Fractals Show 2

Lab Report

NOTE:  This program requires additional validation tests, which will be conducted in the next few months. Other items to be addressed include: 1.  Re-validation of complex number routines (rewritten from old TP 7  code). 2.  Fix data entry for floats (esp. negative values) 3.  Fix localization to treat DecimalSeparator correctly outside the U.S.   4.  Fix aspect ratio problems in certain "Quick Settings" 5.  Allow printing of fractal images 6.  Save/Restore iteration map for coloring independently of the calculations

"Intermingle" Images from Fractals Show 2 Program

Purpose
The purpose of this project is to create Mandelbrot and Julia sets for a number of complex math functions.

Mathematical Background

The famous Mandelbrot Set is formed by the iteration

z z² + c

over an area of the complex plane.  A Julia Set is formed using a similar iteration.  But instead of iterating only with the function z², many other complex math function can be explored.  Here's a summary of how to create a Mandelbrot or Julia Set:

The complex functions, fn,  that are used in Fractals Show 2 include:  z², zⁿ, z^x, z^z, exp(z), cos(z), sin(z), cosh(z), sinh(z), I0(z), J0(z), tan(z), tanh(z), sec(z), sech(z), csc(z), csch(z), cot(z), coth(z), gamma(z).  See the Complex Math page for mathematical details.

Points where the iteration count reaches the maximum specified limit are "captured" points and are usually colored a single color.  The other points that exceed a specified value "escape" to infinity and are colored in a way that reflects the number of iterations at the time the specified value was exceeded.  Many different color schemes can be explored. 

This program attempts to make the counting of iterations a separate process from the coloring of the iterations.

<Add comments and examples of FractInt mis-optimization and re-definition of standard math terms>

Materials and Equipment

Software Requirements
Windows 98
Delphi 4.02/5 (to recompile)
FractalsShow2.EXE

Hardware Requirements
VGA display with 640-by-480 screen in high/true color display mode

Procedure

1. Double click on the  icon to start the program.

2. Choose the three "Quick Settings" selections, or individually specify the x and y min and max, number of pixels in each dimension, the number of iterations, the name, and the function parameters.

Here is a summary of the various Groups that may be chosen:

Group	Description	Number of Parameter Sets
Beauty of Fractals:  Mandelbrot	Images from the book The Beauty of Fractals	14
Beauty of Fractals:  Julia		16
Mandelbrot Evolution	Mandelbrot Sequence z zx + c, for x	34
MiniMandelbrot Bifurcation	In the Mandelbrot Evolution, near x=2, a "MiniMandelbrot" can be seen to bifurcate (split).	34
Mandelbrot "UFO"	In the Mandelbrot Evolution, near x=3.89, a "UFO" can be seen to "fly" briefly.	19
efg's Mandelbrot Gallery	A variety of fractal images originally displayed in efg's Fractal Discovery Lab Gallery.	28
efg's Julia Gallery		34

3. Press the Start button (where the Continue button is above).   Interrupt/continue the computation any number of times.

This "Integer" image was an experiment to see if raw binary data might make sense without any special coloring.  Each pixel is an integer in the range 0..MaxIterationCount.  But each integer is treated as the color $00rrggbb, so often the blue pixels show up since iteration limits are often in the range from 256..1024.

A further experiment using pf15bit bitmaps, where each pixel is a "word," might also be interesting.

This step was introduced so the counting of iterations was a distinctly separate process from coloring of iterations.  Often fractal programs combine both of these operations in one step.  However, this makes re-coloring of images difficult when more than one iteration value is mapped to the same color.

4. Click on any of the color boxes above to change the box color using the standard color dialog.  This provides for a wide variety of color gradient combinations.

"Captured" and "Escape" colors are established via the selections above.  The "Color Shift" spin box on the Final Image tab also affects the color mapping. 

The Color Scheme for the Reverse Gradient with a Shift of 645 appears like this:

This is the color scheme used for the Final Image tab shown below.

The Rainbow color scheme looks like this:

Computation of the "rainbow" colors are explained in more detail in the Spectra Lab Report.

Either the Gradient or the Rainbow can be broken in to a specified number of intervals by checking the Color Bands box.  For example, specifying 5 steps yields the following color gradient:

Checking the "Rotate" box rotates the above colors:

A wide variety of color schemes is possible.

The following shows the biomorph "Final Image" using the reverse gradient with a shift of 645:

Cliff Pickover put a similar image in his book
Mazes for the Mind:  Computers and the Unexpected,
St. Martin's Press, 1992.
Color plate before  page 173.

5. Press the Save button to store the image in a pf24bit BMP or a JPG.

Press the Color Shift spin box to gradually "rotate" gradient or rainbow colors.

Discussion
(Outline for now)

ScreenFractalsShow2 unit and form:
- IterationCallback
- ResetStartPixel Procedure
- TimerDisplayTimer Procedure with elapsed and estimated completion time
- Keystroke validation:  EditFloatKeyPress, EditIntegerPress, EditSequencePress
- Range validation:  EditLimitsChange, EditPixelsChange, EditIterationsChange
- Start/Pause/Reset Procedures (BitBtnStartClick/BitBtnPauseClick/BitBtnResetClick)
- csOwnerDrawFixed style ComboBox with "hidden" parameters
- UpdateColorScheme
- storing integers as "pixels" in pf32bit bitmap; displaying integer value with ImageMouseMove
- handling MouseMove events when TImage is stretched
- saving BMP or JPG file (need to provide way to specify JPEG quality)
- ShellExecute to link to web site

MandelbrotJuliaLibrary unit (separates computations from user interface):
- CZN, CZX, CZZ complex functions
- FunctionNameIndex
- TMandelbrotJuliaMap Class with methods ComputeMandelbrot, ComputeJulia, SetColorScheme, ColorLambdaBitmap, ...

ComplexMathLibrary unit
- complex arithmetic functions using either rectangular or polar coordinates
- complex trig and transcendental functions

SpectraLibrary unit:
- Rainbow Function
- WavelengthToRGB Function (overloaded)
- ColorToRGBTriple Function

Conclusions
Exploring fractals is an excellent way to experiment with mathematics while using computer graphics to display results.

Keywords
Fractals, Chaos, Mandelbrot Set, Julia Set, Biomorph, Rainbow, WavelengthToRGB, pf32bit, complex math, Delphi

Download
Delphi 4.02/5 Source and EXE:   FractalsShow2.ZIP (295 KB)

Turbo Pascal Programs.  Note:  If you have a fast machine (233 MHz Pentium II or faster), you'll likely need a patch to run these TP 7 programs.  See this fix for "Runtime Error 200."

Fractals and Show (original programs).  Shown below is the fractal "66" Julia Set z z^z + (1.7 + 1.4i) created with the "Fractals" program and displayed with the "Show" program.  TP Source and EXE:  FracShow.ZIP

Biomorph.  While searching the Mandelbrot "Shoreline" of z z^1.5 + C, a fascinating fractal biomorph was discovered for the Julia Set z z^1.5 - 0.2.   TP 7 Source and EXE:  Biomorph.ZIP

Future

Many additional features could be added to this project:

• Add FormResize handler.

Setup Tab

Raw Image Tab

• Allow way to save/restore pf32bit image with integer values to a file.

Color Scheme Tab

• Provide additional color map options.

Final Image Tab

• Save a .DAT file along with the .BMP or .JPG to retain all parameters and color setting information about an image.

Glynn Function Study Center Gallery

Links:  Fractals and Chaos Section of efg's Mathematics Reference page