#Downloads
| Cycle | Download link |
|---|---|
| Release | Milestone 16 |
| In test | n/a |
| Nightly | Milestone 17 |
#Welcome to the world of fractal flames!
Let's start at the very basics: what is a fractal? A fractal is a mathematical construct, first and foremost. But most people call the visual representation of said mathematical construct "fractal" as well. A fractal image is usually entirely computer generated and are the key to combine mathematics with art.
One class of fractals are so called iterated function systems. Simply expressed, these fractals work by taking a simple shape and copying it onto itself into theoretical infinity. The most prominent example is the sierpinski gasket. The shape, in this case, would be a triangle. If you now extend this concept into a general context, you understood how an iterated function system works.
In classic iterated function systems, transformations during copying a shape are affine. This means simplified: only move, rotate, scale and skew transformations are allowed. Fractal flames now generalize even further and also allow the combination of affine transformations with any non-linear function. This would mean that you don't limit yourself to moving, rotating, scaling and skewing a shape before copying it but also allow any mathematical function to be applied on the shape to further distort the resulting copy.
With this gain of complexity combined with a natural coloring algorithm, fractal flame artists achieve the typical organic look of their works.
#Creating and working with fractal flames using Apophysis 7x
Originally, fractal flames were introduced by Scott Draves in 1992, it has become one of the most popular classes of fractals, widely used by artists all around the world.
Over time, Draves' open-source fractal flame implementation made its way over several branches and re-implementations. One particular implementation is based on a screensaver written in Delphi. Later on, a user interface has been added to allow editing. This user interface received the name Apophysis.
Due to the fact that in late 2009, the development of Apophysis stalled, a fork has been created based on the last stable version of Apophysis. This fork has received the name "7x" (for "Windows 7 extended") with the idea of modernizing the almost 10-year old software. Over time, Apophysis 7x included more improvements and additions to the original Apophysis and became the mainly used software to work with fractal flames.
The ambition of Apophysis 7x today is to follow the tradition of Apophysis and to provide a simple, newbie-friendly user interface on top of the powerful fractal flame algorithm. While the original Apophysis was developed for older computers, Apophysis 7x tries to keep up with the technological development of modern machines and tries to make the transistion from a tool to a professional software fit to be used in artwork studios.
While undergoing these changes, the Apophysis 7x strictly adheres the original philosophy of Apophysis: a free, open-source software to create fractal art for personal use, to share in a community or to use in professional designs and publications under the same royalty-free license policy.
Below are some of the improvements against the original version of Apophysis:
- 64-bit support: Apophysis 7x supports the latest processor generations by adding 64 bit support to the base program and allowing you to render fractal images with extreme resolutions at improved performance.
- Translations: An international community needs an international program to ease the learning curve and allow non-english speakers to use the program to its full degree leaving language barriers behind.
- Direct coloring: Apophysis 7x allows extension developers to obtain direct control of the color of each point to introduce whole new levels of creative possibilities from classic mandelbrot fractals to the import of images.
- Detail improvements: From performance improvements to UI shortcuts: Apophysis 7x features hundrets of little and small changes against the base program taking the worries about the technicalities of the creation process.
#How to get Apophysis 7x
Apophysis 7x is hosted as Windows binaries at the project page.
You can download the most recent version or one of the older versions - just in case you find your use case not supported in the newest version. Please note that older versions are not supported directly. The developers are happy to help you but for some problems, they would advise you to update to a later or the current version if the problem has been fixed there.
At the same page, you are able to find downloadable translations. Translations are contributed by the user community. The translations are hosted with the permission of the respective author.
#System requirements
Apophysis 7x is derived from a really old software. Therefore, the requirements to run it are really low. It scales to a stronger system so the more powerful your hardware, the better. The below data is collected from many tests and a big collection of community feedback and it should guide you well if you consider acquiring hardware for Apophysis 7x.
- CPU: Since Apophysis 7x takes advantage of multicore processors, it is recommended to have a quad-core processor of the Intel i7 family in your case. It will start with a dual- or single-core but to achieve reasonable performance, at least four cores are recommended.
- RAM: If your use-case is to render fractal images for print products, you should go with at least 8 GiB of system memory. Please keep in mind, that, in order to work with more than 4 GiB of system memory in general, you need a 64-bit processor and operating system as well.
- GPU / screen: Apophysis 7x uses the core processor for all calculations. Therefore, any recent low-end graphics card will fulfill your needs in regard of fractal imaging. To use Apophysis 7x optimally, you should work with a full-HD screen resolution, however. Even better are multiple screens.
- Operating system: Apophysis 7x is designed for Microsoft Windows. It is possible to run the software on MacOS and Linux systems but it will most likely come with a notable performance decrease. To use Apophysis 7x optimally, you should at least run Microsoft Windows 7 or WINE 1.2 under MacOS X or Linux.