Fractal programs

Paul N. Lee's Fractal Software Index:   for a comprehensive list of fractal-generating programs (and a lot of other fractals information).

The following programs are the ones I use most frequently.

Programs by Terry W. Gintz:   Terry's 3d programs open up a whole new world for artistic exploration of 3d fractal forms. The ones I use most often are QuaSZ and FraSZle, but you'll find an impressive selection for 3d and 2d work here. [commercial; Windows]

Fractal Explorer:  an ambitious and constantly-evolving program by Arthur Sirotinsky and Olga Fedorenko in the Ukraine; 2d, 3d and 4d fractals, formula compiler, plus a fractal landscapes texturing library. FE renders complete fractal landscapes but it will also export fractal terrains to specialist programs. [freeware; Windows]

Programs by Stephen C. Ferguson:   Tiera-Zon and Sterlingware are those I use regularly but they are just two of a whole line of excellent fractal programs at this site. [open source freeware; Windows]

Xaos:   a special favourite of mine because I discovered fractals and fractal art with this program and because it's fun. Its particularity is real-time zooming; just hold down the mouse button and you're away on a cyber-space voyage; left button zooms in, right zooms out, and you can change the direction with the mouse. [open source freeware; all common OS]

Apophysis:   a new flame fractal application with extensive editing functions and export capability. [open source freeware; Windows]

3d programs

Bryce:  The reference in 3D landscapes software. [commercial; Windows, Mac]

Vue d'Esprit:  3d landscape program developed in France by E-on Software. I did a lot of work with the 2.1 version when I ran Windows '98 and preferred it to Bryce, but unfortunately it won't run on NT systems and more recent versions are very unstable on my hardware. [commercial; Windows, Mac]

Terragen:   a superb 3d landscapes rendering program by Matt Fairclough which can produce very complex, detailed landscape surfaces; it also generates random fractal terrains.[shareware/freeware (with some limitations); Windows]

L-System:   by Timothy Perz, generates l-system objects from formulas, random generation or mutation, with export to 3d modelling programs or 2d image-treatment programs. [freeware; Windows]

Other programs

The Gimp:   an excellent RGB retouch and creation program and in some respects (jpg/jpeg compression for example) it beats everything else around. [open source freeware; Unix-type, Windows, Mac]

HTML-Kit:   full-featured HTML and XML editor; edits, formats, validates, previews and publishes web pages. [freeware; Windows]

Fractal art

Just what is fractal art?  some frequently asked questions, plus links to other discussions on the matter.

Fractal Art Museum Enterprise:   as the name suggests, it's a fractal art museum; loads of galleries by top fractal artists and regular multi-artist exhibitions on a particular theme.

Into The Mystic:  when you see the images of Terry Gintz you'll definitely want to download his programs (see programs listing).

Amazing Seattle Fractals:  part of Doug Harrington's Fractalarts site; Doug's art, visitors' gallery, and many fractals resources, including an excellent tutorial for Tiera-Zon.

Het Arendsnest:  FAME contest winner Arend Nijdam's home page.

Dreampaint:  works by Laurent Antonini.

Chasm Fractal Gallery:   Chasm's home page.

Fractal Art:  Yuan Yufeng's site; strictly pure fractal images, with a subtle Asian touch.

Christina's Place:  Striking 3d fractal images created with Xenodream, plus superb non-fractal landscapes.

Fractal math

Chaos Hypertextbook:  by Glenn Elert; the most understandable high-level explanation of fractals and chaos theory that I've found on the web, aimed not specifically at mathematicians but rather at those who use math professionally and math hobbyists.

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