I see all these incredible fractals posted in the gallery all the time, so I was just wondering which program(s) you guys use? Links?

im new to fractals,and Ive been using Ultrafractal...it`s at www.ultrafractal.com

Steve Fergusen has a bunch of pretty cool programs at http://www.eclectasy.com/Iterations-et-Flarium24/.

Cool . . . Thanks for the links. There must be something I'm missing though, because I've doodled around in UF a little, and nothing in there bears any resemblance to the high quality fractals in the gallery.

Keep on doodling and trying out. Read the tutorials. Good fractals are piece of hard work (at least for me).

Attached Link: http://www.parkenet.org/jp/ufresources.html

Christoph, you also need to download the Formula Database for UF to attain some of the variety you see in this gallery. As well, some folks post-process their work using Photoshop or other graphics programs. Many of us use UF, and it takes time and effort to produce good results; it's not a "point and click" program at all. Url for the best UF tutorials there are: http://www.parkenet.org/jp/ufresources.html Url for the UF Formula Database: http://formulas.ultrafractal.com/

Also check here:

http://users.pandora.be/jan.vyvey1/fractals.htm#Mailing_list_parameters

for archives from the UF mailing list parameters.

Also, if you're going to make use of the mailing list parameter archives (just as a bit of additional info for those who aren't familiar with UF-specific terms, parameter sets are the image recipes, and in UF they're known as uprs), it can't hurt to subscribe to the mailing list as well because there's often -- though not always -- commentary that goes with the parameter sets that explains what was done, how and why; puts the uprs in context, as it were : ) As well, a number of formula authors announce new formulas on the list, and give explanations and examples for using those formulas. The UF mailing list is also a good place to ask questions about UF and to get answers; a lot of experienced users subscribe and some of them are quite willing to provide technical help. Instructions for subscribing are at the site where you download UF : ) An additional note (I accidentally sent my earlier post off without really finishing it; just now got an e-bot indicating I'd actually posted something!): also at the UF Resources Page there are links to some other formula collections that aren't actually in the Database, as well as to the mailing list Challenges, each one of which was constructed to teach a specific thing in UF.

Don't forget, too, that there are other types of fractals besides the sort that UF produces best. IFS fractals can be awfully pretty. 2-D "flame" fractals such as those produced by Scott Draves' free program at www.draves.org/flame/ or the commercial KPT-5 Photoshop compatible plugin "Fraxflame" can be found in this gallery, as can 3-D IFS fractals produced by the commercial XenoDream program (www.XenoDream.com). I use every fractal program I can get my hands on, so all of these (plus those mentioned by others) are in my toolbox. Hope the links help.