borneo@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Tane' Tachyon) (06/28/90)
"Mandelbrot 3", from Midnight Beach, is a fast, powerful and innovative
program for exploring the Mandelbrot and Julia sets on IBM-compatible
computers. Yes, this message is basically going to amount to an ad for a
commercial program, but hopefully you can bear with me on this, because:
1. I'll try to be as tasteful as possible!
2. I think there are a lot of people out there who haven't heard about this
program and would like to.
3. Who knows, this message may spark some interesting discussions on the
Mandelbrot set, writing fractal programs, or other related subjects.
4. Don't worry ... I'm only going to post this once!
Mandelbrot 3 has gotten some wonderful reviews, but it's not very well known
yet in comparison with some of the other fractal programs out there, mainly
because the author, Jon Shemitz of Midnight Beach, is one of those "addicted
to programming, allergic to marketing" types.
It is very possibly the fastest Mandelbrot and Julia set explorer available
for MS-DOS systems. It uses assembly language routines for all its
calculations, and will use a math coprocessor if you have one. The "walker"
option speeds computation by tracing the edges of the set. Shallow zooms
use 32-bit fixed-point math for speed, while deep zooms use 64-bit fixed
point (or the math chip, if available) for accuracy.
In addition to raw speed, Mandelbrot 3 features an incremental draw (called
a "conceptual breakthrough" by one reviewer), starting with a very sparse
image and then doubling the resolution until it's done. This lets you see
where you are in seconds: you can then either let it continue to flesh out
the picture, making the image brighter and more detailed, or immediately
move, zoom or unzoom to another area of interest.
It is also very easy to use, featuring a graphic mouse-based (you can use
the cursor keys if you don't have a mouse) user interface, with most
commands always visible as "buttons" on the screen.
Mandelbrot 3 requires a 350-line EGA or a VGA, and can take full advantage
of VGA 480-line and 256-color modes. It has several standard palettes and
also a Lissajous cycle mode for producing a continuous stream of new semi-
random palettes. You can select different image-processing functions to
enhance the details of a picture. "Psychedelic" is the word usually used to
describe its color cycling mode.
**************** Some comments from a few recent reviews ****************
"startlingly fast ... absolutely gorgeous ... Recommended." - Jerry
Pournelle, Byte Magazine, June 1990 issue
"RECommend this very strongly as one of the most wonderful programs you can
acquire this year for a PC with EGA or VGA ... I ran the program on my '386
with VGA and was absolutely delighted." - Dr. Mike Ecker, editor, The
Recreational and Educational Computing newsletter, Volume 5, #3&4 (double
issue)
"possibly the fastest Mandelbrot set maker you can find for any MS-DOS
computer" - John Pilge, ibid
"one of the best values in recreational software I've ever seen ... all the
little touches it needs to be a great program ... The manual is clear and
includes theory as well as practice." - Mike Gunderloy, Factsheet Five
issue 36
************************* Ordering & Info info **************************
Mandelbrot 3 is $25, which includes shipping to anywhere in the world. (But
if it's going to a California address, you have to add another $1.56 for
California sales tax.)
If you'd like to order a copy of Mandelbrot 3, you can send a check to:
Midnight Beach
1805A Felt St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
Or call (408) 479-9916 to charge your order on Visa or MasterCard.
If you'd like more information, you can, again, call (408) 479-9916, or send
mail to midnight@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (I made this the "Reply-To" address
of this message, BTW.)
If you'd like a glossy flyer describing (in both photographs and text)
Mandelbrot 3 in much greater detail, send your name and (postal) address to
midnight@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us
If you want to flame me for shameless self-promotion on the net, I'm
tachyon@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.usctt31684@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (06/28/90)
Why buy when you can download those programs from the net. I forgot, but if anyone wants, I can look it up. You can get those programs from anonymous FTP to some mainframes.
ctt31684@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (06/29/90)
Please stop emailing me. I'm currently looking up the FTP. I'll post in the near future. Thanks. -Ching
ctt31684@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (06/29/90)
I've not yet started the search... I think I'll start tomorrow. Anyway, I know fractal programs are on the net, and a list of FTP anonymous sites is on unsvax.nevada.edu perhaps if you are in a hurry, you may help me find the thing.
nulspace@eng.umd.edu (Michael Chang) (06/29/90)
Perhaps there is a kind soul out there who would like to devote some hard-disk space for people to deposit files on, sort of a support BBS so to speak... I had to spend many many e-mails for the many people who mailed me for remac.zip, it may have been easier to have it available for anon. ftp. Just a thought... nulspace@eng.umd.edu [ at work ] | "I've often been asked, and my replies are nulspace@wam.umd.edu [ at play ] | always in the same fashion; I hate tennis, (I dare you to finger me @wam!) | I hate it with a passion!" -Michael Chang
ctt31684@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (07/01/90)
The program is Fractint.ZIP (version 12 is the one I've got--from a local BBS). The filename is something like FRAINT12.ZIP. All the features of the commercial program, and many more! It's a GNU program, but for PCs (and maybe Amigas--a fellow I know sug ************************************************************************** The above program was suggested to me by Pat O'Connell. However that was not the program I remember, so I;m still looking through all those ftp sites. I'll post if anything turns up. -Ching
jal@acc (John Lauro) (07/02/90)
In article <46500133@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> ctt31684@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > > >The program is Fractint.ZIP (version 12 is the one I've got--from a local >BBS). The filename is something like FRAINT12.ZIP. All the features of >the commercial program, and many more! >It's a GNU program, but for PCs (and maybe Amigas--a fellow I know sug > >************************************************************************** > >The above program was suggested to me by Pat O'Connell. > >However that was not the program I remember, so I;m still looking through >all those ftp sites. I'll post if anything turns up. >-Ching Doing a search (for /frac/i) on the Raymond server gives the following: Looks like FRAINT12 is on SIMTEL20. Perhaps the program you remember is somewhere in this list? Programs on wsmr-SIMTEL20.army.mil matching your search criterion: Directory PD1:<MSDOS.EGA> ROSES.ARC B 20480 870612 EGA demo, a beautiful use of fractals Directory PD1:<MSDOS.GRAPHICS> EGAFRC14.ZIP B 23782 900411 Random Von Koch Fractal Curve generator, (EGA) FDESIGN.ZIP B 75776 900511 Program to visually design IFS fractals FRACT30.ARC B 97595 891005 Mandelbrot/Julia set 2D/3D EGA/VGA Fractal Gen FRAINT12.ZIP B 213836 900416 Mandelbrot, Julia set fractals w/32-bit math FRASRC12.ZIP B 310918 900416 Source code for FRACTINT version 12.0 VIFS.ZIP B 219943 900506 Fractal editor/generate views from desc. files Directory PD2:<MSDOS2.PCMAG> VOL4N11.ARC B 5978 900219 PC Magazine: FRACELDO, FRACTALS Programs on grape.ecs.clarkson.edu matching your search criterion: Directory /C/BIN1 FRACT386.ZIP creates fractal display v2.1 Directory /C/BIN3 FRACTINT.ZIP super fractal program v7.0 EXECUTABLE FRACTSRC.ZIP super fractal program v7.0 SOURCE Directory /D/GAMES FRACTAL.ZIP A very good fractal demo + game. Directory /E/BIN4 BIOMRF.ZIP Biomorph Viewer (Fractals) (EGA/VGA) Directory /F/UPLOADS BIOMORPH.DSC Biomorph Viewer (Fractals) (EGA/VGA) Programs on chyde.uwasa.fi matching your search criterion: Directory /pc/graphics fraint11.arc Mandelbrot and Julia set fractal images v11.0 (good) Directory /pc/source frasrc11.arc FRACTINT sources v11.0 Programs on FidoNet node 2:515/1 (Micro Maniacs Opus) matching your search criterion: Directory GAMESF -- Games files FRACTALS.ZIP 40228 19-Jan-86 008 MANDELBROT MICROSCOPE + SOURCES ! IN TP Directory CLIB --'C' language library software (Graphics) MANDEL.ZIP 47644 10-Dec-89 003 GRAP Display fractal images on screen MFRACT.ZIP 1254 10-Dec-89 003 GRAP Fractals in C (needs GRAHICS.C) Directory GRAPH -- Great graphics files/programs FRACT3D.ZIP 13149 01-Jan-80 005 DRAWS A TRIANGULAR FRACTAL LANDSCAPE FRAINT10.ZIP 151019 19-Dec-89 003 FractInt v. 10.0 (newest version) FRASRC10.ZIP 224703 19-Dec-89 001 FRACTINT 10 sources TFRACT10.ZIP 96133 05-Oct-89 001 Nice mandelbrot/Julia microscope Directory USENET -- Binary files posted from UseNet FRACT386.ZIP 42985 23-Oct-88 007 Very fast Mandelbrot for 386 End of output [Cumulative CPU time: 0.32] - John_Lauro@ub.cc.umich.edu University of Michigan - Flint
hermit@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (William R. Ward) (07/03/90)
All this talk about FRACTINT...
The original message was a plug for a very good commercial program.
It's cheap (only $25) and does a lot of neat things, FAST.
1) Walker: skip over large black areas entirely by defining the
edge of such areas first.
2) incremental drawing: Instead of doing a fully detailed draw,
from the top of the screen to the bottom, or whatever, it does
first every 8th pixel, then every 4th, then every 2nd, then
every pixel. So you see what you get before it's done.
3) color cycling: produce very psychadelic images by having the
colors shift through the entire pallette. This is especially
amazing in 256-color mode, with a spiral-shaped zoom.
4) mouse interface.. very intuitive and easy to use.
No, I'm not affiliated with Midnight Beach software.
FRACTINT is not the competition for Mandelbrot 3... M3 is a commercial,
for-profit, you-can't-copy-this program.
If anyone is interested in the program, call 479-9916 voice or 476-4945
BBS (XBBS, a tree-based, message-base and interuser communcation BBS.
But you have to pay to chat or hail other users. And read the
documentation or you won't understand the BBS. The learning curve isn't
very easy, and the message base is >30MB, dating back about 5 years.)
--
--William R. Ward University of California, Santa Cruz, CIS
--P.O. Box 2271, 95001-2271 USA <hermit@ucscb.UCSC.EDU>
--(408) 688-6547 {...}!ucbvax!ucscc!ucscb!hermitminar@reed.bitnet (Nelson Minar,(???)) (07/04/90)
(if all I am doing is starting a flame war, lets move this into email. But I really feel like someone is trying to pull wool over my eyes) In article <4849@darkstar.ucsc.edu> hermit@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (William R. Ward) writes: > >All this talk about FRACTINT... > [Mandelbrot 3 does..] > 1) Walker: skip over large black areas entirely by defining the > edge of such areas first. > 2) incremental drawing: Instead of doing a fully detailed draw, > from the top of the screen to the bottom, or whatever, it does > first every 8th pixel, then every 4th, then every 2nd, then > every pixel. So you see what you get before it's done. > 3) color cycling: produce very psychadelic images by having the > colors shift through the entire pallette. This is especially > amazing in 256-color mode, with a spiral-shaped zoom. > 4) mouse interface.. very intuitive and easy to use. Again, fractint does all these things, fast. It is a neat program. Its also got millions of other nifty features I won't bother to enumerate here, as it is trivially easy to get a fully working copy for free (thats pd:<msdos.graphics>frain13r.zip on wsmr-simtel20.army.mil) > >FRACTINT is not the competition for Mandelbrot 3... M3 is a commercial, >for-profit, you-can't-copy-this program. I think its the other way around, honestly. Fractint does more than M3 will, and it does it for free. Why would someone buy a less-featured commercial program?
ralf@b.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Ralf Brown) (07/04/90)
In article <15152@reed.UUCP> minar@reed.bitnet (Nelson Minar) writes: }In article <4849@darkstar.ucsc.edu> hermit@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (William R. }Ward) writes: }>FRACTINT is not the competition for Mandelbrot 3... M3 is a commercial, }>for-profit, you-can't-copy-this program. } } I think its the other way around, honestly. Fractint does more than }M3 will, and it does it for free. Why would someone buy a }less-featured commercial program? Don't forget that you can get full source for FRACTINT, so you get to see how to do various fun things like stereo views, driving a *standard* IBM VGA at up to 360x480x256 and 800x600x16, autodetecting all the popular VGA chipsets, parsing fractal equations, etc. Does M3 include source? Does it support the 8514/A or Targa video boards? etc.... -- {backbone}!cs.cmu.edu!ralf ARPA: RALF@CS.CMU.EDU FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/3.1 BITnet: RALF%CS.CMU.EDU@CMUCCVMA AT&Tnet: (412)268-3053 (school) FAX: ask _How_to_Prove_It_ by Dana Angluin 23. proof by semantic shift: some standard but inconvenient definitions are changed for the statement of the result.
phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (07/06/90)
I would like to have a version of a fractal program that uses variable, and LONG precision integer arrays for ULTRA DEEP zooming of fractals. FRACTINT hold the possibility by virtue of the fact that it has source available. But I did look at it and found the organization of the parts not going to make it easy to retrofit a different numeric method. Maybe this is what C++ is for. --Phil Howard, KA9WGN-- | Individual CHOICE is fundamental to a free society <phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> | no matter what the particular issue is all about.
phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (07/06/90)
I extracted a list of the files whose pathnames had the string "fract" anywhere, from my collection of files at many (456 to be exact) anonymous FTP sites. 68 hosts had 1 or more matching files. This does not mean that a matching file or even any file on that host relates to PC's. Here is the list of the hosts. I have the list of selected files (344 of them) I can send by E-mail before the list is deleted from /tmp. apple.com: oswego.oswego.edu: bikini.cis.ufl.edu: plains.nodak.edu: chx400.switch.ch: radio.astro.utoronto.ca: chyde.uwasa.fi: rascal.ics.utexas.edu: cs.ubc.ca: relay.cdnnet.ca: cs.uoregon.edu: rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de: doc.cso.uiuc.edu: sachiko.acc.stolaf.edu: drizzle.cs.uoregon.edu: sauna.hut.fi: dsl.cis.upenn.edu: schizo.samsung.com: eng.clemson.edu: sciences.sdsu.edu: eniac.seas.upenn.edu: slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com: f.ms.uky.edu: sol.cs.ruu.nl: funet.fi: sumex-aim.stanford.edu: gaffa.mit.edu: sumex.stanford.edu: gatekeeper.dec.com: sun.soe.clarkson.edu: hp4nl.nluug.nl: suned.zoo.cs.yale.edu: husc6.harvard.edu: sunic.sunet.se: iesd.auc.dk: surya.waterloo.edu: ix1.cc.utexas.edu: terminator.cc.umich.edu: ix2.cc.utexas.edu: topaz.rutgers.edu: joker.optics.rochester.edu: trantor.umd.edu: jyu.fi: trix.ai.mit.edu: kth.se: tumtum.cs.umd.edu: larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu: ucsd.edu: lcs.mit.edu: uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu: lut.fi: unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de: marvin.cs.buffalo.edu: utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp: mcnc.mcnc.org: uwasa.fi: mcnc.org: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu: me10.lbl.gov: uxc.cso.uiuc.edu: merlin.cs.purdue.edu: vega.hut.fi: milton.u.washington.edu: wheaties.ai.mit.edu: mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu: wuarchive.wustl.edu: net1.ucsd.edu: zurich.ai.mit.edu: