Fractal Architect 3 Help Index

Image File Rendering Panel

Applies to:FAFA 3DFA 3D-AV

Tutorial: Basic Rendering Tutorial

Article: Exhibition Image Rendering

The Render panel allows you to render a fractal image to a file. That file can be a:

• PNG file
• JPEG file
• TIFF file
• JPEG–2000 file
• BMP file

Rendering Panel Sections

1. Basic Rendering Settings
2. Tiling
3. Renderer Specific Settings
4. Render Progress
5. Color Space and Rendering Intent settings
6. Start/Cancel/Pause a Render.

Render Panel Sections

Basic Render Settings

To start a render to file, the only required items are the image width, image height, and rendering quality.

If you change the aspect ratio from the the Preview window’s current aspect ratio, the image will be rendered with the new aspect ratio. In general, changing the aspect ratio with the Preview window first gives you the most control and also allows you to reposition the fractal better for the new aspect ratio. Then what you see is what you get from the render.

Width (Required)

Fractal image width in pixels - the value to be stored in the file.

Height (Required)

Fractal image height in pixels - the value to be stored in the file.

Aspect ratio lock/unlock Button

When locked, changes to either height or width also changes width or height respectively. The aspect ratio is unchanged. When unlocked, the aspect ratio (width/height) can vary.

Quality (Required)

Rendering Quality (# of iterations per pixel)

Actual Quality

OpenCl renderers render in batches, which has a coarser granularity than quality.

Transparent Background

Make the background transparent.

Scaling Quality Adjustment

When selected, quality is adjusted for the fractal Scale parameter value.

Aspect ratio setting

Click to select either a common aspect ratio or a custom one.

Aspect ratio horizontal/vertical orientation

Toggle between either a horizontal or vertical orientation.

Tiling Settings

Fractal Architect provides tiling support by the OpenCL renderer. Tiling allows you to create huge images.

Tiles (not editable)

Number of tiles the render area will be broken into (if needed).

Tile Memory Limit

If not overridden, reports the memory consumed for a single tile. When overridden, it is the maximum amount of memory that can be consumed when rendering a single tile.

Override Checkbox

When checked it allows you to specify a lower Tile Memory limit (which can lead to more tiles).

Renderer Specific Settings

A handful of rendering related settings can be locally overridden here. Which ones are available for tweaking depends on the actual renderer used.

Super Sample Width (OpenCL & CUDA renderers)

Controls anti-aliasing.

Filter (Flam3)

Supersample reduction filter. Affects how multiple pixel values are reduced to one.

Supersample (Flam3)

Render to an integral multiple of the image size. The final image is reduced back to the target image size.

Early Clip (Flam3)

Prevents color shifts due to color channel clipping. Scales all channel if clipping happens.

Rendering Progress

Shows render progress and render time so far and the expected render time remaining.

Progress

Rendering Progress (includes all tiles).

Render Time So Far

Shows the time spent in the main iterative rendering loop.

Render Time Left

Shows the render time left in the main rendering loop.

Color Space and Rendering Intent settings

This section allows you to select a specific Color space and Rendering Intent for the render. This affects the color brilliance of the final image. Most users just select Adobe RGB colorspace and Preserve Saturation rendering intent. See:Colorspaces & Rendering Intent.

Start/Cancel/Pause a Render

These are the buttons to Start a render, Cancel an in-progress render, or Pause an in-progress render.

Continuous Rendering

Continuous rendering renders continuously from one Quality checkpoint to the next. The Quality checkpoints are at: 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, …

At each checkpoint, the fractal image is updated and the prior quality/current quality images are show in a double paned window. The left pane is the higher quality rendering and the right pane is the lower quality rendering.

The render never stops until you tell it to and then it will stop at the next checkpoint.

FAQ

How do I find how long it took to render an image?

Render times for Image file generation and print jobs are shown in the Fractal Architect log window.

What is the biggest image that can be rendered?

Fractal Architect supports very large fractal images by splitting large images into separate tiles, rendering them one at a time, and combining the tile set into the final image. The seams between the tiles are alpha blended to hide the random noise discontinuity in areas with low density.

Tiling is automatic. When image rendering requires more memory than is available, it splits the image into slightly overlapping tiles that are rendered separately. The seam overlaps are alpha blended to hide the random noise discontinuity across tiles in low density areas.

You can check the Tiling Override checkbox and then specify a smaller tile memory limit. This lower memory limit may reduce the load on the system.

What resolution should my Image files be for optimal printing?

See: How To print Fractals and Image Files.