(I posted a few days ago, but no responses at all.) :( I guess Fractint has become old hat, but it's the only Fractal prog I know, so... Can anyone offer any ideas or suggestions on how to get Fractint to allow you to work in a good video mode? (Right now it will only allow me 256 colors at 360x480; really crummy.) Can Anyone help??? Thanks!

I'm sorry I can't help you Knuten. I do know it was one of the earlier programs so it might not have been kept up with today's new tech capabilities. Good luck in your quest for answers though!

I tried Fractint years ago and I hated it. In fact it screwed something up on my computer when I tried to run it so I refuse to ever use it again. Plus it is still a DOS program, never mind that Windows has been out for a decade (though there is an out of date Windows version). I just started created fractals again after seeing some of the amazing images in the gallery here. I started with Fractal Explorer and like it a lot. I also have used Tierazon 2. I love the colors in Tierazon, but don't really find it user friendly (having no undo function sucks). They are both free to download. Here's where you can get each of them: Fractal Explorer: www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/index.html Tierazon2: http://www.eclectasy.com/Iterations-et-Flarium24/ Lastly, here is a page I found that lists dozens of free fractal generators with comments on each one: http://www.fractovia.org/fractal_generators/gen01.shtml Hope that helps, Josh

Thanks, Josh, for the input. Yeah, there's a lot that's frustrating about Fractint, esp. for a non-math-nerd like me. But after struggling with it, I used to be able to create some fantastic stuff. Just wanted to get into it again. Years ago, when I was Fractinting, I also tried every other fractal program I could find, but thought they all stunk. But you're right, I should try some of the new stuff, and thanks for the addresses to find them!

I think if you put Paul N. Lee's name in Google, you will find tons of stuff on Fractint! I believe he is also a member of renderosity.

Thanks, tresamie! I'll give that a try.

Hi Knuten, Try these; http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/fractint/fractint.html http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/fractint/findex.html#seach_anchor Luc

Fractint, despite being a DOS program, can produce some beautiful images once you get used to it. It is not hard to memorize a few key combinations to make it work neither it requires you to be a computer geek to use it (I'm not one!). Of course I probably don't use half of its resources, but those I know how to use are enough to make some great images, to me at least. If your mouse is properly set to work in DOS, you can use it too for zooming. I've been using Fractint since 1996 (I think) and some of my favourite images are still made with it. The only reason that it may have messed things up is probably because you tried to use the wrong video settings. It doesn't support true colour mode (it does, but it sucks), so depending on the selected mode it makes your screen go black - nothing than a ctrl-alt-del can't fix. Also a drawback could be the 256 colours, but you can also import the PAR files into UF and change things. Also it has the excellent "Evolution" mode - select a formula, hit CTRL-E and it creates N new images for you. There's a "Winfract" version that works in Windows but it's not as good as the DOS version.

Thanks, marcusbacus! I, too, have used & enjoyed Fractint since the mid-'90s. I also tried many other fractal programs, but I prefer Fractint over them all. I don't mind the DOS interface at all; once you get the hang of it it's nice & quick. Once in Fractint, I don't use my mouse (Wacom tablet, actually), though I know it's possible. Finally, I'm likewise no math or computer or DOS geek. I used to run Fractint on my Pentium75, 16MB of RAM & a 2MB video card. Now that I have a much better PC, with 512MB RAM & a top-end video card, I get fewer display modes usable with Fractint! It makes no sense (to me), and THAT is the reason I posted in the Forum here, as well as having written to whatever non-dead links I could find for Fractint. I even corresponded with the fellow in Australia who wrote Winfract, but he was at a loss about the video mode thing. At present, the best mode that I can use & SEE is 256 colors @ 360x480. Then, when I "think" I have something worthwhile rendering, I CAN have it invisibly render in "Disk RAM Video" mode... but then to finally see it I have to open it in Photoshop, IrfanView, etc.. And, yes, I have tried out all of the video modes available in Fractint's list. Sigh. Oh, the travails of tryin' to make a purdy pitcher. Anyway, marcusbacus, it's nice to hear from another Fractint fan. I hope we aren't the only 2 left. :) You mentioned 2 things I'm not familiar with: the "Evolution" mode, & "...import the PAR files into UF...". If you have the time, please expand on the latter. And thanks again! ...Knuten

Knuten, I don't see why you can't use better resolutions. If it works in 360x480, you should be able to use bigger resolutions too. I am using the SF7 mode, SuperVGA/Vesa autodetect, and I am able to use any of the "standard" resolutions this way (640x480, 800x600, etc). Probably your card doesn't have this VESA compatibility, not sure. Also, I never run it in a window, it's always full-screen. Also, there are ways to customize the video settings, but I've never tried that. Any customization in Fractint is very complicated, and the only one I could do so far was the starting image's settings. Fractint can save the image's "parameters" the same way as UF does, in "PAR" files. Whenever you get an image you want to save, hit "B" to save the "parameter set" - name it using the DOS conventions (8+3), and name your image and fill other required fields (I just change the "save colors" to "yes"), F6 changes the folders if you don't want to save them in your default folder. Other images can be saved this way into the same "parameter set" (that can be like "images of May/03"), each one has its own entry just like in UF, I like to name mine using just numbers. To recover a saved image, hit "@" in the main menu, and find the .PAR file you want to open and load the desired entry. And after a .PAR is saved, you can use it in UF the same way as .UPRs. Be warned though that some images may appear slightly (or very!) different in UF (some can't be fixed at all), mostly those that use the "T" and "B" drawing modes and some other coloring methods. So far, I was able to recover about 90% of my original Fractint images in UF. Once in UF, you are free to use any of its features. The CTRl-E (available in the 20.0 version only I think, not available in Winfract) makes Fractint create N images for you. Hit it and then change a few settings and you're done. Mine are: Evolution mode: Y Image grid size: 7 (odd numbers only), the bigger the number, the more images it displays at once. the other settings can be left as they are, then hit F6 to change specific formula settings. I like to set all to "random" whenever it's possible, but the "invert radius" and "invert center x-y" fields (sometimes I change these to random too). Page-Up/Down selects the image to be zoomed (the same way as with big images), and ctrl-arrows make you browse through the generated images. Choose one, hit Enter and it becomes the central image, and a new "evolution" starts again. To view one of these images, select it, hit CTRl-E to enter the Evolution settings page again and change "Full screen" to N again. When you start getting too many repetitions or if nothing changes too much, it's time to try another formula. F1 while in the Evolution mode page gives you a more detailed description of this control along with a short "tutorial". If you have more questions feel free to write me at fractals@baco.nu .

Thanks, again! I tried out the Evolution mode a bit, & it looks quite interesting; will have to delve into it more. I wasn't sure what "UF" was, so checked on Google, & I presume it's "UltraFractal". UF looks like it would be great, but at $49 I'm afraid I'll have to forgo it for a while. I also don't see why I can't get better resolutions. I used to use SF7 & even SF9 with my crummy old PC. My present setup, using a Matrox Millennium G400, gives me up to 32-bit True Color @ 1600x1200 & 85refresh. ...For everything except Fractint. In Fractint, if I try anything better than 360x480, I get a Fractint-DOS beep & error message: "That video mode is not available with your adapter." (Or my monitor instantly shuts off, or other wierdnesses.) Maybe that's what I like about Fractint, & Poser, too: the "Challenge" of getting them to work. :) Thanks again for your tips; I definitely see some things I want to try out. Don't wish to be a bother, but I may take you up on your email offer in the future. ...Knuten

No problem, Fractint is still one of my favourite softwares ever and it's always nice to talk about it and exchange experiences... I remember giving up from using Windows ME (it sucked anyway) just because Fractint didn't work with it... Probably it seems that the major cause of Fractint not working as it should in your computer seems to be the video card. Maybe if you can get some DOS drivers (if there is such thing for your card - these that make it compatible with older games for example) it can work. I think I had a Viper II card once and it had some problems in some modes too but I think that the resolutions I could use then weren't so low. I'm not sure if you can use it after a clean DOS boot too, probably it will accept other video modes but then you'll lose the mouse/tablet support. Fractint in 1024x768 is amazing!

Many new video cards don't support the old DOS VESA interface that FractInt relies on to get good video modes. The 360x480 is an old "Mode X" display hack that actually works on just about every video card, because it doesn't rely on the VESA interface that's no longer supported. The FractInt discussion list had some talk about this not too long ago; the practical suggestion was to dual-boot into DOS, but that won't help if your video card isn't providing the support FractInt needs. My personal opinion is that UF is worth every penny of that $49, but I'm biased, so don't take my word for it. (smile) It's free to try for a while. --Damien

Attached Link: http://www.fractalland.com

Regarding the DOS and new cards: I replaced my old video card with an ATI Radeon 7000 (64MB) today, expecting it to not be compatible with all the video modes in Fractint (I had tried a Viper II in the past, unsucessfully), but it did work with all the VESA modes and also with all the true colour modes.

It worked a little more sluggish with the true colour modes (also something expected) and with some of the VESAs (a few actually), but it's very much usable after all, a nice $30 investment. It did crash with some of these modes too, but the final result was better than the "expected" result of to be able to use just the 320x240 resolution like it was with my old abandoned Viper II (I had too many other compatibility problems with that card too, and I came back to an "outdated" SiS card with "just" 8Mb since). It crashed in the Ctrl-E mode (evolution), not while making full screen images.

I've just installed the card, so I don't know much how it will behave with zooms and tweaks and things in Fractint. I've just tried the sample Mandelbrot in all the compatible modes and with the default colours, and it worked.