[chaoscope] Re: Development update
- From: Murat Cokeker <cokeker@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: chaoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 00:46:39 +0300
All these mentioned new features sound great. But are they available in
version 0.3.1 or will they be available in future versions...
Thank you for the great efort,
Murat
On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 11:54 PM, Nicolas Desprez <freelists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> It's been a while since I posted a development update and since several of
> you have joined the list after the last ever post in May I thought I'd let
> you all know what I've been busy with. What follows is a list of features
> that have been implemented so far. A discussion may ensue, bearing in mind
> that suggestions to enhance or alter these features will be politely ignored
> for now. ;-)
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> - Quark equation was added
>
> This is a 3D "adaptation" of Dave Bollinger's magnattractor which you read
> more about here:
>
> http://www.davebollinger.com/works/magnattractor/
>
> I named it Quark because I love Quantum Mechanics, however Magnets is
> technically much more accurate. :-)
>
> - Chua Circuit equation was added
>
> Will not yield the best attractors you've ever seen but worth playing with
> nonetheless. (Google Chua Circuit!)
>
> - New Saturation parameter for all modes
>
> Renders with high Gamma tend to lose their saturation. Saturation will help
> alleviate this side effect.
>
> - Anti-Alias optional for all modes
>
> Anti-Alias is currently "always on" in Chaoscope 0.3.1. Quality will
> decrease when it is switched off (particularly with Solid mode) but render
> speed will increase significantly.
>
> - Variable opacity optional for Solid Mode
>
> Another "always on" feature in Chaoscope 0.3.1. Switching variable Opacity
> (or transparency) off speeds up the render. When Anti-Alias is on and
> variable Opacity is off the alpha buffer is used for perfect anti-aliasing
> of attractor edges. Note that superimposition of attractor parts or edges
> will not be smoothed by anti-aliasing. This is a job for Supersampling!
>
> - Supersampling (up to 66 samples per pixel)
>
> This feature highly increases both the render quality and the rendering
> duration. It literally multiplies the render duration by the amount of
> samples you choose. It will give you "almost" perfect anti-aliasing for
> every pixel. Setting it to 66 samples per pixel is equivalent to rendering a
> 8000x8000 image and shrinking it back to 1000x1000. Memory allocation stays
> the same regardless of the number of samples you set the sumpersampling to
> which makes very large supersampled renders a possibility. Possible values
> are 2, 3, 4, 8, 15, 24 and 66.
>
> - Second gradient optional for Light and Plasma
>
> A third "always on" feature in Chaoscope 0.3.1. Again, switching the second
> gradient off speeds up the render.
>
> - Gradients can be swapped
>
> - New coloring methods: Matrix for IFS and Element for Quark
>
> "Matrix" is almost identical to the standard Flame method of coloring.
>
> - Caching of rendered attractors in RAM
>
> This is not completely finalized but it brings a huge performance boost for
> subsequent renders of the same attractor. Is also used during batch
> renderings.
>
> - Background color for Light and Plasma modes
>
> Long standing request!
>
> - Render now runs on two cores
>
> Just two for now and this doesn't always mean a 50% decrease in rendering
> time. We'll do benchmark to find out!
>
> - Perspective
>
> Still rather temperamental. Doesn't always work as expected but it will
> have to before 0.4 is released.
>
> - Focal Blur
>
> Works alongside Perspective. Here's something I rendered a while ago:
>
> http://www.chaoscope.org/images/focal_blur.jpg
>
> Only compatible with Gas and Light mode. It doesn't like z-buffers. It's
> not consistent yet (the whole attractor might be blurry, not helpful!).
>
> - Color Editor
>
> RGB or HSV, resizable. Can be left open while using the rest of the
> interface.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> What's left to do:
> - Color perspective (or haze)
> - Gradient editor
> - Gradient browser
> - Timed rendering
> - Continuous rendering (only stopped pressing Escape)
> - Rendering stopped when specific amount of frustum hits is reached
> - Light editor (interface to position lights in Solid mode)
> - Export attractor to ASCII
>
> Will explain those in more detail when I get round to implement them.
>
> I'm currently working on a "recovery" feature which will let users
> restarting a render after a crash or a power failure. This is necessary
> because of the continuous rendering: you don't want to lose your 8 days
> worth of calculation, so the entire in-memory data will be saved every x
> minutes.
>
> Apologies for taking so long to put all this together. Thank you very much
> to all of you for your patience!
>
> I will post a more detailed development update on the forum.
>
> Regards,
>
> Nicolas Desprez
> ======================================================
> The Chaoscope mailing-list
> Archives : //www.freelists.org/archives/chaoscope
> Admin contact : chaoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Web site : http://www.chaoscope.org
> ======================================================
>
Other related posts:
