Category Archives: Updates

News, Updates

Introducing Fractal Serendipity

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Fractal Architect 2 is the full featured fractal flame editor app for creating flame fractal images and create basic video animations from flame fractals.

Fractal Serendipity introduces you to the world of fractal flames and the magnificent images you can create with them. It allows you to quickly create great images and render them with full OpenCL GPU acceleration (requires a Mac with a discrete GPU – other Macs render on the CPU).

Fractal Serendipity offers a subset of the features found in Fractal Architect 2. It let you create randomized new fractals with a good bit of control. Those fractals can then be further refined in the Variants editor.

Fractal Serendipity can be upgraded via its embedded In-app purchase Store to have the exact same features as its peer app, Fractal Architect 2. (Apple’s Mac App Store does not offer any way to offer upgrade pricing when upgrading from one app to another app.) The Store menu opens the embedded store.

These are the upgrade options for Fractal Serendipity you can choose to purchase:

  • Triangle Editor
  • Color Gradient Editor
  • Video Animation, Keyframes, Folios
  • Cross-Breeder

Note that after upgrading Fractal Serendipity with the full feature set of Fractal Architect 2, the app is still Fractal Serendipity, not Fractal Architect 2. However, once fully upgraded, the two apps are functionally the same.

News, Updates

Version 2.4.0 (FireStorm) Release Notes

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Its time for a new release. This was released by Apple on December 12, 2012.

Changes for Version 2.4.0 (FireStorm)

Dedicated to the 360 families that lost their homes from the Waldo Canyon Fire June 2012

Retina Mac optional HiDPI rendering is now supported ========

On Macs with Retina display, you have the option of rendering at 2X HiDPI resolution for slightly better appearance.  Note: rendering these HiDPI resolution windows takes 4X longer to render than at standard resolution.

Default is standard resolution (faster rendering for slightly worse image appearance). You can toggle between Standard and HiDPI (Retina) resolution at any point.

New 2X HiDPI rendering preference on Macs with Retina displays.

On Preview window, you can switch resolutions from Context menu (opened with right mouse button click) or by key shortcut: Cmd-2

When opening an image file on Mac with Retina display, images are displayed at same resolution as Preview app. You can switch the view to standard resolution, so it appears 2X larger.

Continue reading Version 2.4.0 (FireStorm) Release Notes →

News, Updates

Version 2.3.2 update has been released

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Changes for Version 2.3.2 (Folio)

Changes ========

1) Big Change: The Quicklook plugin (that creates thumbnails and Quicklook Previews for the Finder with .flame and .flam3 files) is no longer part of the app.

Apple’s sandboxing requirement for Mac App Store apps forced the plugin’s removal from the app.

You can go here  to download the free plugin installer app: Fractal Quicklook.

2) Nvidia GT 650M GPU (in 2012 Macbook Pros) can now be used for OpenCL rendering.

Continue reading Version 2.3.2 update has been released →

News, Updates

Bug Fix release 2.3.1 – free update on Mac App Store

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Two serious bugs and a number of minor improvements/fixes for the new functionality in the Folio release. This release fixes the blank Preview window bug on Mountain Lion for Macs with Nvidia GPUs.

Changes for Version 2.3.1 (Folio)

Improvements =========

  1. Copy/Paste of multiple keyframes now supported with both Stash and Keyframes window
  2. QuickLook Folio Preview now is same aspect ratio as the first keyframe
  3. QuickLook Preview Image is now rendered when the file is saved or autosaved.

BugFixes ========

  1. Fixes the blank Preview window bug that only happened on Mountain Lion & Macs with Nvidia GPUs.
  2. Fixed crash when generating Random fractals with Make Random window in Lion Full screen mode
  3. Margins for Folio set on the Batch rendering dialog now work right
  4. Fixed creation of Quicklook previews (for Folio & Movie)
  5. CUDA renderer fixes: Batch rendering now can make Folio and/or movie;  Render Direct to Video created video now has correct colors
News, Updates

Release Notes Version 2.3 (Folio)

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Changes for Version 2.3 (Folio)

This release is all about Fractal keyframe collections.

The app has always supported multiple keyframes, but never before with PDF Folios, Loop/Morph Video Animation, or instant Finder Quicklook Preview support. It has been performance optimized for files with thousands of keyframes too.

Big New Features =========

  1. Create lengthy Video Animations from Fractal keyframes.
  2. Create PDF Folios from keyframes
  3. Major improvements for working with fractal keyframe collections instead of just single fractals
  4. Greatly Improved Finder Quicklook support for pre-rendered images, PDF Folios, and Movies

Continue reading Release Notes Version 2.3 (Folio) →

News, Updates

Quick Tour of Version 2.3 (Folio) New Features

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This release was released by Apple to Mac App Store on July 5, 2012.

This release is all about Fractal Collections (often called KeyFrames). These collections can be used as is or they can be the foundation for fractal video animation.

Here is a quick tour of using the Stash to create a new file with a KeyFrame collection in it. We also introduce a new application file type (.fa) which can hold pre-rendered images, PDF Folios, or even Movies. Mac OS X supports all of these media types with Quicklook and the Finder.

Continue reading Quick Tour of Version 2.3 (Folio) New Features →

Updates

Bug fixes in Release 2.2.2 moved to Release 2.3

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Update: This change is now part of version 2.3.0 that was released for sale on the Mac App Store on July 5, 2012 (with a lot of other new features).

On 2012 Macbook Pros, the initial OpenCL driver for the NVIDIA GT 650M GPU was found to be unusable and would cause the Mac to freeze. So this release of Fractal Architect puts this GPU into Quarantine and won’t use it to render with. When Apple fixes the driver bug, the app will be updated so that particular GPU can be used. Its very disappointing as we expect this to be the fasted Mac laptop GPU released to date. The OpenCL CPU renderer is unaffected and renders 25% faster than last years model.

The Intel HD 4000 GPU does not have OpenCL support on Lion according to Apple. (Mountain Lion ???) So the 2012 13″ Macbook Pros and the Macbook Airs do not have GPU rendering support in Mac OS X Lion.

This release has no Retina display related changes. The app does run on the Retina Macbook Pro.

Updates

Release Notes for Version 2.2

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Submitted for review to Apple on April 1st. (Its not an April Fools joke!)

Changes for Version 2.2 

This is customer requested features release – almost all features were requested by various users.

Feature Change  ================

1. New BIG Feature for Render to File: (OpenCL rendering only)

You can stop the render and save the Render State to a file. This allows you to resume the render at a later date.

You can choose to Save all Render State when rendering. This allows you to add more Quality to the render later and experiment with Post processing parameter changes.

2. New Feature : Fractal Stash. Allows you to put your favorite fractals into a Stash window. The thumbnails in the Stash can be saved to a new composite fractal file.

3. New Feature (OpenCL rendering only) : Render State files.  When render state is saved to disk, a new file with  extension .flrs file is created. Finder Quicklook will show the fractal’s thumbnail rendering with a progress bar showing the saved rendering progress. You can open the Render State files from the app – it is a new supported file type.

4. New Feature  (OpenCL rendering only): A new Render State panel shows the saved rendering state and allows you to Resume the render, Post Process again, or view the fractal’s Histogram.

5. New Feature  (OpenCL rendering only): A Histogram Viewer panel shows the fractal histogram (part of the rendering state).

6. Fractal Symmetry is now one of the parameters that can be set for random fractal generation.

7. Gamma threshold is now supported by the OpenCL and CUDA renderers.

8. Variants Editor changes:

a) New Symmetry Tab – see how fractal symmetry variants effect image

a) New Final Transform Tab – experiment with change the final transform

c) Transform Options tab now shows sliders to vary the strength of the variation change for weight, color index, color speed, and variation weight.

9. Image viewer now supports either Actual Size or Size to Fit viewing options.

Continue reading Release Notes for Version 2.2 →

News, Updates

New features in Version 2.2 – Recharger

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Flame Stash

Save your favorite random and variant fractals to the Stash. Makes it easy to cull the best fractals you find and collect them into one place. You can then create a new composite fractal with Stash contents.

Random fractal generation with Symmetry.

You can add Symmetry as a random fractal generation parameter and see how it affects your randomly generated fractals. Here the symmetry was set to 4.

Final Transform and Symmetry Variants
Here we are applying a random combination of Loonie and Handkerchielf variants to the Final Xform:
Here we are looking at random Symmetry variants:
Interrupt Long Renders and Save Render State
You can pause a long render to file which saves the rendering state. This lets you exit the app knowing that you can resume the render at any time.
Rendering state is saved to a new file type (.flrs file ending): i.e. RenderState.flrs
Add Additional Render Quality – Recharge Quality
If you have chosen to save the render state for an image render,
you can inspect the image, choose to add additional quality, and resume the render from its saved state. You can do this as many times as you like.
This incremental rendering capability is a huge time saver.
Post-Process Again
With saved render state, you can tweak the post processing and do it again very quickly. This allows you to make the very best possible image for your fractal.
Histogram Viewer
You can look at the histograms saved in the rendered state:
Finder Quicklook and Thumbnail support for RenderState files
Render State files show a rendering progress bar. See the bottom right thumbnail in the Finder image:
Rendered Image Window now has Size to Fit option
The rendered images can now be viewed at either Actual Size or Sizeed to Fit the viewable area on the display screen.
Bug Fixes
1) Preferences for Preview width and height is fixed.
2) ATI 4670 GPU now supported with OpenCL GPU renders (but not recommended).
3) ATI 4xxxx GPUs now use OpenCL CPU rendering for Finder thumbnail and Quicklook renders. (ATI 4xxxx GPUs render slower than the CPU !)
4) OpenCL Rendering using CPU now checks free memory and tiles as needed.
5) For App Sandboxing compatibility, you first choose the image type to render to before choosing the filename.