Release 4.0

Quaternion - Formula Parameters

The formula tab lets you specify the iteration formula to use for the fractal. You can assign such a formula by double clicking onto the formula in the compiler window or by selecting it through the formula selection icon (right beneath the formula name at the top of the window).

If you right-click onto the formula selection icon (right beneath the formula name at the top of the window) you can choose one of the presets available for this fractal type. Presets are predefined settings (formulas) and are used as starting points for your own explorations.

You then can change the parameters of this formula.

For more information about setting parameters of your formula see Setting Formula Parameters.

• Iteration

  Here you can set the beloved "number of iteration"-parameter. It specifies how many iterations ChaosPro should perform. The higher the value, the more exact the quaternion, the slower the calculation.

  Quaternions look best with low iteration values. The smaller the iteration values, the smoother the quaternion! Most of the time very low values will lead to a distorted ball. The higher the iteration value, the more details appear, but the object will get holes.

• Background Detect

  A new parameter introduced in ChaosPro 3.1 is the "Background Detection": It speeds up the calculation by guessing where the background is. The background areas are the most computational intensiv areas, thus applying some logic to detect the background has a great impact on the calculation time.

• Inside

  If checked ChaosPro will render the inside of a quaternion. This of course only works if the camera is "inside" the quaternion. The difference between the "inside" and "outside" view is when ChaosPro thinks it has found the border of the object:

  Outside View: ChaosPro scans a ray starting from the camera position until it finds a point which is "inside".
  Inside View: ChaosPro scans a ray starting from the camera position until it finds a point which is "outside".

  The inside view might not work for all formulas: For example most distance estimation formulas only work for points outside an object. The standard ray scan algorithm should work in any case, as it only performs a stupid, slow, complete ray scan.