Category : C Source Code
Archive   : FRASRC18.ZIP
Filename : HELP.SRC

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Print the current fractal image on your (Laserjet, Paintjet, Epson-
compatible, PostScript, or HP-GL) printer.

See {"Setting Defaults (SSTOOLS.INI File)"} and {"Printer Parameters"}
for how to let Fractint know about your printer setup.

{"Disk-Video" Modes} can be used to
generate images for printing at higher resolutions than your screen
supports.
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~Topic=Parameter Save/Restore Commands, Label=HELPPARMFILE

Parameter files can be used to save/restore all options and settings
required to recreate particular images. The parameters required to
describe an image require very little disk space, especially compared with
saving the image itself.

<@>

The <@> command loads a set of parameters describing an image.
(Actually, it can also be used to set non-image parameters such as SOUND,
but at this point we're interested in images. Other uses of parameter
files are discussed in {"Parameter Files and the <@> Command"}.)

When you hit <@>, Fractint displays the names of the entries in the
currently selected parameter file. The default parameter file,
FRACTINT.PAR, is included with the Fractint release and contains
parameters for some sample images.

After pressing <@>, highlight an entry and press to load it, or
press to change to another parameter file.

Note that parameter file entries specify all calculation related
parameters, but do not specify things like the video mode - the image will
be plotted in your currently selected mode.



The command saves the parameters required to describe the currently
displayed image, which can subsequently be used with the <@> command to
recreate it.

After you press , Fractint prompts for:

Parameter file: The name of the file to store the parameters in. You
should use some name like "myimages" instead of fractint.par, so that
your images are kept separate from the ones released with new versions
of Fractint. You can use the PARMFILE= command in SSTOOLS.INI
to set the default parameter file name to "myimages" or whatever.
(See {"Setting Defaults (SSTOOLS.INI File)"} and "parmfile=" in
{"File Parameters"}.)

Name: The name you want to assign to the entry, to be displayed when
the <@> command is used.

Main comment: A comment to be shown beside the entry in the <@> command
display.

Second, Third, and Fourth comment: Additional comments to store in the
file with the entry. These comments go in the file only, and are not
displayed by the <@> command.

Record colors?: Whether color information should be included in the
entry. Usually the default value displayed by Fractint is what you want.
Allowed values are:\
"no" - Don't record colors. This is the default if the image is using
your video adapter's default colors.
"@mapfilename" - When these parameters are used, load colors from the
named color map file. This is the default if you are currently using
colors from a color map file.
"yes" - Record the colors in detail. This is the default when you've
changed the display colors by using the palette editor or by color
cycling. The only reason that this isn't what Fractint always does
for the command is that color information can be bulky - up to
nearly 1K of disk space. That may not
sound like much, but can add up when you consider the thousands of
wonderful images you may find you just *have* to record...
Smooth-shaded ranges of colors are compressed, so if that's used a
lot in an image the color information won't be as bulky.

# of colors: This only matters if "Record colors?" is set to "yes". It
specifies the number of colors to record. Recording less colors will
take less space. Usually the default value displayed by Fractint is what
you want. You might want to increase it in some cases, e.g. if you are
using a 256 color mode with maxiter 150, and have used the palette
editor to set all 256 possible colors for use with color cycling, then
you'll want to set the "# of colors" to 256.

At the bottom of the input screen are inputs for Fractint's "pieces"
divide-and-conquer feature. You can create multiple PAR entries that
break an image up into pieces so that you can generate the image pieces
one by one. There are two reasons for doing this. The first is in case the
fractal is very slow, and you want to generate parts of the image at the
same time on several computers. The second is that you might want to make
an image greater than 2048 x 2048. The parameters for this feature are:
X Multiples - How many divisions of final image in the x direction\
Y Multiples - How many divisions of final image in the y direction\
Video mode - Fractint video mode for each piece (e.g. "F3")\

The last item defaults to the current video mode. If either X Multiples or
Y Multiples are greater than 1, then multiple numbered PAR entries for the
pieces are added to the PAR file, and a MAKEMIG.BAT file is created that
builds all of the component pieces and then stitches them together into
a "multi-image" GIF. The current limitations of the "divide and conquer"
algorithm are 36 or fewer X and Y multiples (so you are limited to "only"
36x36=1296 component images), and a final resolution limit in both the
X and Y directions of 65,535 (a limitation of "only" four billion pixels
or so).

The final image generated by MAKEMIG is a "multi-image" GIF file called
FRACTMIG.GIF. In case you have other software that can't handle
multi-image GIF files, MAKEMIG includes a final (but commented out) call
to SIMPLGIF, a companion program that reads a GIF file that may contain
little tricks like multiple images and creates a simple GIF from it.
Fair warning: SIMPLGIF needs room to build a composite image while it
works, and it does that using a temporary disk file equal to the size
of the final image - and a 64Kx64K GIF image requires a 4GB temporary
disk file!



The command lets you give a startup parameter interactively.
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~Topic= Options Screen, Label=HELPXOPTS
; This topic is online context-sensitive only.

Passes - see {Drawing Method}\
Fillcolor - see {Drawing Method}\
Floating Point Algorithm - see notes below\
Maximum Iterations - see {Image Calculation Parameters}\
Inside and Outside colors - see {Color Parameters}\
Savename and File Overwrite - see {File Parameters}\
Sound option - see {Sound Parameters}\
Log Palette - see {Logarithmic Palettes and Color Ranges}\
Biomorph Color - see {Biomorphs}\
Decomp Option - see {Decomposition}\

You can toggle the use of floating-point algorithms on this screen (see
{"Limitations of Integer Math (And How We Cope)"}). Whether floating
point is in use is shown on the status screen. If you have a
non-Intel floating point chip which supports the full 387 instruction set,
see the "FPU=" command in {Startup Parameters} to get the most out of your
chip.
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~Topic= Options Screen, Label=HELPYOPTS
; This topic is online context-sensitive only.

Finite attractor - see{ Finite Attractors }\

Potential parameters - see{ Continuous Potential }\

Distance Estimator parameters - see{ Distance Estimator Method }\

Inversion parameters - see{ Inversion }\

Color cycling range - see{ Color Cycling Commands }\
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~Topic=Image Coordinates Screen, Label=HELPCOORDS
; This topic is online context-sensitive only.

You can directly enter corner coordinates on this screen instead of
using the zoom box to move around. You can also use to reset
the coordinates to the defaults for the current fractal type.

There are two formats for the display: corners or center-mag. You can
toggle between the two by using .

In corners mode, corner coordinate values are entered directly. Usually
only the top-left and bottom-right corners need be specified - the
bottom left corner can be entered as zeros to default to an ordinary
unrotated rectangular area. For rotated or skewed images, the bottom
left corner must also be specified.

Center-mag mode can only be used with unrotated unstretched images.
In this mode the image area is described by entering the coordinates for
the center of the rectangle, and its magnification factor.
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~Topic=Interrupting and Resuming

Fractint command keys can be loosely grouped as:

o Keys which suspend calculation of the current image (if one is being
calculated) and automatically resume after the function.
(display status information) and (display help), are the only
keys in this group.

o Keys which automatically trigger calculation of a new image.
Examples: selecting a video mode (e.g. ); selecting a fractal
type using ; using the screen to change an option such as
maximum iterations.

o Keys which do something, then wait for you to indicate what to do
next. Examples: to go to main menu; to enter color cycling
mode; to bring up a zoom box. After using a command in this
group, calculation automatically resumes when you return from the
function (e.g. from color cycling, to clear zoom box).
There are a few fractal types which cannot resume calculation, they
are noted below. Note that after saving an image with , you must
press to clear the "saved" message from the screen and resume.

An image which is aved before it completes can later be estored and
continued. The calculation is automatically resumed when you restore such
an image.

When a slow fractal type resumes after an interruption in the third
category above, there may be a lag while nothing visible happens. This is
because most cases of resume restart at the beginning of a screen line.
If unsure, you can check whether calculation has resumed with the
key.

The following fractal types cannot (currently) be resumed: plasma, 3d
transformations, julibrot, and 3d orbital types like lorenz3d. To check
whether resuming an image is possible, use the key while it is
calculating. It is resumable unless there is a note under the fractal
type saying it is not.

The {Batch Mode} section discusses how to resume in batch mode.

To estore and resume a "formula", "lsystem", or "ifs" type fractal your
"formulafile", "lfile", or "ifsfile" must contain the required name.
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~Topic=Orbits Window, Label=HELP_ORBITS
The key turns on the Orbit mode. In this mode a cursor appears
over the fractal. A window appears showing the orbit used in the
calculation of the color at the point where the cursor is. Move the
cursor around the fractal using the arrow keys or the mouse and watch
the orbits change. Try entering the Orbits mode with View Windows ()
turned on. The following keys take effect in Orbits mode.

Circle toggle - makes little circles with radii inversely\
proportional to the iteration. Press again to toggle\
back to point-by-point display of orbits.\
Line toggle - connects orbits with lines (can use with )\
Numbers toggle - shows coordinates of the cursor on the\
screen. Press again to turn off numbers.\