Important:

Your manual may state that you need to turn on 24-bit mode to load 24-bit
images.  Due to the late change in the program, the extended .XYW file of
FractalPro 5.0 images will automatically tell the program which type of
image is being loaded and you needn't manually set the 24-bit mode to load
24-bit pictures or set HAM mode to load HAM pictures.  

This only applies to pictures saved with FractalPro 5.0 with its new 
.XYW file extensions.  If you want to always be on the safe side, just set
the mode of the image you want to load before you load it.  You will have
to turn off 24-bit mode to load HAM images made with earlier versions of
FractalPro (e.g. 4.0).


A Note to FractalPro owners who are upgrading from 4.0 to 5.0:

FractalPro 5.0 has many changes, but the operating interface should look
familiar.  Here is a short summary of the changes to let you get going
a little faster than a new user, but please read the new manual.  Some
sections haven't changed, but many have new information on using the
24-bit functions of FractalPro 5.0.


1.  No more XPre option - you'll find that menu position now occupied by
the 24-Bit option, but it also uses the RightAmiga-X keyboard alternative.

2.  New Color Menu options include Spectral, Negative, and Scheme2.
Spectral and Scheme2 only apply to 24-bit pictures, but Negative can be
used to render both types of images (HAM and 24-bit) in a negative color
scheme which is quite attractive for many pictures.

3.  When you use 24-bit mode, FractalPro renders both the 24-bit pic
and the HAM pic simultaneously.  The rendering process looks a little
different, though, since it takes place a line at a time.  FractalPro 5.0
performs an entire line of calculations before plotting any points at
all on that line.  Then it plots the whole line at once, on both the
24-bit pic and the HAM pic.  If you are making only HAM pics (you have
24-bit mode turned off), rendering will look the same as before - every
dot is rendered as soon as it is calculated.

4.  Count values have been increased to include both 8192 and 16384.  Some
HAM pics will benefit from these as will some 24-bit pics (which will get
you a full 16384 colors when they do!).

5.  Whenever you have AutoSave turned on during sequencing, FractalPro will
not only build up a FPro.SEQ file in ram:, but will also create a FPro.NAM
file in ram: each time a picture is saved.  FPro.NAM contains the path and
name of the last picture saved by FractalPro.

6.  You can create a script file (be sure to set its 's' bit with the
Protect command) in ram: called FPro.SCR and FractalPro will execute that
script after each pic is saved during sequencing (only when AutoSave is on).
You must start FractalPro from a CLI to utilize the Script option (bottom
of the Options Menu).

7.  Vista files are created from the center of the picture by default.  You
also have an option to make them from the lower left corner region as was
the case in FractalPro4.0.  This is the Vista Corner option.

8.  Vista files now exist in 4 flavors:  Lakes and Mountains, both Positive
and Negative (depending on whether you have the Negative color option on or
off).

9.  Vista files are now created within the program and only saved to ram:
after the picture is finished.  They are saved in Vista's compressed file
format and are much smaller than those made with FractalPro4.0.

10.  You have a ColorMod option (1, 2, 4, or 8) which lets you force the
count value measured at any pixel to be divided by the ColorMod value before
the point is drawn on the screen.  This helps eliminate the noisy, 'dotty'
appearance of some deep zooms and some 'cube' Mandelbrot Set images.

11.  There are two new pair of fractal formulae, which cooperate with each
other as Mandelbrot/Julia pairs like the original four formulae did.  You
get a Sine function fractal and a 'Wolf' function fractal.  The latter is
one I stumbled upon which makes great pictures.

12.  You get an ARexx interface which is easy to use.  See the ARexxInfo
file on this disk for complete details of all the commands you can send
to FractalPro from a script.  You have virtually complete control from ARexx.

13.  Of course, you get 24-bit pictures now.  If you have a Firecracker board,
FractalPro 5.0 will always render to it automatically if you have 24-bit mode
turned on.  If not, FractalPro will still make/load/save 24-bit pics, but
they will be in an 'invisible' memory buffer to hold the 24-bit data.

14.  This program is written completely in 68882 code and is MUCH faster
than before.  It also has greater precision so you can zoom in further.
There are no more limitations where the Zoom menu items ghost as you 
zoom in.  You should be careful, but you can even zoom PAST where the
Width value says all 0's.

Preliminary results show a speedup of about 4x over FractalPro 4.0 on a
25 mhz 68030 (typical Amiga 3000/25).  Make that over 20x if you're using
a 68040!


NOW READ THE NEW MANUAL and HAVE FUN!

I'd like to hear from any of you who like or don't like this new version.
A lot of work and testing went into it.  I sure hope you like it.  Many
of your suggestions were adopted in designing this power-user's version
of FractalPro.  The images are better than ever, faster, more colors,
24-bit IFF support, and ARexx.  What do you think?

 
Daniel Wolf
MegageM
1903 Adria
Santa Maria, CA 93454
805-349-1104
Compuserve 70250,626

December 19, 1991