That's one busy life you're leading - and where's your time to create new fractals these days?  That's the trouble when you have to earn a living unfortunately!

My UF is working very slowly today!  I mean it's taking simply ages for each image to appear on the screen but maybe that's just because I cleared out the UF cache - just thinking out loud...

Not too many doggies do-do's I hope!  Hope the x-ray went ok and that whatever it was for shows that things are going to be ok...

So it's been hopefully a happy hoovering day! lol!

Well things got worse last night, as my computer just cut out twice, both whilst trying to render in UF!

This morning we hoovered it out!!!  There was a considerable amount of dust over the fans etc., and since we were told on a previous occasion that it was overheating due to excess dust (??????), we thought we'd give this a go ourselves as a preliminary attempt (so no-one can say it was dust and then charge us for it! lol!)

I then uninstalled several programs more recently installed, and came across something really wierd..  I had Squirls Water Reflections as a stand-alone programe on my drive, which I don't ever use.  OK, I thought I'd take that off, and it went through the uninstall process, but before finishing I was given the decision to make about certain associations this program had made elsewhere - namely, wait for it...  Ultra Fractal 3!!!  It was in quite a lot of places inside there, and as UF3 is the basic program upon which I downloaded the upgrades of UF 4.01 and then 4.03, I wondered if this just might be causing conflict!  For goodness sake, please no-one tell me it's an integral part of UF now!!!!  I mean it showed that the UF Server page was inside the Squirls Water Effects folder for goodness sake!!!  That was just one thing...

Then I took T's advice and rendered the image as a png file.  It worked.    And of course, instead of about 50MB filesize, it's about half!  And yet this wasn't one of my fractals that took many hours to render, it only took 50 mins in all - same as it told me it would take as a BMP.

At least I have achieved the render I need for this particular image, so we'll have to see what happens next!  I am backing up everything I want to keep as I go along at the moment, as I am indeed preparing for a reformat to be carried out sometime soon should the problems persist!

As for needing to hoover it out, I've worked with computers 15 years old in horrendously dirtly conditions and have never heard of them needing hoovering out before!  Makes my home sound filthy doesn't it?  But I can assure you, it's very clean, and hubby's computer has worked fine for years in this particular room...

Thanks guys. 

The reason I haven't been able to continue pursuing this is because there seem to be some conflicts of software on my computer, the particular (unlimited) version of JF's Apo being amongst them.  This has happened before with other versions of Apo and I'm not sure why, but I've ended up removing them from my harddrive in the end.  At the moment I'm dithering over making a decision!

(What's happening is that after using Apo, then trying to use PSP, I simply get the blue screen of death.  This happens again even after re-booting!  This tends to happen whenever I install any new program on my computer, not just Apo.  At some point I will probably need to seek professional advice, but right now I can't afford it, and I have never done a reformat in my life - just wouldn't know where to begin - and I don't think there's any point in anyone telling me how, as I just panic over that sort of thing, as I am unable to assimilate that kind of information!)

Thankyou Therese - I got your mail, and I have tried it.  I got the fractal to appear in UF just as you described, and was surprised to find I could pan it so that I could include more of the fractal in the frame.

However, when I went to render it, I got an error notification - basically telling me not enough memory.  I clicked on "Allow program to continue", and suddenly the render was "finished" within a minute.  I knew what I would find!  Yes, when I opened the "image" up in PSP I had a black screen!

I tried once again, but with the same result.  It seems this won't work on my computer.

It was worth a try, and thanks again for your help, even though it didn't work out - probably due to conflicts in my own computer in any case.

Quote - Are you sure it is not working?  I thought mine didn't work either because it does not show time passing at the bottom of the UF screen.  It does show the proper formula in the formula tab.  I got busy one time and left the computer alone for about 20 minutes and when I returned my APO was in UF.  Since then I have allowed ample time for the flame to get into UF and have not any problems.  I hope this makes sense as it is late and I do not have either program open.

 

As soon as I try to copy the upr into UF I get a notice coming up with a whole list of things it says it cannot copy, and this then results in just a very small image in the centre, which doesn't have any resemblance to the fractal flame in Apo.  It's really strange, because I know I have managed this in the past, but I think that's before all the later versions of both Apo and UF came out.  Anyway, presumably the list of protest means that even if I did wait long enough, I'd not get an image?

As for rendering straight from Apo, yes I do use the Flam3 rendering machine, and I guess if the worst comes to the worst I can interpolate it into a larger size, but I was hoping to avoid that step as it never quite gives the sharp finish I'm looking for.

Thanks so much for this info - which shows me I've basically wasted an awful lot of time!!!!

I will print this out and use it for future reference - I don't think I have the heart to re-do yet again all that I've already done!  Arrrgh!  I asked this question in the 2D forum too, and of course all the info given correlates exactly, so now I know!  What a horrendous learning curb!  (And huuuge files to work to as well!)

I'm very grateful to you all for your help.

Quote from Cherokee!  Doesn't anyone think it's MORE important to get the site back up and running correctly or links working correctly again before worring about ebots. To here you guys talk, it sounds as if ebots are more important to you that the site working. They had some serious problems with servers, give 'em a break and let them fix things as they can get to them.

Well now Cherokee, how very unsurprising that someone apparently has nothing bettter to do than read through a whole gammut of things people have said out of their concerns - quite naturally so - just in order to be unpleasant about it!!!!!!  So typical - and let me tell you, many have left Rendo because of such unpleasantness in the forums (and other things too)! 

I guess in that case you have also read everything else "we guys" have said elsewhere too?  And also that "we guys" in most instances do realise these things will take time?  Do you have any positive input to make I wonder, or do you just enjoy reading all the stuff you don't approve of in order to put others down?

Go on stab me!  I have nothing to lose!!!!!

Unfortunately I have to join in and say that I'm not getting any ebots for comments on my images at all since the galleries have been upgraded, although I have received a couple of ebots for fav. artists - very randomly though!  I'm having a personal nightmare at the moment navigating the site and fiding out which section will lead me to the place I actually want, because some links, such as My Options, go to different My Options to other links to the same thing!  Today my Homepage (which if I click on it at the sidebar takes me to a place to send a message) is missing completely.

I'm sure that this is all part of what has to be expected when upgrades so huge as this are made, and different areas of the site are being worked on in turn - what a mammouth task this must have been!  So sorry if it seems like complaining, but just would like to know if these are things that will become clear and simple in the future - and of course, whether the ebots will start to come through  and there will be the option to have them switched on or off (I did find that option for fav. artists, but not for comments btw.)

When I personally refer to postwork leading to more of a MM contender, I'm referring more to the addition of many other things in the picture, such as a figure or some other thing(s) that may detract from the main emphasis of the fractal itself, although it is intended to enhance the whole image. I am sure that making backgrounds, borders and siggies inside your favourite editing program is quite acceptable, as these should be purely an enhancement to the fractal itself. Ultimately though, it obviously isn't for me to say! That's simply my own thoughts on the matter. Hope that helps?

I fully understand where you're all coming from. No problemo! Linda, my feeling is the same as yours re the MM work if a fractal is the main focus, but I'm not sure how much MM has to be involved before it definitely becomes MM rather than Fractal categorised! It's on that basis that I got concerned at the amount of MM that seemed to be acceptably appearing in the Fractal Section, and since it gave me concern, I decided that I should follow my own instinct and not assume mine would be any more acceptable than anyone else's might! There's a lot to be said for not having separate sections at all! lol! Just separate genres, so that we can all just concentrate on the composition and creativity side, no matter what our programs are. But I KNOW plenty of people would not agree with me on that one either! Oooooooh ain't it all a confusing muddle for someone like me! Sorry for the bother, at the end of the day I can see everyone's point of view, and my own pales into insignificance!

Oh dear, I don't want this to become yet another of those hot debates, especially if it's already happened here in the past! My points are based purely on the assumption that there are those of us who prefer not to use the more user-UNfriendly 3D programs, and those that do like to use them. Yes, I have also noticed more and more MM stuff being accepted into the fractal section, and have just moved mine out of there into the MM section - actually before I read this, as I realised that I, also, rather objected to such free use of MM as if they were really true unadulterated fractals. If this is all going to become contentious, I'd rather the whole string were deleted. Maybe the moderators could just see what they think?

Thanks so much T, for the info. That makes some sense, and is obviously the reason why I didn't see those versions on the Apo site! lol. Nicky.

Thanks so much SimonKane.. That has made quite a difference! (What are these threads by the way?)

Linda, what a wonderful selection you have there! The one that "spoke" to me in the most potent way was the very simple image called "Where is thy victory O grave", and the words that you say beneath. (Well it would, wouldn't it!!!!) Your whole gallery is of a highly professional standard, and I'm so pleased to see that you have gone that step further into becoming a Deviant, and producing picture worthy of print and sale. Congratulations to you - WELL DONE!