Release 4.0

Changes from ChaosPro V2.0 to V2.1

Notes:

• Bug fixed means that the bahaviour was not intended by the author and has been changed.
  
  
• New means the feature is new
  
  
• Changed means the behaviour of ChaosPro has been changed in any way, most of the time in order to make ChaosPro more intuitive.

List of Changes

• Bug fixed: New memory management system in ChaosPro detected several bugs, where the program accessed invalid memory (this memory management system will be removed in the final version):
  • Fixed: Opening the formula editor window could produce a crash
  • Fixed: Deleting an animation key frame could produce a crash
  • Fixed: Loading a fractal could crash ChaosPro
  • Fixed: Opening a file requester could produce a crash (even at startup of ChaosPro, where the file requester structures were initialized)
  • Fixed: Calculating a formula fractal accessed invalid memory (could have caused crashes)
  • Fixed: Compound fractal could crash on calculating.
• Bug fixed: Subtype of fractals (formula, Julia/Mandel, etc.) has not been saved.
• Changed: Toolbar now has tooltip hints
• Changed: Toolbar now is a system conform object and can be adjusted using the system toolbar configuration dialog.
• Changed: Edit Controls with positive range (minimum>=0) do not show '+' signs in front of numbers
• New: Elimination and Periodicity checking logic added to Julia24/Mandel24 (makes calculation faster)
• New: Elimination and Periodicity checking logic added to Julia/Mandel (makes calculation faster)
• New: atan2 function added to formula parser
• Bug fixed: Pressing the tab key did not take care of invisible windows, i.e. pressing the tab key could activate an invisible window. Therefore deactivating that invisible window could produce a crash. So if you encountered crashes soon after pressing the tab key (and nothing visible was activated), then perhaps it was this bug.
• Bug fixed: Mystery solved: Activating a window in ChaosPro did not bring all application windows to front, instead, they remained at the z order position where they were...It all depended on an invisible popup window (the popup window on all entry fields) created at startup of the program.
• Bug fixed: Message boxes in ChaosPro did block only input into the main window, but not input into any other window.
• Bug fixed: ChaosPro could crash, if the fractal coloring algorithm produced strange values (e.g. Julia24, Palette mode=interpolated, Coloring=DEM, Bailout=1 ==> crash)
• Bug fixed: Deleting a fractal did not update the fractal specific parameter windows. Instead, you had to select another fractal manually.
• Bug fixed: Renaming a fractal did not update the window titles.
• Bug fixed: Saving a fractal image (as *.png) did not work, except you saved any parameter file before... ChaosPro simply crashed.
• New: ChaosPro now can save images additionally in BMP and JPEG format. Loading images is supported only for PNG and JPEG images, because only these formats allow storing parameters inside the image.
• Bug fixed: Double clicking an animation folder (Fractal Tree Window) crashed ChaosPro.
• New: Compiler added: Unlike the formula parser the compiler additionally compiles the formula (in native machine code), therefore the formula normally runs at least as fast as if it would have been compiled using a C/C++ compiler.
  When I say "at least", then I mean, that most of the time the formulas run even faster, which is not a mystery, because the compiler in ChaosPro of course "knows" all about complex numbers, whereas a standard compiler does not know anything and thus the user has to code the operations using double numbers...
• New: Compiler Window added to administer compiler formulas: There are three types of formulas: Transformations, iteration formulas and coloring formulas.
• New: Fractal Type Escape Time added: Uses compiler formulas, replaces type="Formula"
• New: Parameter window for Escape Time fractal added.
• New: Import parser for Ultra Fractal formulas (transformations, formulas, colorings) added. Ultra Fractal formulas, transformations and colorings can be loaded into ChaosPro. They are converted on the fly into the ChaosPro-syntax.
• Bug fixed: Animations did not work most of the time: The resulting AVI-file was bad. Mainly this was due to the fact that a codec silently produces crap if the input format is not suitable (for example, the Microsoft codecs can only handle 8 bit input ==> AVI file is crap if a 3D image is selected). Additionally, the Intel Indeo 3.2 and the Cinepak codec won't work at all (don't know why). ChaosPro cannot hide these codecs (the codec selection window comes from the operating system). But now ChaosPro warns the user if a wrong codec is selected. If the codec can only handle 8 bit images, then ChaosPro suggests to automatically dither the images (if necessary).
• New: Palette interpolation added (upto version 2.0 only linear interpolation of palette control points was possible)
• Bug fixed: Moving interpolation control points in palette editor could produce undesired additional control points.
• Bug fixed: ChaosPro did not release threads, once allocated. Thus each time a fractal was calculated, about 16 KB of memory got wasted. The number of threads so constantly increased.
• Changed: Toolbars now cannot be put in separate windows. Menu items for those actions have been removed.
• Changed: Network support has been disabled. Because the code needs to be rewritten and I have not enough time the code has been temporarily removed. The next version will be able to use this feature again.
• New: Fractal Type "Layered Fractal" added: Supplements the "Compound Fractal" from V2.0, which is still there but should not be used any more.
• New: Import feature for UltraFractal parameter files (*.upr-Files) added: ChaosPro can load Ultra Fractal *.upr-files (i.e. parameter files). They get converted to fractal type "Layered Fractal". Please note that you will need to download the Ultra Fractal formula compilation in order to use Ultra Fractal *.upr files.
• New: Fractal type Escapetime can be animated.
• New: Fractal type "Layered Fractal" can be animated (thus *.upr-files from Ultra Fractal can be animated).
• Changed: Palettes now are not "referenced" any more: previous versions of ChaosPro stored only references to palettes, i.e. if you had three fractals, all using palette "Matisse", and you then changed this palette, ChaosPro adjusted all three referencing fractals. In other words: Each fractal had a parameter called "palette name", and then there was a list of palettes where each element is identified by its name. Now palettes are only presets: Each fractal has an anonymous palette, and you can change each color using the palette editor window. All changes affect only the current fractal.
  Basically nothing has changed. But now you do not end up with thousands of palettes. You can have thousands of fractals where each fractal has its own specific palette, and the number of palettes in the palette drop down box stays the same...
• Changed: Fractal type Compound removed. Although all routines and windows still are there, you cannot directly choose this type. Please use the fractal type "Layered Fractal". For compatibility you can load old parameter sets from ChaosProV2.0. On load the fractal type Compound will be created.
• Changed: Fractals which use type=formula get automatically converted to type=Escapetime. FractInt *.frm and old ChaosPro *.frm formula files get automatically converted to compiled formulas. The converted fractal then automatically uses the converted formula. You should not use the fractal type "formula" any more...