On Tue, 2005-03-29 at 17:16, Noel Giffin wrote:
Vortex Swirling wrote:
This is where I think a shared internet or intranet cpu system could work.
... I can point out a couple of flaws with this concept to start with.
Noel's right, calculating all the points in the set wouldn't work too well. There are several ways a network aware fractal generating program could provide cool additional functionality, though. 1) Speeding up calculations. Each user submits requests to the system, which are processed by the spare CPU cycles of other users whose computers are currently idle. This approach is used by Seti@home and the ElectricSheep screensaver, which produces flame-based animations. 2) Online repository of formulas, as in UltraFractal's formula database. The software can automatically download missing formulas. This could be expanded to .par and .map files as well. 3) A shared map of the M-set. Imagine if you could see the 'trails' of where other users had explored the set as rectangles surrounding the areas on the screen they'd been to, with names if they wanted to christen a particular valley or minibrot. (A central server would record the size and coordinates of each section each user renders.) You could follow their footsteps to cool areas or branch off to areas no-one had ever been before. -- Edwin