Chaoscope Manual |
Table of Contents |
Previous: Rendering modes | 4. Interface |
Of all the aspects of Chaoscope, the interface is probably the one that needs the most work to do. For instance, there's no possibility to save a full project yet and there is no undo. So be careful when you find an attractor worth being rendered not to press the F3 key again!
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4.1 Language selection |
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The first time Chaoscope is launched, you will be asked to select the default interface language. Highlight one of the two options and press OK. |
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4.2 Managing projects |
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These are the project management functions available once a project has been created : New...
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Load...
Save attractor as...
Save image as...
Close
Quit
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4.2.1 Creating a new project |
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You will have to start with creating a new project before you can render attractors, or load a parameters file. Attractor and rendering types can be set as well as the image size. Two types require an extra parameter : number of matrices for IFS (default is 4) and equation order for Polynomial Sprott (default is 2). Apart from the view Width and Height, all the options can be changed once the project is opened. |
![]() the New Project dialog box |
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4.3 The Attractor interface |
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4.3.1 The Attractor menu |
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Search
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![]() the Attractor menu |
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Stop Search
Start
Stop
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4.3.2 The Attractor property palette |
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The Type drop-down list lets you change the attractor equation on the fly. The Iterations is the number of times the equation will be computed. The default value is twenty millions. The rendering time will vary depending on the computer speed, the equation and the rendering type. On average, a rendering takes less than five minutes. The Randomness is the factor, expressed as a percentage, of random variation applied to each parameter during a search. The lower the Randomness is, the more similar the attractor will be after a search. |
![]() the Attractor property palette |
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Below are the parameters, which
you can modify either by typing a new value in the text box or
using the slider. Dragging
it left or right will update the Attractor in real-time. |
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When the mouse cursor is moved close
enough to the slider thumb, the cursor will change shape : from
one to three black arrows
pointing away from the thumb. Keep the left mouse button pressed
and the slider thumb position will smoothly move in the direction
indicated by the arrows until you release the mouse button or
move the cursor away from the slider. Click on the check box next to the parameter name to exclude it from a search. A parameter is excluded when the box is checked. |
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4.4 The View |
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4.4.1 The different view modes |
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There are five different view modes. The View mode is indicated in the View window title bar, after the Attractor type, within brackets. Searching
Preview
No attractor
Rendering
Render
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4.4.2 The View interface |
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Once you have found an attractor you wish to render, you may want to change the point of view, or zoom in onto a particular feature. To do so, first make sure the View window has the focus. You can then apply the following adjustments to the view : Rotation
Translation
Scale (Zoom)
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4.4.3 The View menu |
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Copy
Centre |
![]() the View menu |
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Adjust
Auto Adjust
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4.4.4 The View property palette |
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In this palette, the changes made to some of the properties will not be applied immediately. You will know if a change needs to be applied when the property caption is displayed in bold characters. Press Return to apply the changes or Escape to cancel them. The Render drop-down list lets you change
the rendering mode on the fly. |
![]() the View property palette |
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The Updates value is the number of times
the view will be updated while rendering an attractor. You
may change
to "1" when you are ready to start the final rendering
of an attractor. When in Light or Plasma mode, you can load a new gradient by double-clicking on the gradient itself. The format used by Chaoscope is the widely accepted FractINT .map standard. |
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Notes for the version 0.2 :
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Previous: Rendering modes | 4. Interface |