Fractal Farm Help - Readout Screen
The Readout screen gives you an opportunity to modify the color and structure of your fractals, as well as view them at larger size and save them in .png format. On this screen you will find:
- View Large Button: This will open a new window and display the fractal at a size of 800x800 pixels.
- Create .PNG Image File Button: Creates a .png file on the server of the requested size and filename, and opens a new window with a link which will allow you to download it. Note that this feature is only necessary if you require a non-standard image size or are unable to save the images by right clicking on them.
Note: Abuse of this feature could incapactitate the application, so please don't overuse it.
- IFS Data Entry Fields: The Iterative Function Systems that generate the fractals are composed of several pieces of information -
- IFS Level Parameters
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- a background color, entered as separate red, green and blue values, each one a whole number between 0 and 255,
- an Intensity, which affects how many points are calculated when displaying the fractal,
- A selection control for choosing a color Modes
- Minimum and maximum values of the fractal, which (due to how the images are generated) reflect the boundaries of the previous graphing of the fractal,
- and a selection control which indicates whether the Fractal Farm should scrap the existing boundaries and recalculate them from scratch. This will be set to Yes automatically when any parameters or weights are altered.
- AT Level Parameters
- Each IFS is composed of two or more ATs, each of which contains the following information:
- Coefficients A through F, whose purpose is explained in the help screen on Iterative Function Systems,
- a Weighting value P, which determines how dominant the AT will be in any IFS in which it appears,
- and a foreground color, which determines what colors are used in the Transform and Distance color modes.
- Update IFS Name Button: Stores in memory any changes made to the IFS and redraws the fractal. Any changes saved this way alter the data underlying whichever Child or Parent you clicked on to get to this screen.
Here are a few subtleties about the system:
- The first time a fractal is generated after new ATs have been added, or any Coefficients or Weights have been changed, a reduced number of pixels may be calculated. Clicking Save will produce a fuller image.
- You may find that an image has a small number of points a substantial distance away from the main body of the fractal, which reduces the effective magnification. Using the Save feature one or two times may eliminate the "tail" by refining the selection of starting points, and thus result in the program zooming in on the main body of the fractal.
- If you want to try and create a specific color scheme in the Blend color mode, you may find it useful to begin by working in the Transform mode to see where the different colors will tend to dominate.
- If you find that using the Save feature repeatedly is causing the min and max values for X and Y to grow very large (i.e. into scientific notation range), you may as well stop, as the fractal will just zoom out until all you get is a line or a small dot in the center of the screen.