Fractal Architect 4 Help Index

Whats New in Fractal Architect ver 4.3

Applies to:FA 4

New Features

New Render Modes

• Normal, Transparent, Composite over Background Image, Composite Over Color

Drag and Drop any image (even other fractals) to make it the Background image (for compositing).

Control transparent image’s alpha mask using new AlphaGamma parameter.

Preview window has fixed aspect ratio for fractals with composited background image - same aspect ratio as the background image.

Render to File dialog boxes show the compositing background images width and height (and sets the output image’s width and height to the same values.

Deep Variation Group Chains

• Many New Fractal Shapes Possible Through Both Serial and Parallel Combination of Geometric Variation Types
• Full cross breeding support for deep variation chains.
• New Lua variant scripts allow you to easily try them out.

Matrix Variations

• Matrix Variations are special variation types - fully supported throughout the app

• New transform matrix variation types:

  • matrix2d
  • pre_matrix2d
  • post_matrix2d
  • matrix3d
  • pre_matrix3d
  • post_matri32d

• All variation sets now automatically have these extra variation types added to them

  no need to convert existing ones, they will be upgraded when the app opens.

• Use Triangle Editor to change them just like standard transform pre/post matrixes

• New animation category for them - animation configurator now has a familiar Triangle editor to configure them.

Create List of Lua Variant Scripts to Run

• Create a list of Lua variant scripts to run - instead of just one variant script.
• You can now create a list of variation scripts to apply at a time (instead of just a single one) It really helps Variants and random fractal creation.

Turning Off the GPU Device Quarantine

• Enforce Quarantine added to Preferences window and GPU configuration window shown at startup after crash.
• You can choose to try and render with quarantined GPUs throughout the entire app now - not just GPU trial.

Density Estimation Radius

• Density Estimation now supports variable DE radius, instead of a fixed radius.

Max radius depends on the GPU - on AMD, the max radius is 14, on 2012 and later Nvidia GPUs, the max radius is 19.

DE radius is important for fractals rendered on light backgrounds like the new composite image over a solid color.

Default DE radius is 7 which is the same as it has always been.

Fractal Architect 4 - CUDA

CUDA support (but not in Mac App Store app) in new Fractal Architect 4 - CUDA app. Using CUDA requires a 2012 or later Nvidia GPU model.

Triangle Editor Changes

*You can now edit the matrix2d, pre_matrix2d, and post_matrix2d matrix using the triangle editor.

Just click on the correct variation name and select “Variation” on the “Which triangle to show” selector. Pre, post, and variation triangles have different color

• Removed limitation on number of variation parameters when creating new variation set
• Added + and - buttons to variation list on Triangle editor - alternative to using weights to add a variation instance

Other Changes

• Eliminated video flickering with 2 GPU rendering. Special notes for 2013 Mac Pro with twin GPUs.

• Triangle editor popover added to all Animation configurator Matrix panes.

Many New Lua Scripts

randomizeChains.lua

randomizes the variation groups in a chain, but does add new matrix2d groups - 50% chance

randomizeStraightChains.lua

randomizes the variation groups in a chain, but does NOT add new matrix2d groups

prependNewPreGroup.lua

prepend a new empty Pre variation group

appendNewPreGroup.lua

append a new empty Pre variation group

prependNewPostGroup.lua

prepend a new empty Post variation group

appendNewPostGroup.lua

append a new empty Post variation group

Lua Engine changes:

• support for matrix2d, pre_matrix2s, post_matrix2d

  they all have a coefs table with matrix parameters (just like xform pre-matrix)

For example this is the variation table for matrix2d variation:

    matrix2d = { name="matrix2d", weight=1., coefs=makeCoefs() }

• Lua generated error messages are now logged to system log, so you can use the Console app to see them.
• Lua Engine has new flame parameters: alpha_gamma, render_mode, composite_color, and background_image_url.

Bug Fixes =======

• Fixed bug where variation weight animations were not being restored when loading a sequence from file.

• Bug fixes for float/int Varpar animations - special care for XML attribute syntax rules - #’s are illegal in attribute string values.

• Bug Fix: SelectVariationSet popover now shows the correct ordering of pre and post variations.

• Bug fix for GPU Trial Window not showing Metal devices when enforce quarantine is OFF.

• Bug Fix: Changes made to a fractal thru the Preview window are now mirrored in the Frame Batch window.

• Bug Fix: For NAN when interpolating camera orientation between two Gimbal locked positions.

• Bug Fix: For video flickering when rendering with 2 GPUs.

• Bug Fix: Creating movies from 16 bit depth PNG image sequence now works.