Endlos - Multithreaded Fractals / News: Recent posts

Nope, this project is not dead. It just slept for a long time!

Instead of continuing the 1.x release and try to implement animation, 3D and other exciting new features, I decided to rewrite endlos from scratch with those features kept in mind for the new architecture. The first 1.0.0 release was a simple 2D renderer with multithreading support.The subsequent releases added more features until I came to main features like animation and 3D. Due to family affairs, I didn't have time for endlos, alas.... read more

2007-08-01 : Version 1.1.0 - Print
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NEW:
1. Image popup menu item 'Print Image' to print the fractal image to your printer.
(See troubleshooting section for printing problems.)

2007-05-26 : Version 1.0.1 - faster
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CHANGED:
1. Performance improvements. Demo fractal "Sun" now takes 01:47:55 (10% faster).

FIXED:
1. Pausing calculation (CPU usage = 0%) didn't work.

2007-03-30 : Version 1.0.0 - 2D fractals
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CHANGED:
1. Default number of threads is number of (virtual) processors. On a dual core or a
pentium with hyper threading this will be 2. This will use the theoretical optimal
number of threads by default.
2. Pause button replaced by CPU usage slider for fine grained system load.
(0% same as former pause.)

2007-03-05 : Version 0.20.0 - threads & color functions
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CHANGED:
1. Coloring function "Function" renamed to "Function1". Migration: in you fractal XML
files, rename value of <colorMode>:

<colorMode>Function</colorMode> to <colorMode>Function1</colorMode>

2. Misc. GUI changes.
3. Thread count is not squared anymore. The image is now tiled into the exact number
of threads. This leads to misc image tiling depending on the possible tile factors.... read more

2007-02-22 : Version 0.19.0 - flexibel formulas
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CHANGED:
1. Fractal definition XML file. Migration:
<x0> => <custom><cr>
<y0> => <custom><ci>
2. Tabular "Fractal" is full generic now, i.e. all fractals are decoupled from the main
iterator.

FIXED:
1. Open new fractal didn't use the mouse click location.

NEW:
1. Parameters of formulas configurable in settings GUI.
2. Demo fractals "Blossom", "Eye", "Protozoan".
3. Fractal class "Newton".

2007-02-12 : Version 0.18.0
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CHANGED:
1. Fractal definition XML file. Migration:
<real> => <x>
<imaginary> => <y>
<real0> => <x0>
<imaginary0> => <y0>
<width>/<height> => <imageDimension>
2. Introduced color formulas (alpha). Instead of just switching between classic and smoothed
coloring, a list box offers several coloring methods. So far, only one additional test algorithm
"Function" - look how the colors change when you cycle them with the mouse wheel ... 8-§... read more

2007-02-02 : Version 0.17.0 - new fractals
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CHANGED:
1. Fractal definition XML file. To migrate your old XML files replace
<type>Mandelbrot</type>
by <class>de.dentaku.endlos.fractals.Mandelbrot</class>
and equivalent with the Julia type:
<type>Julia</type>
by <class>de.dentaku.endlos.fractals.Julia</class>
2. Popup menu items "Open Mandelbrot", "Open Julia" replaced by "Open new fractal".
3. Removed fast float datatype as it just bloats the code without any real benefit.
(The fast double datatype is good enough.)
4. Several GUI changes as a preparation to generalize the iterator and introduce
custom fractals.... read more

2007-01-26 : Version 0.16.0 - speed & effects
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CHANGED:
1. Improved speed of fast (float/double) precision: demo fractal "Four Comets" is 75% faster!
2. Checkbox 'Anti-Aliasing' removed - see new tabs Rendering and Effects ('blur').
3. Decreased precision of demo fractal "Sun" from 34 to 22. It's now 30% faster.

FIXED:
1. Flickering of image during color cycling via mouse. Cycling is also a little faster.... read more

2007-01-20 : Version 0.15.0 - speed & misc
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CHANGED:
1. High precision speed improvement: demo fractal "Sun (deep)" now takes 02:23:28 compared to
03:14:35 of former version.

NEW:
1. Progress information (percentage, remaining) in fractal window title.
2. New image popup menu item to save current color map. E.g. to save a random color map.
3. New demo fractal: "Four Comets"
4. Further speed optimization through Java parameters. I already found one Java parameter that
reduced calculation time of demo fractal "Sun (deep)" by 5 minutes: -XX:+UseBiasedLocking... read more

2007-01-14 : Version 0.14.0 - fast colors
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CHANGED:
1. Recoloring of an image doesn't recalculate fractal anymore! Now you can change color maps, smoothing,
anti-aliasing on the fly - it's much more satisfying to play with colors.
2. As some users complained about a "missing" GUI and told that they had to maximize it from the task panel,
the workbench window's initial size is set to 1024x768. I hope this addresses the issue as I can't
reproduce this on my computer.
3. Several operands increased from 32 bit (int) to 64 bit (long). This might decrease performance on 32 bit
systems but gives a much wider range of precision on 64 bit systems without slowing down.
4. The demo fractals now use the updated ColorMaps version 1.1.0.... read more

I started using the subversion repository on Sourceforge.net. You can download the latest development version from there (if you like to compile ...) or just read the history of the readme.txt file to see what changes have already been made for the next version.

http://endlos.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/endlos/Endlos/

2007-01-11: V 1.1.0

CHANGED:
1. Renamed all files to lower case as on Unix systems file names are case sensitive
and it's easier to type lower case names.
(You might need to adjust your saved fractal settings
to also use lower case color map names. The next
version of endlos (0.14.0) will use the new color map
file names for its demos.)

FIXED:
1. Removed redundant entries (several maps were identical)... read more

2007-01-08 : Version 0.13.0 - sweet Julia
---------------------------

CHANGED:
1. Fractal frames don't store their dimension anymore as it caused some size problems. As the preferences
also were changed, you won't get all former preferences values anymore.
2. Right mouse click into image shows popup menu instead of zooming out. Zoom out via middle mouse button.
Therefore, former middle mouse function (reset) was removed. If you want to reset, you need to open a
new fractal window (or set the corresponding coordinates + radius).
3. Settings panel changed again.... read more

CHANGED:
1. Increased performance of high precision mode through optimized algorithm.
2. Reworked settings tabs for better grouping.
3. Field 'Distance:' changed to 'Radius:' containing half the value of the former distance.
4. Iteration buttons decrease/increase by 10 instead of 100.

FIXED:
1. One operation didn't consider current precision leading to unlimited precision for this operation
and therefore much longer calculation for black dots.
2. Included GPL license.... read more

2006-12-28 : Version 0.11.0 - threads & speed
--------------------------

CHANGED:
1. Replaced precision list box with a text field to set fine grained precision. No restriction anymore to
fixed 32, 64, 128 Bit precision - use the best precision you need, up to unlimited precision!
2. Tooltips now show longer (7 seconds).

NEW:
1. Improved calculation speed.
2. Thread priorities configurable.
3. Pausing calculation of a fractal (for other fractals to speed up).

2006-12-25 : Version 0.10.0 - zooooooommm!
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CHANGED:
1. Double clicking endlos.jar starts endlos instead of showing version information
(if your system is configured to start Java on file types ".jar").
2. Renamed scripts "start.sh"/"start.bat" to "startCustomUnix.sh"/"startCustomWindows.bat".

FIXED:
1. File endlos_src.jar wasn't updated during last versions.... read more

2006-12-23 : Version 0.9.2 - they're creeping everywhere!
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CHANGED:
1. Fix No. 2 improved rendering speed but drawing is now asynchronous (i.e. not fluent).
For this reason, I changed the default draw mode to BLOCK as this increases speed, too.

FIXED:
1. Fractal frames were always maximized - resizing didn't work.
2. Multiple fractal windows flickered when overlapping and both calculating.
3. Algorithmic color map was shared between multiple fractal windows.
4. Randomize colors didn't work if a custom map was loaded.
5. Auto-increment of thread count wasn't reflected in corresponding text field. ... read more

CHANGED:
1. Set system Look&Feel by default instead of standard Java (metal) Look&Feel.

FIXED:
1. Applying Colors without a selected *.map file made standard color map vanish.
2. ArithmeticException when using higher precision calculation modes.

NEW:
1. More tooltips.
2. More controls for easier/faster change of settings.
3. Default algorithm color map now changes on every start.
4. Create new random color map function on colors setting panel.
5. Preferences menu to change Look&Feel.

Instead of using 1 color for each integer iteration (leading to "bands" of colors), colors between 2 integer iterations are interpolated to get a smooth transition between the colors of the color map.

As it doesn't hurt performance much, it is enabled by default.

The current version now has high precision modes included. The standard precision mode uses double values that are restricted to 64 bit. The new high precision modes offer 128 bit and unlimited precision (see java.math.MathContext). So, if you zoom in deep enough that the image gets "pixelated"/"blocky", increasing the precision will get you back on track (with a performance penalty, of course).

Yes, folks - just by replacing the Java 1.5 VM with the new Java 1.6 VM, endlos boosts from 20% speed gain for the root Mandelbrot up to twice as fast for the calculation of spot

-0.5622026215230372, 0.6428171490727752, 2.220446049250313E-15

with 300 Iterations (server JVM)!!! That's why I love Java: improve runtime experience just by replacing the virtual machine. And now you get up to twice the performance of the same application with Java 1.6! Go download the Java 1.6 runtime environment or JDK now: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

I decided to release a first working version with basic mouse functions. The full GUI will come later but you can play with the parameters and see how it runs on your computer. :-]

... as it already runs on an AMD X2 and just needs to be packed to a release!