Thank you, Jenny. I just logged onto the forum to ask exactly the question that Eveline asked, and I find the answer already here. I'm hoping we'll hear from Joey soon. Dennis

Just like so many here, I started out with FE, but rarely use it any more. 90% of my time is spent with XD; I love being able to make 3D fractals. For that same reason, I seem to have most of the programs that will do quaternions, including the entire suite from Mystic Fractals. Not that I really know how to use them, of course. When I want to do bright fun colorful images, I use MBF. I tried UF but didn't like the UI, and I've never been that big a fan of flames; whenever I get the urge, I can do them in XD.

Take a look here. All the "extra" files should be here. If you can't get it working IM me. http://www.fractalfairy.com/~feusers/fefiles/index.html Dennis

You might try joining the XenoDream group at Yahoo. It's called Xenodraamers. There are several very good tutorials in the files section. If you need help with joining a Yahoo group, send me an IM and we'll figure it out. Welcome to XD. I'll be looking forward to seeing your work. Dennis

Bee - I would have to add that patience is the one thing that XD requires a lot of. It took me a month or more of fiddling and reading tutorials and pusing buttons to get anything decent from it, and after using it for a year or so I'm still nowhere near as good as several others here. It's a very powerful program, but the user interface is very different, and very intimidating. I wouldn't go so far as to say don't buy it, but I would definitely say don't start there. Learn to use a few of the free programs, like FE or APO, first, then if you think you're really ready to spend the time and effort to learn XD, you'll find lots of help here. Good luck, Dennis

Welcome to the gallery, Diane. Since you're using Fractal Explorer, check out the mailing list at http://www.fractalfairy.com/~feusers/links.html

Well, this is a bit difficult to answer (note that I did not say it was a hard one.) I have all mine in a subtree, but that includes submission-sized jpgs, bmps, thumbnail jpgs, and parameter files. A right-click and Properties on that folder shows 4215 files in 77 folders, totaling 2.77 GB. If I just search for *.jpg and limit it to files larger than 2 KB, I get a much more reasonable 1800 or so files. I've been doing this for just over two years, and I've done at least a few images in about 10 programs.

I use PSP for post work, but for thumbnails I use Thumbs Plus. I import the full-sized jpg, then resize it to 200x200. The Save As dialog shows the file size before I save, so if necessary I can compress as much as I need to before I save. I find it a lot easier than saving in PSP, then checking what size file I got, then doing it all again. Dennis

Well, done, Jeff. I just wanted to let FE users know that there are several more tutorials available on the FEUsers site at http://www.fractalfairy.com/~feusers/tutorials/index.html Dennis

I assume you are ending up at this page: http://software.z-java.com/ I followed the links from Paul's page and ended up there. It looks like Sterlingware is no longer free. Sorry. Dennis

There's a link to Sterlingware from Paul N Lee's page at http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/Fractal_Software.html I didn't follow it farther than the first page, just to make sure the link was good. Give that a try. Dennis

I would echo everything Seadreamer said. Check out the user group for FE; you'll get all the help you need. If you really want to do 3d fractals, you'll need something like XenoDream or one of the quaternion packages, like QuaSZ. Neither is free, and you should probably cut your teeth on a 2D program first. XenoDream costs $69 US. Their website is www.xenodream.com QuaSZ costs $30 US if purchased separately, but is available packaged with other programs by the same author. See my gallery here for examples of both programs. Dennis

I just started putting borders on my fractals a short while ago, but now I'm a firm believer in it. My reason is that I do my borders in colors from the fractal, so I think the frame complements the fractal. But tjames makes a very good point; without a border, it can be hard to see where the fractal ends and the background begins. With my gallery at zanografix, the problem is twofold. Two of the images are old, from before I started adding borders, and when I uploaded to the gallery I couldn't find the bitmaps for those two from which to add the borders. So if I want to add borders I'll have to re-render, which I may very well do. The other problem is that one of them, the emerald one for anyone who has looked, already has a frame, but it's essentially the same color as the fractal, so it hardly counts. I consider that fram an experiment that didn't really work. So even if I re-render the others, that one will keep its apparent lack of a frame. I guess all I'm saying is that I agree, it's a hard problem. Some people never frame their images, so what should the gallery owner do then? I know the gallery software that tjames is using is very user-friendly, but I don't know if it allows different galleries to have different background colors.

Thanks for the plug, Tres. :-) I love quaternions, but they are indeed demanding. It takes me a lot of time to get what I want, then, because they are 3D instead of 2D, they take a long time to render. Having said that, let me say I'm talking about maybe 15 to 30 minutes on my 2.6 HHz Northwood, while I typically render a big complicate XD image overnight. So render time shouldn't be a deciding factor. As far as ease of use, right now QuaSZ is easier than FE. But Arthur is working on a new version, and the quat generator will definitely be improved. And of course, FE is freeware. I think, as with any art, it comes down to doing what you like. Feel free to send me an IM or email if you'd like to discuss either QuaSZ or FE further. Check out the galleries at http://hypercomplex.org/fractals.htm The URL for QuaSZ is http://mysticfractal.com/ for FE it's http://www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/