Release Notes

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Fractal Science Kit Release Notes

Changes in Release 1.11 (3/30/2009)

  • Reworked several dialogs for compatibility with a wide range of displays.
  • Added support for scale factors 13-16 to Generate Scaled Image.
  • Added an Open Site Map... item to the Fractal Window Help menu.
  • Added a confirmation dialog when you cancel the display of a fractal. This can be used to pause/resume the fractal processing, if required.
  • Added built-in Classic Controller Pattern Map - Brushed Metal.
  • Added built-in Orbit Trap Controller Pattern Map - Brushed Metal.
  • Improved the Orbit Trap Controller's Edged style results.
  • Improved performance of CurveTrap based traps that handle many circles; e.g., Circle Inversion, Apollonian Gasket, Schottky Group, and Kleinian Group.
  • Improved performance of CurveTrap based traps that handle curves with many points; e.g., Epicycloid, Gear, Hypocycloid, L-System, Oscillator, and Rose.
  • Added support for Windows under Parallels on an iMac.
  • Added stack trace to error output when unexpected errors are encountered.
  • Fixed the Save Image method to remember the image format you used last.
  • Fixed error handling in Generate Scaled Image method. An error in the error handling caused the application to crash rather than print an error message and continue.

Changes in Release 1.10 (2/19/2009)

  • Reworked all dialogs for compatibility with a wide range of displays.
  • Added the ability to generate very large images. See Generating Large Images for details.
  • Added the ability to support a Transparent background. See the Background properties for details.
  • Added a Help button to all dialogs to open the documentation to the page that describes the given dialog. In the case of the Properties Window, the documentation opens on the page that describes the currently selected Properties Page.
  • Added a Notification On Completion option to the Options Dialog to play a sound when fractal generation is complete.
  • Added a Time Remaining field to the status bar.
  • Added built-in Orbital Master Controller Alpha Map for use with strange attractors.
  • Added a Depth/Lightness property to Orbital Controllers to control depth/lightness blend.
  • Improved the texture mapping by using bilinear interpolation of colors for points between pixels.
  • Enabled several toolbar buttons on the Fractal Window during fractal generation to allow display of the associated windows even while generating a fractal.
  • Fixed the Texture List Control to update the remembered texture folder when you repair a texture.
  • Fixed the built-in Orbital Equation Symmetric Icon - Non-Polynomial Term (Search) with respect to printing the information to the Error/Debug Window.
  • Fixed Example 6 of the built-in Orbital Equation Symmetric Icon - Non-Polynomial Term.
  • Fixed Angle Factor 3, 7, 11, and 15, for the optimized alternate mappings Average Value and Transformed Value Average.
  • Fixed text pane scrollbar visibility problem when resizing a Program Editor.
  • Removed Domain Error Color and simply use Background Color on error.

Changes in Release 1.9 (1/16/2009)

  • Fixed Visible though translucent objects property on the General properties page with respect to Orbital fractals.
  • Fixed bug where cutting all items from list did not place items on clipboard.
  • Fixed bug where Data Information Window incorrectly enabled/disabled some of its controls.
  • Added logic to remember current folder when saving files.
  • Added Enabled option to the following transformations:
    - Kaleidoscope - Slices
    - Kaleidoscope - Squares
    - Kaleidoscope - Triangles
  • Added classic controller Pattern Map - Texture (Planar).
  • Added several options to classic controller Pattern Map - Perlin Noise (Planar).
  • Added orbit trap controller options Style and Shadow to the 3D mapping section. The new Edged style adds a bar-like appearance to any curved orbit trap. See Orbit Trap Controllers for details.
  • Added a Bend Pattern option to several pattern-based orbit trap controllers.
  • Added code to normalize the value returned by PerlinNoise functions. The functions now return a value strictly between -1 and 1. See Perlin Noise Functions for details.
  • Changed the default Factor from 0.125 to 0.25 in the Perlin Noise orbit trap controller.
  • Changed the default Factor from 0.125 to 0.25 in the Perlin Noise classic controllers.
  • Changed name of classic controller Pattern Map - Perlin Noise (Pixel) to Pattern Map - Perlin Noise (Planar).

Changes in Release 1.8 (11/26/2008)

  • Fixed error when trying to copy list items. Error would occur when you tried to copy list item after previously disposing of a list control. Lists include gradients, textures, and controllers.
  • Terminate Show Orbit if the orbit point falls far outside image. Before this change, application could hang if you used Show Orbit when zoomed way in.
  • Remove Orbits property from orbital fractal properties page. This was overly complex and unnecessary since you can use Max Count to increase the number of orbit points.
  • Replace Zinit Range with Initial Z in orbital equation. The need for Zinit Range was related to obsolete Orbits property.
  • Minor updates to simplify several built-in Orbital Equations.

Changes in Release 1.7 (10/30/2008)

  • Added the following Orbital Equations:
    - Koch Snowflake (Variations)
    - Symmetric Attractors
    - Symmetric Attractors (Search)
    - Frieze Group
    - Frieze Group (Search)
    - Hyperbolic Attractors
  • Added new data files Examples.sa and Examples.fz to support Orbital Equations Symmetric Attractors and Frieze Group.
  • Added support for injecting scaling transformations into the IFS to IFS (Search).
  • Added new data file Examples2.ifs with some examples using the new scaling options added to IFS (Search).
  • Added method Affine.InitializeWeights2 to built-in macros. This method is used to initialize the probabilities associated with an array of affine transformations for the purpose of generating an IFS fractal from the transformations.
  • Added method Affine.ScaleDimension to built-in macros. This method can be used to sharpen/blur an IFS fractal without changing its general shape.
  • Added an option to control the method used to generate weights in Orbital Equations:
    - IFS Examples - Chaos and Fractals
    - IFS Examples - Yale
    - IFS (Search)
  • Added an option to sharpen/blur the IFS in the Orbital Equation IFS File Processor.
  • Added logic to adjust the Orbital fractal's Max Count based on window size. This reduces the need to adjust Max Count manually when you change the size of the window and improves the performance of the Preview window with respect to Orbital fractals.
  • Added a color adjustment option to several strange attractors.
  • Added several examples to Orbital Equation Symmetric Icon - Variations.
  • Improved Orbital adaptive smoothing algorithm.
  • Improved performance of search algorithm used to find strange attractors.
  • Added Clear All menu item to context menu on editor pane.
  • Moved ZInit Min/Max from Orbital properties page to Orbital Equation properties page.
  • Changed several Orbital Equations to use a fixed initial z.
  • Changed Fractal Equation properties page to show both Julia Constant and Initial Z fields.
  • Fixed bug resulting in random crash when using Data Information Window.
  • Fixed bug resulting in crash when invoking Gradient Editor's Save As command.

Changes in Release 1.6 (8/7/2008)

  • Fixed bug in transformation Disc Automorphism - Parabolic.
  • Fixed bug in Unit Circle Group transformation processing in orbit traps Schottky Group and Kleinian Group.
  • Fixed bug in Unit Circle Group transformation processing in orbital equations Kleinian Group - Examples and Kleinian Group - Variations.
  • Fixed bug in File/Close menu item.
  • Fixed several memory/resource leaks.

Changes in Release 1.5 (7/21/2008)

  • Added check for value=Infinity when wrapping values.
  • Fixed bug resulting in loss of Newton root info during normalization.
  • Fixed bug when saving Classic Controller 3D power.
  • Extended trial to 30 days.

Changes in Release 1.4 (7/16/2008)

  • Added additional information in unhandled error handler message.
  • Added code to override NumberFormatInfo during initialization. 

Changes in Release 1.3 (7/10/2008)

  • Added progress feedback during data normalization step.
  • Added 2 new Orbital Equations: Wallpaper Group - Square Lattice and Wallpaper Group - Square Lattice (Search).
  • Added file Examples.wp (in My Files folder) used by Wallpaper Group - Square Lattice. 

Changes in Release 1.2 (6/11/2008)

  • Added status message 'Smoothing samples...' during adaptive smoothing processing.
  • Removed Tab characters from Classic Controller Gradient Map - Value/Overlay (Smoothed) and Orbit Traps Inversion Group and Kleinian Group.

 Changes in Release 1.1 (6/10/2008)

  • Added ability to break out of L-System orbit trap.
  • Added ability to break out of data normalization step.
  • Fixed sample array dimension in several orbital equations.
  • Fixed bug in Lyapunov calculation in several orbital equations.
  • Improved error message when loading empty DataFile.
  •  Improved the orbital equations Circle Inversion and Circle Inversion 2.
  • Added several Math macros based on multiple angle formulas.
  • Made minor performance improvements to functions WrapIndex and WrapValue.

 

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