Interactive Fractal Explorer [fractal-explorer]

An interactive fractal explorer built with pygame, numpy and numba - utilising cuda processing and customisable color-mapping.

Features

• Interactive
• Cuda processing
• Colormapping
• Multiple fractals:
  • Mandelbrot
  • Burning ship

Executing

The program can either be run by command-line execution or within an IDE. I recommend using this within an anaconda environment with the cudatoolkit package (version 10.2.89) installed for the most seamless use.

Command-line execution:

run py fractal.py

optional arguments:

• -h, —help
  show help message and exit
• -f
  fractal set to generate from {‘burningship’, ‘mandelbrot’}
• -i
  maximum iterations
• -c
  starting coordinates xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax separated by spaces. e.g. py fractal.py -c -2.5 1.5 -2.0 2.0
• -r
  resolution of window

Example:
py fractal.py -r 1280 -f burningship -c -1.8 -1.7 -0.01 0.09

Within an IDE:

run main() within fractal.py

All parameters are optional. The defaults are:
fractal='mandelbrot'
iterations=1500
resolution=1000
coords=(-2.5, 1.5, 2.0, 2.0)

Here is an example of executing with custom parameters:

    main(fractal='burningship',
         iterations=2500,
         resolution=720,
         coords=(-1.8, -1.7, -0.01, 0.09))

Controls

(All controls take place on cursor position)

• Left-click: zoom in
• Right-click: zoom out
• Middle-mouse: relocate center

Requirements

Python 3.8 or later

For module requirements see requirements.txt

NOTE: Testing has only been with Python 3.8+

To-do

• Add more fractal sets
• Add smooth zoom animation
• Add regular jit and/or cuda emulation fallback for cuda incompatible systems
• Add menu screen (for entering fractal, resolution, colormap, max iterations, etc.) => turn into executable
• Add additional controls (e.g. return to original position)
• Add the option to select colourmap in command line execution