# Any good Windows Fractal programs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570 "2004-02-04T23:48:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/1 "2004-02-04T23:48:49Z")
The best one used to be Fractint, which ran great on DOS, but the Windows version blows. The window is tiny, and there doesn’t appear to be a way to increase it. I think it was designed for Windows 3.1 with very low resolution. Is there anything that compares with Fractint that runs well under a modern Windows OS? ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/2 "2004-02-05T03:44:07Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > The best one used to be Fractint, which ran great on DOS, but the Windows version blows. The window is tiny, and there doesn’t appear to be a way to increase it. I think it was designed for Windows 3.1 with very low resolution. > > Is there anything that compares with Fractint that runs well under a modern Windows OS? Fractint is it, and you _can_ make the image larger \ Go to view | Image Settings… Sorry, the color depth is limited to 256 colors, but that was the big deal with fractint when it was popular. Fractals using floating point math took a LOOOONG time to render as CPUs were weak in dealing with floating point numbers, fractINT did the similar magic using integer arithmetic, something processors of the day could do MUCH faster. \I remember our High School Pascal class writing fractal software on the Amiga…a 320x200 image took THREE DAYS to compute!\ ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/3 "2004-02-05T04:05:05Z")
The [fractint page](http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/fractint/fractint.html) seems to have windows seems to have DOS versions and Win 3.x, but nothing later. Does anyone know if this software plays nice with XP? ---
**Author:** ![Swoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Swoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swoop)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/4 "2004-02-05T05:56:59Z")
[ChaosPro](http://www.chaospro.de/). Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/5 "2004-02-05T08:34:33Z")
I still use the hell out of FractINT. Do you want something with a similar level of functionality, or do you just want to explore the mandelbrot set? I’ve had that puppy kick out a 6 1/2 minute (15000 frame), 720X480 true colour animation, zooming and panning while shifting variables. (Batch files to render 45000 frames, and secondary software to composite the three channels.) Really, though, true colour fractals aren’t all that, anyway. It’s hard to find a way to use a larger palette that doesn’t end up simply making the image appear less compex. A carefully made 256 colour palette will go a long way. There’s nothing you can’t do with FractINT, man! Yeah, I’m a zealot. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/6 "2004-02-05T13:56:46Z")
[download.com](http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=fractal&tg=dl-2001&search=+Go%2521+) is a great place to look for stuff like this. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/7 "2004-02-05T15:02:02Z")
> [@Unintentionally Blank](#): > > Fractint is it, and you _can_ make the image larger \ > > Go to view | Image Settings… Dunno how I missed that… Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-windows-fractal-programs/227570/8 "2004-02-05T15:05:37Z")
> [@Swoop](#): > > [ChaosPro](http://www.chaospro.de/). Enjoy! I might give that shot too, thanks!