Dynamo 1.0

This major update brings a bunch of exciting new features:

System

• Images and palettes are now saved to appropriate user directories, allowing for Dynamo to reliably run from any working directory
  • Scripts are also now saved to an appropriate user directory
  • ⚠️ The scripting feature is not yet portable: Dynamo must be run from the project root if you wish to load and compile scripts

Interface

• Complete rework of fractal menu to make it user-friendly
• Periodic points and orbits can now be followed in live mode with Ctrl-F
• Pan the view by dragging the mouse

Image

• More options for palettes, such as using CIE XYZ color space
  • Backwards compatible with old palette files
• Implemented distance estimation algorithm (D to toggle, arrow keys to adjust palette appropriately)
• Fixed the micro-gaps that sometimes appeared in external rays when saving images

Annotations

• Draw orbit portraits with Shift-O
• Extend an external ray outward from the selected point with Shift-E
  • Whereas the angle-based external ray features (E, Y, Ctrl-E, Shift-O) use Newton's method, this feature solves an ODE. Both techniques have pros and cons:
    • On one hand, the ODE method is a lot more flexible. For instance, it can be used to draw internal rays, rays in bounded escape regions, and rays for non-monic maps.
    • On the other hand, the ODE is stiff in the "inward" direction (i.e. toward the bifurcation locus), which can lead to inaccurate results.
  • Numerical instability notwithstanding, inward ODE rays can be drawn with Shift-R. The hidden hotkey Shift-T will extend a ray in both directions.
• Faster equipotential algorithm by using the above ODE. This allows for much deeper equipotentials than were previously possible.
• Multiplier contours for some marked cycle curves: M for one through selection, Shift-M for many near selection

Internals

• ~5-20% performance improvement across all profiles
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and code cleanup
• Two new profiles:
  • Per(2) 3-fold cover (unrolling the orbifold point $z\mapsto 1/z^2$)
  • Unicorn (desymmetrized tricorn)

Dynamo beta 0.7.1

Incremental release with a lot of small improvements and optimizations.

Dynamo Alpha 0.6.1

An incremental update with a bunch of optimizations to the various profiles, for an average speedup of 10% or so.

0.6.0 changelog:

• External rays are now more robust and work for some non-monic families
• Major performance improvement for QuadRat Per(3)
• 10-25% performance increase for all profiles
• Improved dynamics API to be more ergonomic
• Added ability to save and load palettes
• Minor improvements and bug fixes to GUI
• Gave the project a less generic name

Dynamo Alpha 0.6.0

No big new features with this update, but a lot of under the hood optimizations and cleanups.

• External rays are now more robust and work for some non-monic families
• Major performance improvement for QuadRat Per(3)
• 10-25% performance increase for all profiles
• Improved dynamics API to be more ergonomic
• Added ability to save and load palettes
• Minor improvements and bug fixes to GUI
• Gave the project a less generic name

Fractal Explorer 0.5.1 (alpha)

Changelog:

• Saved images now contain all annotations, upscaled with resolution for visibility
• External rays are more robust and work for a few more families, such Cubic Per(1)
• Added an experimental scripting implementation (not included in binaries due to instability and dependencies)
• Minor improvements and bug fixes

Fractal Explorer Alpha 0.4.0

Initial alpha release of fractal-explorer. The tool has only been tested on x86_64 Linux and Windows, and it might not run correctly on other platforms. Please submit an issue if you are having trouble getting it to work.

Hotfixed performance on Windows by compiling locally. Performance on macOS is untested and may still be lacking.