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Overview |
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GCE |
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Version 2 |
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FractalNet |
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PSD (Second Life) |
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Marble Challenge |
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ASCIIroids |
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Gravity Bubbles |
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EcoSim |
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Cosmic Dust |
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LandMesh |
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Imagencrypter |
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TrainMapper |
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Foxy Detector |
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MacDiff |
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Asteroid Belt |
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Matrix Attack |
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Solar Swarm |
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Tools |
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Names :-) |
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FractalNet
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Sorry, FractalNet
is not yet available
for public download.
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FractalNet is
a distributed fractal
renderer I wrote, which generates images and videos of
the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. It
consists of about 630 lines of C code for fast iteration of the Mandelbrot formula,
and about 3,900 lines of Java code for the remainder of the
functionality. Java Native Interface (JNI) is used to connect the C and Java code together.
2010: A Mandelbrot Odyssey
This is my longest and most complicated fractal video so far. It required 104,066 billion iterations, and took 14 days 13 hours 6 minutes to render.
The video is, of course, inspired by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. For the title sequence,
I tried to find a section of the Mandelbrot set which resembles the alignment of the Moon, Earth and Sun in the title sequence of 2001:
Click on the image above to see a larger version.
Other videos
Please click on the tabs below to view the available videos.
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A slow deep zoom into the Mandelbrot set. The original 1920x1080 HD version of this video required a total of 90,459 billion iterations (an average of 26.8 billion iterations per frame). It took 12 days 1 hour 17 minutes to render on my 2.4GHz iMac.
A morphing Julia set, with a transitioning colour scheme and a 180° rotation. This video required a total of 890 billion iterations (an average of 444 million iterations per frame). Also see Video 5.
Zooming out of a rainbow-coloured Mandelbrot set. This video required a total of 1,455 billion iterations (an average of 484 million iterations per frame).
A “Google Earth” style flight across the Mandelbrot set. This video required a total of 3,819 billion iterations (an average of 1.9 billion iterations per frame).
This is the same as Video 2, but with a second view in the bottom-right corner showing the Mandelbrot set. The white crosshair indicates the coordinates used to create the main Julia set. As the crosshair moves across the Mandelbrot set, the Julia set morphs.
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More non-HD videos are available on Vimeo and
YouTube.
My HD videos have been included in the HD Fractal Trips group on Vimeo:
I highly recommend you check out this group, which contains dozens of amazing fractal videos in 1280x720 high-definition.
Images
Please click on the tabs below to view the available images. Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image.
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The full-size images are displayed using Lytebox. |
Features
Some of FractalNet’s features include:
- Image output in lossless PNG format.
- HD (high definition) video output
in QuickTime format,
using QuickTime for Java.
- High levels of anti-aliasing for super-smooth images.
- Smooth gradient colouring (instead of separate regions of uniform colours), using
a fully-renormalised fractional iteration count.
 A
simple “fractal browser” (click here for a screenshot),
which allows a user to easily explore the fractals, and view the Julia set corresponding to a particular point in the Mandelbrot set. Clicking on a point
centres the image on that point, and zooms in/out if specified. Changes in the colour scheme are updated in real-time, without needing to re-render the fractals.
- Generation of videos, using the following techniques:
- Panning around a fractal.
- Zooming in/out of a fractal.
- Rotating a fractal.
- Colour cycling.
- Transitioning from one colour scheme to another.
- Morphing a Julia set, by tracing a path through the Mandelbrot set.
- A Google Earth style of parabolic flight path between two locations in a fractal – the
“camera” zooms out from the initial location, until both the initial and final locations can be seen in the same shot, and then zooms in to the final location.
- Fast detection of “black areas” (where the iterations never escape to infinity), to speed up rendering by eliminating unnecessary
calculations. See below for more info ↓
- Able to resume rendering a video from a specified frame, if rendering needs to be stopped for some reason.
- Distributed generation of videos,
using Java RMI. A master computer and an unlimited number of slave computers are
connected together using a TCP/IP network, and the master uses the slaves to render specific frames of the video. If the slaves return their frames in the wrong order (ie.
because one slave is faster than another), the master rearranges the frames before writing them to the final video.
- Use of a plain text configuration file, which stores all the parameters for an image or video in a user-friendly, human-readable format.
When rendering a Mandelbrot or Julia set, the most time-consuming parts of the image are the “black areas”. In these areas, the iterations never escape to infinity, so
every pixel must be iterated to the maximum limit. Therefore, much time can be saved by using an algorithm to detect these areas in advance, so that they can be immediately coloured black,
rather than rendering them in the normal way, pixel by pixel.
FractalNet uses a recursive algorithm to split the image up into blocks, and tests each block to see whether it lies inside a “black area”. In this way,
large areas of the image can be quickly coloured black, often saving a lot of rendering time.
Below is an example of FractalNet’s algorithm in action. Green blocks were detected as “black areas” and
coloured black immediately, without having to be rendered. Red blocks were rendered in the normal way, pixel by pixel.
Animation is loading. It’s size is 404KB, so please be patient. It will be displayed above once it’s loaded.
Animation has finished loading, and should be displayed above.
Sorry, an error occurred while loading the animation. Please try again by clicking here.
Buddhabrot
I’ve also implemented a simple Buddhabrot renderer in Java, which can either use the simple greyscale algorithm,
or a rainbow algorithm by Paul Nylander.
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| Simple greyscale Buddhabrot with a slight blue tint |
Rainbow Buddhabrot (shallow iterations) |
Rainbow Buddhabrot (deep iterations) |
Referrers
Links
Edd
11 Jul 2009
United Kingdom |
Wow! If you commercialised this program you'd make a mint!
Email me at epb dot epb dot epb at btinternet dot com (sorry, don't like spam) if you do! |
Jim
26 Oct 2009
Belgium |
So where is the download link? |
Michael Hogg
12 Dec 2009 |
Sorry Jim, FractalNet is not yet ready for public download. |
Brian
3 Mar 2010
United States |
I just got your comment on youtube. Your newest video is amazing. Will this software eventually be available for windows-based computers? I know that might take a lot more re-coding and programming but it would be great to use this program. I would like to see how long of a zoom I could do, and of course I will give you credit, since you programmed this application yourself. I imagine it took you quite some time. Keep up the good work! |
DJT
3 May 2010
United Kingdom |
Just watched the Odyssey vid and WOW!!! The best Mandelbot animation I've ever seen. Incredibly beautiful and so well put together. Opening sequence caused goosebumps and tear in eye!
Fast zooms are ok but give the impression of flying through rather than zooming in on finer and finer detail like yours do. Thankyou so much for sharing these creations.
Is there any way I can download them to watch in even better quality on a big screen? |
Michael Hogg
7 May 2010 |
Many thanks for commenting, DJT! Most of my HD fractal videos, including "2010", were rendered at 720p, so I don't have any higher-resolution versions of those available. However, when I get a moment of free time, I'll make some higher-quality (less compressed) versions available for download... watch this space! |
sackboy
17 May 2010
United States |
Hey Michael do you think it's possible to upload a higher quality version of the middle picture in the 2001: A Space Odyssey collage? That movie is my all-time favorite and I absolutely love that revision but the lower quality means it doesn't make for a good desktop wallpaper. |
Michael Hogg
13 Jun 2010 |
Hi sackboy! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply - I was on holiday! I've uploaded the highest resolution version of the middle 2001 picture here. The fractal is nice and sharp, but I'm afraid the 2001 title is a little blurry (it's taken from the DVD). If you know where I could get an HD (Blu-ray) capture of the 2001 title, then I could make a better quality version! |
Daniel
22 Jun 2010
Brazil |
Please! Make it public! This software must be amazing!!! |
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