Version 16.12, 8/91
Fix to cure some video problems reported with Amstrad 8088/8086-based
PCs.
Version 16.11, 7/91
SuperVGA Autodetect fixed for older Tseng 3000 adapters.
New "adapter=" options to force the selection of specific SuperVGA
adapter types. See Video Parameters (p. 134) for details.
Integer/Floating-Point math toggle is changed only temporarily if
floating-point math is forced due to deep zooming.
Fractint now survives being modified by McAfee's "SCAN /AV" option.
Bug Fixes for Acrospin interface, 3D "Light Source Before
Transformation" fill type, and GIF decoder.
New options in the <Z> parameters screen allow you to directly enter
image coordinates.
New "inside=zmag" and "outside=real|imag|mult|summ" options.
The GIF Decoder now survives reading GIF files with a local color map.
Improved IIT Math Coprocessor support.
New color-cycling single-step options, '<' and '>'.
Version 16.0, 6/91
Integrated online help / fractint.doc system from Ethan Nagel. To
create a printable fractint.doc file see Startup Parameters (p. 122)
.
Over 350 screens of online help! Try pressing <F1> just about
anywhere!
New "autokey" feature. Type "demo" to run the included demo.bat and
demo.key files for a great demonstration of Fractint. See Autokey
Mode (p. 89) for details.
New <@> command executes a saved set of commands. The <b> command has
changed to write the current image's parameters as a named set of
commands in a structured file. Saved sets of commands can
subsequently be executed with the <@> command. See Parameter
Save/Restore Commands (p. 30). A default "fractint.par" file is
included with the release.
New <z> command allows changing fractal type-specific parameters
without going back through the <t> (fractal type selection) screen.
Ray tracer interface from Marc Reinig, generates 3d transform output
for a number of ray tracers; see "Interfacing with Ray Tracing
Programs" (p. 117)
Selection of video modes and structure of "fractint.cfg" have changed.
If you have a customized fractint.cfg file, you'll have to rebuild
it based on this release's version. You can customize the assignment
of your favorite video modes to function keys; see Video Mode
Function Keys (p. 36). <delete> is a new command key which goes
directly to video mode selection.
New "cyclerange" option (command line and <y> options screen) from
Hugh Steele. Limits color cycling to a specified range of colors.
Improved Distance Estimator Method (p. 91) algorithm from Phil
Wilson.
New "ranges=" option from Norman Hills. See Logarithmic Palettes and
Color Ranges (p. 93) for details.
type=formula definitions can use "variable functions" to select sin,
cos, sinh, cosh, exp, log, etc at run time; new built-ins tan, tanh,
cotan, cotanh, and flip are available with type=formula; see Type
Formula (p. 65)
New <w> command in palette editing mode to convert image to greyscale
All "fn" fractal types (e.g. fn*fn) can now use new functions tan,
tanh, cotan, cotanh, recip, and ident; bug in prior cos function
fixed, new function cosxx (conjugate of cos) is the old erroneous
cos calculation
New L-Systems from Herb Savage
New IFS types from Alex Matulich
Many new formulas in fractint.frm, including a large group from JM
Collard-Richard
Generalized type manzpwr with complex exponent per Lee Skinner's
request
Initial orbit parameter added to Gingerbreadman fractal type
New color maps (neon, royal, volcano, blues, headache) from Daniel
Egnor
IFS type has changed to use a single file containing named entries
(instead of a separate xxx.ifs file per type); the <z> command
brings up IFS editor (used to be <i> command). See Barnsley IFS
Fractals (p. 53).
Much improved support for PaintJet printers; see PaintJet Parameters
(p. 145)
From Scott Taylor:
Support for plotters using HP-GL; see Plotter Parameters (p. 146)
Lots of new PostScript halftones; see PostScript Parameters (p. 143)
"printer=PS[L]/0/..." for full page PostScript; see PostScript
Parameters (p. 143)
Option to drive printer ports directly (faster); see Printer
Parameters (p. 142)
Option to change printer end of line control chars; see Printer
Parameters (p. 142)
Support for XGA video adapter
Support for Targa+ video adapter
16 color VGA mode enhancements:
Now use the first 16 colors of .map files to be more predictable
Palette editor now works with these modes
Color cycling now works properly with these modes Targa video
adapter fixes; Fractint now uses (and requires) the "targa"
and "targaset" environment variables for Targa systems
"vesadetect=no" parameter to bypass use of VESA video driver; try
this if you encounter video problems with a VESA driver Upgraded
video adapter detect and handling from John Bridges; autodetect
added for NCR, Trident 8900, Tseng 4000, Genoa (this code is from a
beta release of VGAKIT, we're not sure it all works yet)
Zoom box is included in saved/printed images (but, is not recognized
as anything special when such an image is restored)
The colors numbers reserved by the palette editor are now selectable
with the new <v> palette editing mode command
Option to use IIT floating point chip's special matrix arithmetic for
faster 3D transforms; see "fpu=" in Startup Parameters (p. 122)
Disk video cache increased to 64k; disk video does less seeking when
running to real disk
Faster floating point code for 287 and higher fpus, for types mandel,
julia, barnsleyj1/m1/j2/m2, lambda, manowar, from Chuck Ebbert
"filename=.xxx" can be used to set default <r> function file mask
Selection of type formula or lsys now goes directly to entry selection
(file selection step is now skipped); to change to a different file,
use <F6> from the entry selection screen
Three new values have been added to the textcolors= parameter; if you
use this parameter you should update it by inserting values for the
new 6th, 7th, 9th, and 13th positions; see "textcolors=" in Color
Parameters (p. 128)
The formula type's imag() function has changed to return the result as
a real number
Fractal type-specific parameters (entered after selecting a new
fractal type with <T>) now restart at their default values each time
you select a new fractal type
Floating point input fields can now be entered in scientific notation
(e.g. 11.234e-20). Entering the letters "e" and "p" in the first
column causes the numbers e=2.71828... and pi=3.14159... to be
entered.
New option "orbitsave=yes" to create files for Acrospin for some types
(see Barnsley IFS Fractals (p. 53), Orbit Fractals (p. 60),
Acrospin (p. 203))
Bug fixes:
Problem with Hercules adapter auto-detection repaired.
Problems with VESA video adapters repaired (we're not sure we've got
them all yet...)
3D transforms fixed to work at high resolutions (> 1000 dots).
3D parameters no longer clobbered when restoring non-3D images.
L-Systems fixed to not crash when order too high for available
memory.
PostScript EPS file fixes.
Bad leftmost pixels with floating point at 2048 dot resolution
fixed.
3D transforms fixed to use current <x> screen float/integer setting.
Restore of images using inversion fixed.
Error in "cos" function (used with "fn" type fractals) fixed; prior
incorrect function still available as "cosxx" for compatibility
Old 3D=nn/nn/nn/... form of 3D transform parameters no longer
supported
Fractint source code now Microsoft C6.00A compatible.