I like to be creative and dabble in making Fractals just for fun. I thought I would start up a FRACTAL related thread and see what Fractal programs other people have made using VB6.
Here are a few that I have created:
Circle Fractal
The circles recurse around each other. Almost like an embroidery pattern at higher recursion levels.
Square Fractal
The squares repeat again and again. Sides of the squares can be turned off to make other lined patterns.
Here are the codes for people to play around with. I wonder if converting to CAIRO improves their quality. Also thought of adding transparency as an extra effect.
Please share your own VB6 fractals if you would like to.
Your Julia Set Fractal program looks great. Your MultiThreading skills are Top Notch. Never really fullly understood multithreading in VB6 so I tended to concentrate on geometry, recursiveness and basic program design.
Would love to include multithreading in my programs so I will have a look at your code.
At higher levels my programs (the Circle fractal in particular) are a bit slow and LAGGY.
I remember doing such things with my amiga500, using different formulas, mostly sin/cos/tan stuff to create patterns, kaleidoscope and similar Julian/Mandelbrot alternatives.
always wanted to create an animated Mandelbrot program but when I tried that 20 years ago VB6 was indeed slow and my knowledge limited.
maybe another try with todays standard and use direct2d/opengl/gdi instead?
I also coded a "life" program, u know, u create a pattern, and u see if the pattern can evolve or just die out.
not sure when and where I have it, I think lost in time, but also fun things to create and watch.
I have come across quite a few CPP source codes and programs that Animate the Mandelbrot and Julia Sets quite well. Most of these use OpenGL and other GL Ray traceers to add "Glassiness" to the fractal images, with many being Multithreaded and using the CPU and GPU. "Mandelbulber" is a free program that many are using to create those really sophisticated Fractal Patterns. People make these sophisticated scripts and upload them to the Web for others to try out, but unfortunately you need pretty powerful computers to do this.
When animating, the Fractal programs make use of 3 Disney Animation Principals called "Appeal", "Arcs" and "Anticipation". Appeal makes sure that images are not "Twinned" or totally symmetrical. Antipation and Arcs are the curved Arcs and Circles that both Mandelbrot and Julia Fractals are known for, so the swirls add excitment to the Fractal Animation (A bit like a Roller Coaster Animation).
My next two fractals are "Fractals that show Randomness". For this I am showing a Fern Fractal and a Random Tree Fractal. The Fern Fractal uses IFS (Iterated Functions System) and the Tree Fractal introduces Randomness so as not to make the Tree totally Symmetrical. IFS relies on a set of "Grammar Rules" or Algorithms that decide when to turn and when to go straight. Randomness adds a bit of unpredictability into the fractal picture so as to make it more realistic to a Real Tree or Plant in Nature.
Unfortunately straight VB6 does not do Alpha, Anti-aliasing, Shadows and MultiThreading as well as languages like Java, JavaScript and CSharp. It is still nice to play around with VB6 to make simpler, less CPU intensive Fractal Programs.
The Fern Fractal
Uses IFS/Algorithm to make a near realistic picture of a Fern Leaf.
Random Tree Branch Fractal
Uses randomness to make the fractal more Appealing and more Life-Like.This tree was originally made by Originally made by: Jason Ryczek on Planet Source code. I then added a few bits and pieces.