New Features in 20.4.X
This is a developer's "incremental" release. These incremental releases
typically have a short life and are updated frequently. They may have
bug fixes, and thus be more stable, but they may also have new features
which very likely have new bugs.
Version 20.4.5 is an update of Fractint 20.0 based on the developer's
version 20.4.4. New features include:
Patch 5 to Version 20.4.0
Tim's changes (5/29/2006)
Moved version 20.0 change history to revision history to make room for
in help.src.
Changed help screen to show just two main authors - decided better not
to show inactive authors.
Removed commented out complex macros in fractals.c.
Added commented out bf version of Mandelbrot in fractalp.c. Giving
thought to offerring bfmath as an option to bnmath, but if we fix the
current bignum problems, this may be moot.
Added interation to <tab> screen.
Jonathan's changes
Fixed the logic for calculating when to switch from using a grid to
using the on-the-fly calculation of an image's pixels. The logic was
not handling disk video images sized above 2048x2048 with floating
point enabled.
Added the savename to the disk video status screen.
Fixed bug in the compare routine of bn_math that fixes long standing
problem with periodicity checking in deep zoomed images.
Resurrected the documentation for ap_math that was at the beginning of
bignum.c.
Patch 4 to Version 20.4.0
Added minor changes so that Xfractint would compile under Cygwin.
Added lines to the Xfractint makefile (commented out) for compiling in
a 64-bit environment.
Fixed Xfractint so that built in calls to a different map file would
work.
Modified the logic for calculating when to switch from using a grid to
using the on-the-fly calculation of an image's pixels. This affects
how large an image can be made when using integer math. The switch is
now made when (xdots + ydots) * sizeof(long) > 32768.
Pulled the WinFract version 18.21 source into the CVS repository
source tree. This code now runs but still has many many bugs.
Patch 3 to Version 20.4.0
Started the cleanup of the docs. Cleaned up the map directory.
Fixed the Xfractint Makefile so that install would run. Added an
uninstall.
Fixed Xfractint so that it can be run from an arbitrary directory and
still use the directory settings in sstools.ini.
Patch 2 to Version 20.4.0
Fixed the display coordinates so they won't change, after an image had
been zoomed, when the maintain screen coordinates parameter is set to
yes.
Fixed the corner parameter screen and image parameter screen so that
rotating and/or skewing now doesn't get reset when changes are made.
Patch 1 to Version 20.4.0
Added the mathtolerance and orbit_delay parameters to values written to
PARs and GIFs.
Fixed how a mathtolerance parameter with a slash and a second number,
but no first number is read in. The slash was being interpreted as a
double.
Stole the <p> key for use by passes options. If you are brave enough
to try it, printing is still available using <ctl-p>.
Put periodicity and orbit delay on the new <p> screen. There are
currently two drawing modes available for the passes=orbits option.
The rect(angle) method plots the orbits in a rectangle that can be
zoomed, rotated, and skewed using the <F6> corner parameter screen,
and the straight line method plots the orbits between two points
specified on the <F6> corner parameter screen. The orbit interval
parameter plots every nth orbit. The maintain screen coordinates
parameter lets you zoom into an image changing the coordinates of the
line or rectangle used to generate the image, but keeps the display
coordinates, set on the <F2> screen, the same.
Updated the docs for center-mag and corners because center-mag is now
the default.
Restructured the source to make it easier to maintain.
Version 20.4.0
Incremented the version number to accommodate backwards compatibility
for the mandel based per-pixel routines that were not setting the Y
variable.
Added a passes=o option that draws an image by plotting the orbits of
the escape time fractals and leaving them on the screen. This
technique uses the same coordinates to draw an image as the other
passes options, sets "passes=1" and no symmetry, and then plots the
orbits for each pixel. See Drawing Method (p. 86).
Xfractint fixes: Fixed the newton and newtbasin types in Xfractint so
they would work without using the FPU=387 option.
Fixed the Xfractint mandelbrot code in calmanfp.c so that the image
generated matched the one produced by the StandardFractal() routine.
Fixed the outside=sum option when used with the mandel fractal type.
Fixed the command line option -geometry, which broke at 20.2.05.
Patch 2 to Version 20.3.0
Fixed the inability to reload a PAR created from an arbitrary precision
fractal with a large magnification.
Fixed the problem with a left mouse click not bringing up the zoom box
after an image is completed.
Incorporated Gerald Dobiasovsky's fix for the julibrot type when used
with quat and hypercomplex.
Fixed the display of subdirectories in Xfractint.
Replaced control characters in realdos.c with the equivalent ascii
values to quiet complaints by CVS.
Patch 1
Fixed the float bailout for the lambdafn fractal type when the EXP
function is used so the float and integer images match.
Jan Andres contributed Xfractint fixes that allow compiling with newer
versions of gcc because varargs.h is no longer supported. Enabled the
use of the long double type on Solaris. Moved the getwd() macro
definition in prompts1.c after the #include lines, to avoid the mess
that happens when the prototype for getwd() is included but it's
already defined as a macro. Added some Solaris-specific comments to
the Makefile.
Fixed the sound in Xfractint so the beep turns off now.
Changed lsys.c to use inline1 instead of the reserved word inline.
Version 20.3.0
Incremented the version number to accommodate backwards compatibility
for the inside=atan and outside=atan options.
Fixed inside=atan and outside=atan to use the full color palette
instead of limiting to 180 colors.
Added Charlie Chernohorsky's virtual screen zoombox fix. See View
Window (p. 34).
Added Gerald Dobiasovsky's fixes for the demo key files needed because
of menu prompt changes and pan/zoom size changes.
Fixed evolver parameter entry.
Fixed hypercomplex fractal type to turn off symmetry when a cj
parameter is used.
Fixed the plasma type to show the value of the parameter that is
actually used in the image generation.
Fixed the plasma type so that a parameter file uses the colors
included in the parameter entry instead of the default colors.
Revised the plasma type prompt to reflect the values that can actually
be used.
Increased the Lsystem line length from 160 characters to 255
characters.
Fixed the browser so that it recognized the fractal type stored in
images.
Fixed the Xfractint FPUcplxdiv and FPUcplxlog routines in fpu087.c to
match the Fractint assembler code.
Modified the Xfractint resume code to remove the Xfractint specific
sections since they are no longer needed (gcc macros match MSC
macros).
Patch 5
Made changes to allow Xfractint to find files that use upper case
letters.
Fixed a problem with the Cellular type that prevented entering an
initial row of greater than 32767 from working. Added a message about
not being able to resume after interrupting prior to rows being
displayed on screen.
Fixed an evolver bug which caused setting evolver parameters to turn
evolving on, even though evolving was actually turned off.
Added Charlie Chernohorsky's truecolor speed up and his implementation
of virtual screen sizes for the VESA modes (dotmode=28). This feature
does not work consistently between different video cards, so it may be
turned off by using the startup command "virtual=n". Use the <V>
screen to set the desired virtual screen size. See View Window
(p. 34). Please remember that if either X or Y is greater than 2048,
solid guessing is turned off. This is for multiple reasons, so it is
likely it will NOT get fixed soon. There is also a problem with the
colorbars that appear when saving an image leaving bits of corruption
on the screen. This occurs in all the VESA truecolor modes.
Added Charlie to the scrolling list of contributors.
Added Charlie's fix for the l-system type which occurred when a push-
pop combination was on two different lines.
Fixed the PAGE-UP/PAGE-DN zoombox in Xfractint so that it now appears
on the screen. Fixed ranges= in Xfractint so GIFs save correctly and
program doesn't end abruptly.
Patch 4
Modified the Xfractint makefile and source files to allow compiling
without an assembler.
Patch 3
This patch ran the Xfractint code through -Wall to clear up most of the
warnings. Updated the Xfractint man page. Turned on compiler
optimizations.
Fixed the documentation for the Latoocarfian fractal type thanks to
comments by Pierre Desjardins on the Fractint Bug List.
Patch 2
This patch adds the assembly language version of the mandelbrot code to
Xfractint. To use it, it is necessary to place the command line
switch fpu=387 in your sstools.ini file. The NASM assembler was used,
but if you don't have it available, not to worry, the object file is
included.
Modified the Xfractint C mandelbrot code to match the assembly
version.
Patch 1
Made a small change to the quickcalc logic used to recalculate the
inside pixels only when the iteration count is increased with a
completed image. Interrupting and resuming the calculation was
leaving extra pixels on the screen.
Patched the Xfractint fractint.h file to match the DOS version.
Fixed an Xfractint problem with color depths greater than 16 bits per
pixel.
Version 20.2.0
Incremented the version number to accommodate backwards compatibility
for the logmap option.
Modified the logmap routine so that the color with index # 2 would be
displayed.
Added a logmode=auto command line option that causes the logmap to
adjust automatically when zooming. Changing almost anything will turn
this feature off. It is best set using the <g> screen prompt.
Edited the help docs to document the move of the development area from
Compuserve to the web.
Patch 13
Added parameters p4 and p5 to the evolver. This required splitting the
tweak central screen into two pages.
Fixed an evolver bug that was causing the evolver to not exit cleanly.
Changed the compile options on evolve.c to eliminate aliasing, which
started to cause problems with this patch.
Patch 12
Fixed a problem with a finished image not redrawing if the maxiter was
increased and another parameter was changed.
Added checks for p3, p4, and p5 to the browser for determining similar
images.
Xfractint fixes: Fixed the command line -disk segmentation fault.
Fixed the Shell to Linux/Unix segmentation fault and the displayed
prompt.
Fixed the bug causing colors= data to be incorrect when in a truecolor
mode.
Removed or commented out extra lines of code and some experimental
routines. Some of this code was stealing key strokes.
Changed the prompt for getting to the second <TAB> screen.
Patch 11
Fixed a bug that caused a panned image to miss part of a line when the
image was panned while the first row was being generated.
Adjusted the time for keyboard checks when the showdot feature is
used. Now the iterations stop much quicker when a key is pressed.
Fixed a problem with the float-only version that appeared when an
incomplete image was saved and restarted in the standard version.
Fixed a problem in Xfractint pointed out by Ken on the Fractint bug
list.
Patch 10
Took out a sanity check in the VESA detection routines that certain
graphics cards don't pass, but work fine anyway.
Patch 9
Fixed evolver bug that occurred when some formula functions were evolved
and others were not being evolved.
Fixed a bug in the float-only version which truncated the image
coordinates when saved to a PAR.
Patch 8
Added truecolor support to Fractint thanks to Bert Tyler. While in a
truecolor mode, the following features are disabled/changed:
Color Cycling
Palette Editor brings up the contents of the MAP directory
Saving the image still only produces a 256 color GIF
Removed Bert's truecolor test code used with the test fractal type.
Patch 7
Fixed a bug which caused the float only version to omit the name of the
formula/lsystem/ifs in saved GIFs. Fixed the julia_inverse fractal
type broken with the first patch to version 20.0.
Incorporated Gerald Dobiasovsky's fix to make the background= command
work.
Added truecolor support to Xfractint thanks to Rich Thomson and Jean-
Pierre Demailly.
Additional Xfractint fixes include the mandelcloud type and
outside=atan when used with type=mandel.
Patch 6
Once again fixed the assignment of hotkeys to video modes so that the
fractint.cfg file is no longer corrupted. This problem was caused by
the section of code dealing with the true-color video modes.
Patch 5
Updated the disk video help docs. The limit of disk video has been
32767x32767 since version 20.0.
Fixed the tab and evolver screens so that not using formula parameters
consecutively starting with p1 now displays the parameters properly.
The p4 and p5 parameters have still not been added to the evolver.
Setting directories in sstools.ini can now be done relative to the
current directory. For example: .\frm\fract200.frm
Patch 4
Modified the per image startup code for the circle type to turn off the
inside= option if startrail is used. Since the inside=startrail
option was locking up Fractint, no backwards compatibility is
available.
Made changes to the code for how sizeof() was being used. This fixes
a long standing problem with the cellular type in Xfractint.
Modified the hard coded reading of GIF files in Xfractint to eliminate
the error message received after patch 3 changed the fractal_info
structure.
Fixed a problem with the Xfractint parameter, formula, and lsystem
screens.
Patch 3
Fixed the incremental redraw so that interrupting the redraw no longer
sets passes=1.
Added a command line option, nobof=yes, which allows the inside=bof60
and bof61 options to function like the rest of the inside options.
With nobof=yes the images in "The Beauty of Fractals" are no longer
reproduced.
Increased the usable bailout values when using arbitrary precision
math. This is the best I can do with my minimal understanding of the
ap-math routines. If you are seeing extraneous pixels on your ap-math
images when you use a high bailout, lower the bailout until they go
away.
Made a change to the tab display routine to correct a problem with
displaying parameters when returning from the F6 and control-tab
screens.
Patch 2
Backed out the changes to the savegraphics() and restoregraphics()
routines.
Patch 1
Fixed the <TAB> display screen so the video memory doesn't get
overwritten. This clears up the problem with extraneous dots with
some fractal types. It should be possible to remove the textsafe=save
from your sstools.ini file.
Added Iain Stirling to the scrolling credits screen for his
contribution of the inside=fmod and outside=fmod options.
Reworded the error message received when more memory is requested than
is available on your disk drive.
The background= parameter, for 3D TGA files, is now saved to a PAR
entry.
Fixed the error message that appears when a parsing error occurs on
startup.
Cleaned up the savegraphics() and restoregraphics() routines. This
should make them faster.
Version 20.1.0
Incremented the version number to accommodate backwards compatibility
for the inside=fmod option.
Fixed the assignment of hotkeys to video modes so that the
fractint.cfg file is no longer corrupted. Made the showdot= feature
reset with <INS> if it is entered using the <g> screen. Added a check
for the video size before invoking the palette editor. Too small a
size would crash Fractint.
Fixed an extraseg conflict which occurred with arbitrary precision
when the <tab> key was used with various screens open (x,y,b). This
conflict also occurred when loading an ap math image at the video
selection screen. Cleaned up some of the ap math initialization code.
Fixed an obscure bug that left memory allocated when an unfinished
image was being reloaded, but a video mode was not selected (escape
was pressed).
Added outside=fmod option. This is an extension of the inside=fmod
option. The magnitude used for the comparison is now based on the
same calculation as is used for the bailout test. This feature was
contributed by Iain Stirling. There is a problem with the mandel
fractal type when outside=fmod is used with inside=bof6x and
bailoutest=real, imag, or manr. This is likely due to changes made in
the code so that bof images could be reproduced. Select a different
fractal type that produces the default mandel image to explore using
these parameters.
Added outside=tdis option. This colors the pixels according to the
total distance traveled by the orbit. This feature was suggested by
Steve Robinson on the Fractint Wish List.
Modified the inside and outside prompts on the <x> screen. They are
now split into two separate prompts. One for entering a color number
and the other for changing the option. The left and right arrow keys
can now be used to change the inside and outside options.
Fixed a bug that was causing a crash when mathtolerance= was used and
fractal types ifs, ifs3d, or lsystem were selected.
Increased the minimum stack requirement for passes=s (SOI) to
eliminate crashes when the tab key was pressed.
Patch 15
Added a prompt for the periodicity= option to the <y> Extended Options
screen.
Fixed another prompt problem with the stereogram prompt screen. Put
back in the evolver grid size limit based on screen resolution.
Fixed an evolver save problem when a zoom box was present just prior
to the save. Note that the center image cannot be recreated once the
zoom box has been activated. This is not a problem if you are working
from a saved image, just restore it.
Modified the routine that reports a view window that is too large so
that along with the full screen being used, the X and Y dimensions on
the <v> screen reflect the full screen dimensions.
The <v> screen can now be used to set the resolution of disk video
modes. The limit is 32767x32767. First select a disk video mode
using <del>. Then on the <v> screen enter both an X and a Y value.
If you go back to the <del> screen to see if the entry has been
modified (it hasn't), you will get strange results if you don't select
a video mode.
Patch 14
Fixed the generation of random numbers used by the evolver subimages.
Fixed the bug causing completed evolver images to regenerate when
restored.
Patch 13
Added parameters p4 and p5 to the formula parser. Fixed the symmetry
for cases where XAXIS_NOREAL and XAXIS_NOIMAG are used with the
formula parser and multiple parameters are used. Each parameter is
now checked.
Patch 12
Fixed a 3D error introduced with patch 11. Fixed the stereogram screen
prompts to prevent out of bounds array accesses.
Patch 11
Fixed an off by one error in the Xfractint type=julia code. Fixed the
case where the second image would not finish generating when the 3D
parameter Stereo=photo or stereo pair was used with an orbit type such
as Lorenz.
Patch 10
Fixed some user interface prompts that were wrong in Xfractint. Merged
the Xfractint version system with Fractint's. Thanks to Scott Boyd for
these changes.
Patch 9
Fixed a bug that occurred when maxhistory=0 was used. Fixed a bug that
occurred when ismand was used in a formula and ctrl <o> was pressed.
Patch 8
Fixed a bug causing a lock up with lsystem and ifs fractal types when
using a disk video mode with an X or Y resolution greater than 2048.
Patch 7
Updated Xfractint, copyright notice.
Patch 6
Fixed fractint.cfg problems with extra commas or long lines. This allows
the output of makefcfg from certain video boards to be used without
editing.
Added center, magxmag, and rotskew constants to parser. See Center-Mag
Predefined Variables (p. 66)
Patch 5
Added new command truemode=iter, which is used to switch the ouput to
the truecolor Targa file to the number of iterates for each pixel.
Made selecting the evolver feature turn off truecolor=yes. Each
subimage was being generated as a separate blank Targa file.
Patch 4
Fixed the type=test bug.
Patch 3
Fixed a bug in the pentium mandelbrot code that affected periodicity
checking. Fixed a problem with skewed zoom boxes leaving dots on the
screen. This also fixed browser boxes with the same problem. Fixed
the zoom box so it is visible in 2-color modes.
Patch 2
Fixed a bug in the formula parser.
Patch 1
Fixed the 2 and 16 color disk-video modes. Using truecolor=yes now
results in writing a fractxxx.tga file instead of iterates.tga. This
is not the same thing, so if somebody wants the output of the
iterates.tga file, let us know. Fixed the 3D targa modes.
For information on previous versions, see Revision History (p. 204).