ÖÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÒÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄ¿ ÖÄÒÄ¿ ÖÄÄ¿ Ò º ³ º ÇÄÂÙ ÇÄÄ´ º º ÇÄÄ´ º ÇÄÄÄÄÄ´ ÇÄÄ Ð Á Ð Á ÓÄÄÙ Ð Ð Á ÐÄÄÙ º ³ º Ð Á Ð ÒÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Ä· Ú ÒÄÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ ÄÒÄ ÒÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ º ÖÐÂÙ ÇÄÄÙ ÇÄ ÇÄÂÙ º ÇÄ º ³ º ÇÄ ÇÄÄ ½ ÀÄ Ð ÐÄÄÙ Ð Á ÄÐÄ ÐÄÄÙ Ð Á ÓÄÄÙ ÐÄÄÙ º By: David Wright 6/96 ÐÄÄÄÄÄÙ wgwright@mnsinc.com -------------------------------------------------- ----> What is it? A Fractal Experience is an instructional program designed to give students a basic understanding behind the amazing phenomenon of fractals. It may be freely distributed as an educational resource. Additions to the package are appreciated, but please send all additions to the below address so they will be included in later releases. -------------------------------------------------- ----> Who is it for? While anyone can use the program and get an appreciation of the beauty of fractals, a strong math background is required to understand the mathematics taking place behind them. Any student who has taken Algebra I or higher should be able to get a basic understanding of the process. Students who have taken Algebra II should be able to understand all the math that is used. -------------------------------------------------- ----> Who wrote it? It was written during the '95-'96 school year by Computer Science I student David Wright. It is 99% pascal and 1% ASM. The source code may be obtained upon request if you are interested. You may contact David at: wgwright@mnsinc.com or David Wright c/o C.D. Hylton High School 14051 Spriggs Rd Woodbridge VA 22193 Any other comments are appreciated as well. -------------------------------------------------- ----> What do I need to run it? If it runs, it runs, but here is what is recommended: * A 486 DX or faster PC with a Math-Coprocessor * 640K RAM * A VESA Compatible Video Card * A 2 button Mouse * DOS 4.0 or later (6.22 or 7.0 are OK) * An open mind -------------------------------------------------- ----> How does it work? To use the program, simply copy all the program files into a directory and run frac11.exe It is a DOS programs, but should run in Windows 95 and OS/2, although it will run slower. After the title screen you are presented with a list of options: -Teach Me Used to display lessons relating to fractal topics. Several lessons are included, but others can easily be added. Simply create a .ftf file in the format described below and place it in the directory. Select "other" from the teach me menu to load it. -Show Me Used to display interactive slide-show type presentations of fractals. Other lessons can easily be added by adding on to the existing .fee files or creating new ones. See the .fee format described below. -Let me Play Allows the user to display a fractal and interact with it. They are given choices including: Fractal type Resolution Number of iterations (if applicable) Complex constant (if applicable) Window size Each option has a default value. Hitting [ENTER] will use the default. Once the user is in the drawing screen, the following options are available: While the fractal is being drawn: Any key: Stop the fractal graphing, You will be left at the interactive screen At the interactive screen: Left Mouse: A box will be started at the current cursor position, drag to the size of the area you want to zoom to and release. Right Mouse: Quit to main menu or proceed with example file. [ESC] or [Q]: Quit [BACKSPACE]: Zoom out by a factor of 10x ']': Zoom out by a factor of 5x [ENTER]: Load another palette, every fourth palette is random. [SPACE]: Change the mouse cursor. [C]: Start color cycling mode In color cycling mode: [+]: Speed up [-]: Slow down [ENTER]: New palette Any other key: Stop cycling -Exit -------------------------------------------------- ----> I meant, how does it draw the fractals? Be sure to see the included lessons on fractals to learn how. -------------------------------------------------- ----> How far can I zoom in? A LOOOOONG way. Let me put it this way: You can zoom in on an ELECTRON sized portion of the original fractal until it is the size of THE ENTIRE VISIBLE UNIVERSE (obviously you would be viewing only a small portion of it on your screen) How can you tell you have reached the zoom limit? The screen will get very blocky and will not be refined any more as you zoom in. If you continue to zoom in, you may get a program error. So don't. -------------------------------------------------- ----> What file formats are used? The primary formats used by the program are .pcx .map .ftf and .fee .pcx - PC Paintbrush graphics format, Version 5 (256 colors RLE compressed) Can be displayed as part of a .ftf or .fee file. Must be one of the following resolutions: 320 x 200, 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 NOTE: Higher resolutions may take 15-30 seconds to display, be patient! .map - Color palette file, 256 lines each with 3 numbers 0 - 255 representing the red blue green values of each color. .ftf - Fractal Experience instructional/informational file. It is an ASCII text file using the following extended codes: |c : Change color to c, c can be: r - red g - green w - white a - gray y - yellow @PAUSETEXT : Insert a pause with PAUSETEXT displayed \file.fee : Load example file file.fee ~file.pcx : Display a PCX graphic file. ` : Use forward apostrophe for a literal character (i.e. don't interpret next character - `@, `\, etc.) Be sure to see the included .ftf files for clarification. .fee - Fractal Experience Example/Slide show file. The .fee file is a text file with the descriptions of fractals to be displayed. Each .fee file can have 1-10 examples, each with 1-10 slides. You can have as many .fee files as you wish. The following is the format used: ---BEGIN FILE--- @ - Begin record [SHORTNAME] # - # is the field delimiter [LONGNAME] # [Description As many lines as you want. You may use the .ftf format extended codes to enhance readability or embed .pcx files Then up to 10 slides in the following format:] # interactive (1 = yes, 0 = no) color map file (default.map or other) type (m,j,p) top-left-X top-left-Y bottom-right-X bottom-right-Y real-part complex-part maxiterations # [Slide text As many lines as you want Displayed on graphic screen after fractal is drawn] # Begin next slide here with 1 or 0 for interactive After 1-10 slides in this format, conclude with # ---END FILE--- Be sure to see the included .fee files for clarification. -------------------------------------------------- ----> Is creating .fee files really that tough? Unfortunatly, right now, it pretty much is. Later I hope to have an interactive editor for them to ease creation. There is one included tool to help in creation If you run fexp11.exe with the -debug parameter e.g.> fexp11.exe -debug It will create a file called debug.out (or append it if it already exists) which contains a record of all the Let Me Play! explorations you did It looks like this: # m -2.50000000000000E+0000 1.50000000000000E+0000 1.50000000000000E+0000 -1.50000000000000E+0000 0.00000000000000E+0000 0.00000000000000E+0000 40 # m -1.05799373040752E+0000 4.29648241206030E-0001 -4.93730407523511E-0001 7.53768844221106E-0003 0.00000000000000E+0000 0.00000000000000E+0000 40 These are the exact lines that are used in the .fee file. You can then insert those lines into the .fee file you are writing. All you have to do is fill in the other information. -------------------------------------------------- ----> Could you repeat that? No, try the program, then read it all again. It will make more sense the second time. -------------------------------------------------- ----> Where can I go for further information? You local or school library is sure to have many different books on fractals. If you are looking for online resources, check out the Fractal Experience Page at: http://www.mnsinc.com/wgwright/fracexp ---------------Copyright 1996--------------------- ----------------David Wright---------------------- -------------wgwright@mnsinc.com------------------