Fractal Universe V1

[Art]

Fractal Universe V1 for Sony PSP by Art 2009

PSP Version:






Canon Digital Camera Version:


Hi Guys.
This is my first version of Fractal Universe for the PSP.
I wasn't going to write any more PSP apps since I'm actively programming
for another platform and all, but this one was actually done to speed up
the process of writing the same program to run on another platform
(and then I got carried away with it).

This is a relatively fast Mandelbrot set fractal explorer.
You can move left, right , up, down, and zoom in & out of the image you see at any time.
The fractal universe is limitless, and you can zoom in as many times as you like without
losing any detail. You can also save an image to Memory Stick.

Download backup link:
Send big files the easy way. Files too large for email attachments? No problem!

Cheers, Art.

[FaT3oYCG]

Nice Art i love the apps and programs that you make you always provide screenshots and good documentation aswell, well done

[Art]

Thanks :)
I'm glad I did this one, because I used to like playing with a program like this years ago.
(and it was much slower).

[joseph10444]

hey screens look reall nice and promising
but what does this line mean? "This is a relatively fast Mandelbrot set fractal explorer."

[Art]

It's pretty intensive work for the computer to render a fractal.
This algorithm is "relatively" fast (ie. faster than some other algorithms out there).
The PSP isn't the fastest platform to run it on though.
It takes some seconds to render each frame.

The previous PSP fractal explorer was able to do it faster sacrificing quality.
This one should be virtually infinite (for as long as you can keep dividing a double precision float by 2),
which means you can keep zooming in forever and not lose any detail.

[niobe]

nice app, but level details after multiple zoom (cca 10x) rapidly declines

[FaT3oYCG]

o_O the quality is fine, you zoomed in so you get more black, what did you expect it to look like that is not pixilated! good quality.

[seanpaul223]

Pretty Nice, Art, I tried it.

I have been working on the same topic, in Lua. I found the whole script on my laptop.

depth,x0,y0,x1,y1 = 32,-1,-1,1,1
--x0 = -0.65
--y0 = -0.7
--x1 = -0.5
--y1 = -0.6

collist = {}
for i=0,depth do
b = math.floor(i / depth * 1024)
if b > 255 then
b = 255
end
g = math.floor((i - depth / 3) / depth * 1024)
if g > 255 then
g = 255
end
if g < 0 then
g = 0
end
r = math.floor((i - depth / 3 * 2) / depth * 1024)
if r > 255 then
r = 255
end
if r < 0 then
r = 0
end
collist[i] = Color.new(r, g, b)
end
collist[depth-1] = Color.new(0, 0, 0)

-- Drawing Fractal
w,h=480,272
render = Image.createEmpty(480,272)
deltax = x1 - x0
deltay = y1 - y0
for y=0,h-1 do
	for x=0,w-1 do
	r = 0; n = 0; b = x / w * deltax + x0; e = y / h * deltay + y0; i = 0
		while i < depth-1 and r * r < 4 do
		d = r; r = r * r - n * n + b; n = 2 * d * n + e; i = i + 1
		end
	render:pixel(x, y, collist[i])
	end
screen:blit(0, 0, render)
screen.waitVblankStart()
screen.flip()
end

while true do
screen.waitVblankStart()
screen:flip()
end

And result:

[I-am-nobody]

Good to see your work on the psp aging.

Thanks

[nickxab]

They are nice for screensaver.
Is it possible to make it ?

[cmbeke]

wow this looks great

[Torch]

Sometimes my memory stick led keeps blinking for ever when I use this.

You should have a list of "known to look cool" color palletes

[Art]

nice app, but level details after multiple zoom (cca 10x) rapidly declines

You are right. My understanding is somewhat better now.
I have a fix that will allow many more levels of detail:



And note you can't see the transition between colours.
This level of detail at high zoom costs a lot of time, so I'm thinking of a trick
to use like zooming in at low detail, and then turning on high detail once you're
already there.

I also have saving of multiple images ready.
Art.

[cmbeke]

that sounds neat, you should add some catchy song to it it feels like that is all that is missing. Anyways great work

[TesterSam]

Fyi- Details at higher zoom.. (Ie Blackness) is fixed with higher iterations.

[bboyjcm]

Amazing work Art ! =]

[Art]

Fyi- Details at higher zoom.. (Ie Blackness) is fixed with higher iterations.

Yes, this one uses 30, I'm adding an option for 256 which is also the number
of colours in the palette.

There's also an "auto mode" that will zoom out to 0 from where ever you are,
and save a numbered image for every frame.

[cmbeke]

that sounds good

[Art]

Sometimes my memory stick led keeps blinking for ever when I use this.

You should have a list of "known to look cool" color palletes

Don't know why that would be. It only should access the MS to save images.
The colour palettes are auto generated with the code from the PSP Plasma demo :)
It would be possible to remember the number of iterations used to generate each palette to reproduce good ones.

[Torch]

When it shows the intro screen and I press a button to show the first image, the MS LED starts blinking. It keeps blinking until I press a button again and it says CALCULATING. It would be nice if it didn't exit immediately when pressing the Home button.

[Art]

Ah, I was using the exit callbacks, but it either hung or took a very long time to exit,
so I set to exit on popup screen.

Here's a demo I'll be using in the thread for version 2. Done by incrementing the max
number of iterations by one for each of 256 frames :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOYNpAPuClE

There's plenty of zoom videos on YouTube, but I haven't seen this effect yet.
Art.

[cmbeke]

wow that is awsome keep up the good work

[Torch]

Ah, I was using the exit callbacks, but it either hung or took a very long time to exit,
so I set to exit on popup screen.

How are you detecting the Home screen from user mode?? The ExitCallback only fires after the user chooses Yes.
I don't see why it would take long using the exit callback. As long as you check the done=1 or whatever variable that gets set in the callback from withing the rendering loop it should terminate instantly.

[Art]

Thanks, it appears to be fixed now.
You can check for the exit popup just by checking for the Home button in user mode.

[Torch]

Thanks, it appears to be fixed now.
You can check for the exit popup just by checking for the Home button in user mode.

No you can't read the Home button from user mode. You're using the kernel mode Ctrl functions if you can do that. Or you're using kubridge. Which means its not firmware independent like you said it was. kubridge is only available from 3.something CFW onwards and directly calling the kernel function would only work on the 1.50 kernel.

[Art]

Doesn't this line:
PSP_MODULE_INFO("Fractal Universe", 0, 1, 0);
cause a program to be unable to use kernel mode functions?
then this:
// if(pad.Buttons & PSP_CTRL_HOME) {
// sam = 1; // set sample address counter
// samlock = 1; // re-enable player routine
// samsel = 1; // select click sample
// sceKernelExitGame();
// }

is what I was using.

THe problem is if I check for a done var for every iteration it will probably add significant delay
with so many iterations.
I could compromise and check once each line or something.

[Torch]

Right, I forgot. In user mode it doesn't return the physical state of the Home button (whether its pressed or not) but returns whether the Exit screen is visible or not. Thus it would return true even after you release the home button.

You have to be checking for the Home button in a loop as well right? That consumes WAAAAY more CPU, 1000s of instructions, as its a Syscall into a kernel export. Checking if done!=0 would be compiled to 3 or 4 instructions. It just needs to respond in a reasonable amount of time, so just put it in an appropriate location.

[Art]

I wasn't checking it at all in the drawing loop though.
It would have still taken ages to exit while drawing probably.
But I'm going to check the done var for each of the 272 lines that are drawn.