace> Erase previous character <x> Exclude all but current colors [toggle] <Esc> Exit Fractint (back to DOS) <Esc> Exit Palette Editor <Esc><y> Extended Options and Doodads (while cycling) <y> Extended Options box <up arrow> Faster <gray +> Forward <tab> Fractal Description <Esc><t> Fractal Type list (while cycling) <t> Fractal types list Page 62 A Guide to Using Fractint <spacebar> Freeze scrolling list of good guys <Esc> Halt computations <F1> Help <h> Hide editor box/restore editor box <tab> Image Information box <+> Increase component by 1 step <PageUp> Increase component by 4 steps <Insert> Insert character Invert editor frame [toggle] <a><c> Load append.map file <d><c> Load default.map file <l> Load external map file (letter ell) <m> Main Menu <Esc> Main Menu screen <PageDown> Make box larger <PageUp> Make box smaller <\> <PageDown> Make editor box larger <\> <PageUp> Make editor box smaller <a> Make starfield <spacebar> Mandelbrot/Julia toggle <arrow> Move box <arrow> Move box (or move with mouse) <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <ctrl>-<arrow> Move box faster <arrow> Move crosshair [or move mouse] <Insert> Move down through component list <\> <arrow> Move editor box <down arrow> Move highlight down <up arrow> Move highlight up <up arrow> Move highlight up one line <right arrow> Move left one character <left arrow> Move right one character <Home> Move to first character <PageUp> Move to first field <End> Move to last character <PageDown> Move to last field <down arrow> Move to next choice <up arrow> Move to previous choice <Delete> Move up through component list <ctrl>-<PageUp> Narrow box horizontally <ctrl>-<PageDown> Narrow box vertically <m> Obtain Main Menu <F1> Obtain Help Menu <PageDown> Obtain zoom box <Esc><o> Overlay file selection list (while cycling) <PageDown> Page down <PageUp> Page up <Esc><e> Palette Editor (while cycling) <\> Previous image <Esc> Print image (while cycling) Print image Page 63 A Guide to Using Fractint <F2> Recall palette from <F2> key <Enter> Restart computations <r> Restore image from file <F5> Restore previous entry <Insert> Return to Credits Screen <Esc> Return to Main Menu <Esc> Return to previous screen <gray -> Reverse <ctrl>-<gray +> Rotate box clockwise <ctrl>-<gray -> Rotate box counter-clockwise <.> Rotate palette one step forward <,> Rotate palette one step in reverse <Esc><s> Save current image to file (while cycling) <SF2> Save current palette to <F2> key <s> Save image to .GIF file <s> Save palette to .MAP file Select blue component <g> Select green component <Enter> Select mode highlighted; display image <spacebar> Select other sample box [toggle] <r> Select red component <Enter> Select this choice <videomode> Select video mode by key <d> Shell to DOS <Esc><d> Shell to DOS (while cycling) <o> Show orbits (letter oh) <down arrow> Slower color-cycling <c> Start/stop color-cycling <Esc> Stop color-cycling <c> Suspend color-cycling [toggle] <ctrl>-<Home> Tilt box to left <ctrl>-<End> Tilt box to right <videomode> Use <videomode> <F2> Use <videomode> F2 <SF2> Use <videomode> SF2 <Enter> Use editor <Esc><f> Use floating-point arithmetic (while cycling) <Esc><v> View Window Parameters box (while cycling) <v> Viewing Options box Write batch parameters <Esc> Write batch parameters file (while cycling) <Enter> (if in Auto Mode): Does nothing <Enter> (if NOT in Auto Mode): Edit this color <3> 3d transform from file Page 64