richg@blake.acs.washington.edu (Richard "Goldfinder" Finegold) (11/07/89)
Please see the companion article, "FRACTINT 10.0 Available", for
information on obtaining FRACTINT 10.0.
The following sections of text are verbatim from FRACTINT.DOC:
********* FRACTINT (Version 10.0) **********
An experiment in "Stone Soup" development. Got anything for the pot?
+++++ Quick Documentation Format -- Features new to 10.0 +++++
- New Fractal Types! Boy, have we got New Fractal Types!
- Barnsley IFS Fractals (courtesy of Rob Beyer)
- Barnsley IFS3D fractal type
- MandelSine/MandelCos/MandelExp fractal types
- MandelLambda/MarksLambda/Unity fractal types
- BarnsleyM1/J1/M2/J2/M3/J3 fractal types
- Mandel4/Julia4 fractal types
- Sierpinski Gasket fractal type
- Demm and Demj and Bifurcation fractal types (by Phil Wilson)
- (the 'test' fractal is now a simple Mandelbrot again)
- Added 'I(nversion)' command for most fractal types
- Added 'decomp=' command-line argument and 'Q(uaternary decomposition)'
command toggle for most fractal types
- Added an editor (the 'E' command) for Barnsley IFS parameters
- Added LOTS of new command-line options for selectively setting
3D parameters (sphere=, radius=, waterline=, ... - see the
command-line section for details).
- Sped up the spherical 3D calculations by a factor of 5!
- 3D now clips properly to screen edges and works at extreme perspective
- Added an 'rseed=' command-line option for reproducible Plasma Clouds
- Sped up Plasma Clouds (by 40 percent on a 386)
- Added sensitivity to "continuous potential" algorithm to all
fractal types (except Plasma and IFS types)
- added Palette map Save and Restore by-name commands
('S' and [sorry, 'R' was taken] 'M') to the color-cycling menu
- Added Logarithmic (as opposed to Continuous) Palette-mapping
command-line options and hot-keys ('l' for logs, 'n' for normal)
(increased maxiter maximum to 32000 to support log palette maps)
- .MAP and .IFS files can now reside anywhere along the DOS PATH
- Added new Direct-Video support for Hercules adapters (courtesy
of Dean Souleles)
- added Tandy 1000 160x200x16 mode (thanks to Tom Price)
- added 320x400x256 register-compatible-VGA "tweaked" mode.
- added ATI VGA Wonder 1024x768x16 direct-video mode (by Mark Peterson)
- added 1024x768x16 direct-video mode for all supported chipsets
- added Tseng 640x400x256 mode
- added new "Roll-Your-Own" video mode 19 (add your very own video
mode by modifying the code in YOURVID.C)
- added new video-table "hot-keys", so you no longer need an enhanced
keyboard to access some of the video modes at the end of the table
+++++ Quick Documentation Format -- Features new to 9.3 +++++
- New 'P(rint) command and 'printer=' options from Matt Saucier
- New 8514/A video modes (from Kyle Powell)
- New SSTOOLS.INI sensitivity and '@thisfile' option on the cmd-line
- New "Continuous Potential" algorithm for Mandelbrot/Julia sets
- New "Light source" 3D option for all fractal types
- New "Distance Estimator" Mandelbrot/Julia method (implemented
as this version's "test" fractal type) from Phil Wilson
- New Lambdacosine and LambdaExponent fractal types
- Color-Cycling mode works with 640x350x16 EGA (as well as VGA) adapters
- Plasma Clouds can now be generated in 16-color and 4-color video modes
- Improved TARGA support (from Joe McLain, again)
- CGA modes now use direct-video read/writes
- New Tandy 1000 320x200x16 and 640x200x4 modes (thanks to Tom Price)
- New TRIDENT chip-set Super-VGA video modes (thanks to Lew Ramsey)
- New Direct-Access Video modes for TRIDENT, Chips & Technologies,
and ATI VGA WONDER adapters (thanks to John Bridges)
(and, unlike version 9.1, they WORK in version 9.3!)
- New 'Zoom-out' (Control-Enter) option for zooming out instead of in
- New 'D(os)' command lets you shell-to-DOS from inside FRACTINT.
- New 2/4/16-color Disk/RAM video mode capability and 2-color
video modes supporting full-page printer graphics
- New "inside=-1" option (treated dynamically as "inside == maxiter")
- slightly improved "Help" and sound routines (even 'sound=off')
- Turbo-C and TASM Compatibility (really! Would we lie to you?)
+++++ Quick Documentation Format -- Features new to 8.1 +++++
- New 3D Restore-From Disk ('3') and 3D Overlay ('o') commands (Fractal
Landscapes and Planets!). (Read the "3D IMAGES" section for details)
- New "3d=" command-line option for batch-mode 3D images
- New fast Newton algorithm including inversion option (from Lee Crocker)
- New 16-bit Mandelbrot/Julia logic for 386-class speed with non-386
PCs on large (initial screen, first zoom) images (from Mark Peterson)
- Restore-From-Disk now loads non-FRACTINT GIF files (as Plasma Clouds)
- New TARGA video modes and color-map file options (from Joe McLain)
- Thirty New Color-Cycling palette options (SF1 - AF10)
- New "Disk-Video" (and RAM-Video and Expanded-RAM video) modes
(no particular graphics adapter required for these modes)
- Lambda Sets now use integer math (with 80386 speedups)
- New "warn=yes" command-line option to eliminate over-writing old
files during save-to-disk operations.
+++ Features new to 7.0 +++
- Restore-From-Disk (from prior Save-To-Disk using version 7.0 or later)
- New Fractal types (Newton/Lambda/Mandelfp/Juliafp/Plasma/Lambdasine)
- Many new Color-Cycling options (for VGA Adapters only)
- New Periodicity Logic (from Mark Peterson)
- Initial Fractal displays recognize (and use) symmetry
- Solid-Guessing option (which is now the default)
- Context-Sensitive Help (press 'h' or '?' at any time)
- Customizable Video Mode Configuration file (FRACTINT.CFG)
- "Batch Mode" option (run from a .BAT file, no keyboard activity rqd)
- Improved Super-VGA Support (with direct video read/writes)
- New (non-standard) 360 x 480 x 256 color mode on a STANDARD IBM VGA!
+++ Features new to 6.x +++
- 32-bit Integer math is now emulated for non-386 processors
- Program name changed (from FRACT386) to reflect the above
- (and, of course, there are just a few more video modes)
+++ Features new to 5.x +++
- Save-to-disk support (using the 's' key)
- New! Improved! (and Incompatible!) Optional Arguments Format
- "Correct" Initial Image Aspect Ratio
- Still more video modes
+++ Features new to 4.x +++
- Mouse Support (by Mike Kaufman) (See the Mouse Notes, below)
- Dynamic Iteration Limits ('<' and '>' keys)
- Color-Cycling ('+' and '-' keys)
- Dual-Pass Mode ('1' and '2' keys)
- More Video Modes, including "tweaked" modes for IBM VGA
and register-compatible adapters
+++ Features new to 3.x +++
- Julia Sets
+++ Features new to 2.x +++
- Zoom and Pan
+++ Features new to 1.x +++
- The original, blindingly fast, 386-specific 32-bit integer algorithm
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This program generates over thirty different types of fractal images.
The title of the program ("fractint") was chosen because it generates
many of its fractal images using 32-bit integer math (rather than the
"traditional" floating point math commonly used by similar programs).
While generating its Mandelbrot and Julia set fractal images (the mainstay
of all fractal programs) the program even uses 16-bit arithmetic for its
initial images ("zoomed-in" images switch over to 32-bit logic as
necessary) so as to run as fast as possible. When run on a 386-based PC
and generating fractal types using integer math, it will use the 32-bit
math specific to that processor - otherwise, it will emulate it using the
generic 16-bit math available on the entire INTEL family (at about 15% of the
speed of the 386-specific math).
The program will work with CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA, "tweaked" VGA, and
many popular super-rez adapters, and can switch display modes on-the-fly for
those adapters capable of multiple emulation. For instance, I can run this
program in any of the IBM CGA/EGA/MCGA/VGA modes on my PS/2 model 80.
The program does not perform any floating point arithmetic during many
of its routines (including its Mandelbrot/Julia set image generation
routines), and does not require an FPU even when it IS using a floating
point algorithm.
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