Fractal explorer (Fractol)

A multi-threaded fractal explorer with image export & adjustable smooth colors.

Features

Multithreaded
Zooming in with mouse scroll
Moving towards mouse when zooming
Panning with arrows
Centering to mouse position on click
Multiple Julia & Mandelbrot style fractals (9 in total)
Mouse movement controls for Julia fractals
Adjustable color palette & color palette size
Adjustable colors via command line arguments
Random colors though in the range of currently used colors
Smooth colors
Adjustable max iteration limit
Adjustable powers (z^pow) on mandelbrot_n & julia_n
High resolution .bmp image export
Debugging UI displaying positional info & color palette (Toggle with G)
Multiple windows, can open all fractals simultaneously

Usage

git clone https://github.com/hakolao/fractal_explorer.git && cd fractal_explorer && make
# Default usage
./fractol

usage:
 ./fractol [fractal_name] -colors=[r,g,b\|r,g,b\|+]

fractals:
 all (opens all)
 mandelbrot (Default)
 julia
 burning_ship
 mandelbrot_n
 julia_n
 bird_of_prey
 julia_mod
 phoenix_mod
 burning_julia

example:
 ./fractol mandelbrot julia -colors=255,0,0\|0,255,0\|0,0,255

more options:
 ESC to exit
 G for guide & further actions on screen.
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Some favorites:

./fractol phoenix_mod -colors=255,255,255\|255,0,0\|0,0,255
./fractol phoenix_mod -colors=0,0,0\|255,0,0\|0,0,255

Three colors work quite well & randomizing given values with button C makes it quite nice. The randomizer only randomizes colors of given inputs that were larger than 0. So it keeps the palette similar to what it was in the beginning. E.g.255,255,255 will be totally random after clicking C, but 255,0,0 will be rand() % 255, 0, 0. Remember to increase the iterations on especially Julia type fractals with 2 & 1 to increase definition.

Headers

Edit following macros in the fractol.h header file. Note that with current design HEIGHT / THREADS should have no remainder. HEIGHT % THREADS should be 0.

// Resolution
# define WIDTH 1080
# define HEIGHT 1080

// Export image resolution
# define IMG_WIDTH 4096
# define IMG_HEIGHT 4096

// Thread number
# define THREADS 8

Notes

This project was made as part of the graphics branch in Hive Helsinki. Therefore the code follows 42's strict norms:

Functions must not exceed 25 lines
Max 5 functions in a .c file
Cannot stick variable declaration and initialization on the same line
Max 5 variables per block
Max 4 parameters per function
Forbidden keywords: for, do ... while, switch, case, goto

Only existing C functions exit, open, close, write, read, malloc, free, and the functions of minilibx (libmlx) and math.h are allowed. Although other functions may be used in bonus features. Image export in this project's case used fopen, fwrite & fclose.