Preface

What is ChaosPro?

ChaosPro is a fractal generator with additional features which I felt were omitted in other fractal generator programs.

Well, you’ve perhaps heard this all before?

That seems to be the first sentence in the documentation of almost all fractal generators with the exception of FractInt. Authors say things like: “. . . this is not just a FractInt clone, this is a program which offers some additional features . . .”

I tested dozens of these programs, and I often asked myself as to why the author bothered to write the program? I never saw any important, or otherwise novel, feature which was not included with FractInt. So where are the features which the author mentioned in the first sentence of his documentation; i.e. those which FractInt doesn’t apparently include, but his program does?

Of course all these programs are not just FractInt clones, but the additional ‘features’ which they offer, aren’t worth mentioning. So let me try to convince you, that there are indeed some features in ChaosPro, which make it quite different, and somewhat more powerful, than FractInt.

  • It is free, as is FractInt. You may download the software and copy it, install or deinstall, or simply throw it away and it will still cost you nothing! There’s no $40 shareware fee, nag screens, trial usage time limitations, or registration requirements, and there’s also no advertising banners, secret data transmissions, and any need for people to crack it. Chaos Pro is Freeware, just that.
  • It runs in a graphically based operating environment such as Win95/98/NT.
  • It does not monopolize the system and a fractal may be calculated whilst one is carrying out other work.
  • It uses multi-threading and multi-windowing. You can therefore calculate several fractals each in its own window, all at the same time. The GUI is based on normal windows, not dialogue boxes. So you can change a window parameter and you do not have to close that window to proceed with the calculation. It’s really sad that there are programmers who think that opening and closing a dialogue box is the only way of inputting user information.
  • It can calculate 24 bit images, if you instruct it to do so. If the display is in high color /true color mode, then the fractals can be drawn in high/true color. If the display is in palette mode (8 bit), the user can choose to emulate 24 bit by dithering (although this will result in a loss of speed).
  • ChaosPro can create 3D views from 2D fractals.
  • ChaosPro can also create animations. ChaosPro can not only create simple zoom and pan types of animations, but also create a 3D animation where, for example, the angle of the “incident” light might move around while the subject’s colour gradually changes from red to green, and the observer ‘zooms’ more closely into the subject whilst the subject is changing in shape.
  • ChaosPro has a formula editor, so you can create your own formulas. The formula editor can read most of the FractInt (*.frm) formula files, so you can also use your existing formulas. Starting with V2.1, ChaosPro has a new formula compiler which is much faster than the previous formula interpreter and, whereas the formula syntax has been changed, many older formulas such as those used by FractInt (*.frm), earlier versions of ChaosPro, and UltraFractal types (including transformations and colourings) are all automatically converted.
  • Supported fractal types include:
    • 24 bit Julia
    • 24 bit Mandel
    • Julia (normal, i.e. not 24 bit, only 256 colors)
    • Mandel (normal, i.e. not 24 bit, only 256 colors)
    • Formula type
    • Bifurcation
    • Plasma
    • Dynamic System (Lorenz/Roessler)
    • Lyapunov space
    • LSystem
    • IFS
    • Escapetime: Almost all types based on iterating a point and checking whether it gets trapped by some orbit. This type is based on formulas (thus you can calculate almost all such fractals, but you have to write a formula first).

I hope that these “key” features have left you suitably impressed and that you will give ChaosPro a try. Perhaps you like this program.

And I really think, that ChaosPro offers some features, which aren’t found in other fractal generators available to users of the IBM-compatibles. I very rarely viewed a real 24 bit image from another program. These often claim to create 24 bit images but, so long as the colouring schema is based on the number of iterations, the image will look almost identical to a standard 256 color image. Only a few other programs are capable of generating 3D transformations, and easily created animations, etc…

You might well ask why I make my fractal generator program freely available to a wider audience? It all began with an interest in fractals and I gradually found that I became more interested in the theory side of things, and the use of applied mathematics to generate the fractals. Having produced an enhanced fractal generator program, I felt that it would be rather sad if my program quietly faded into relative obscurity, without giving other people the chance of experiencing it for themselves.

Preface