Monthly Archives: June 2012

News, Updates

Release Notes Version 2.3 (Folio)

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Changes for Version 2.3 (Folio)

This release is all about Fractal keyframe collections.

The app has always supported multiple keyframes, but never before with PDF Folios, Loop/Morph Video Animation, or instant Finder Quicklook Preview support. It has been performance optimized for files with thousands of keyframes too.

Big New Features =========

  1. Create lengthy Video Animations from Fractal keyframes.
  2. Create PDF Folios from keyframes
  3. Major improvements for working with fractal keyframe collections instead of just single fractals
  4. Greatly Improved Finder Quicklook support for pre-rendered images, PDF Folios, and Movies

Continue reading Release Notes Version 2.3 (Folio) →

News, Updates

Quick Tour of Version 2.3 (Folio) New Features

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This release was released by Apple to Mac App Store on July 5, 2012.

This release is all about Fractal Collections (often called KeyFrames). These collections can be used as is or they can be the foundation for fractal video animation.

Here is a quick tour of using the Stash to create a new file with a KeyFrame collection in it. We also introduce a new application file type (.fa) which can hold pre-rendered images, PDF Folios, or even Movies. Mac OS X supports all of these media types with Quicklook and the Finder.

Continue reading Quick Tour of Version 2.3 (Folio) New Features →

Updates

Bug fixes in Release 2.2.2 moved to Release 2.3

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Update: This change is now part of version 2.3.0 that was released for sale on the Mac App Store on July 5, 2012 (with a lot of other new features).

On 2012 Macbook Pros, the initial OpenCL driver for the NVIDIA GT 650M GPU was found to be unusable and would cause the Mac to freeze. So this release of Fractal Architect puts this GPU into Quarantine and won’t use it to render with. When Apple fixes the driver bug, the app will be updated so that particular GPU can be used. Its very disappointing as we expect this to be the fasted Mac laptop GPU released to date. The OpenCL CPU renderer is unaffected and renders 25% faster than last years model.

The Intel HD 4000 GPU does not have OpenCL support on Lion according to Apple. (Mountain Lion ???) So the 2012 13″ Macbook Pros and the Macbook Airs do not have GPU rendering support in Mac OS X Lion.

This release has no Retina display related changes. The app does run on the Retina Macbook Pro.

News

2012 Macbook Pro models were released today – June 11, 2012

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Just so you know, there are 2 new GPUs that have never been tested with Fractal Architect: Intel HD 4000 and Nvidia 650M in the new Macbook Pros. We don’t get any sneak peaks on upcoming hardware, so we have to wait for them to be released and become available just like anybody else.

Hopefully, Apple’s OpenCL drivers for those two new GPUs will allow Fractal Architect to run on them just fine. If you that is not true, please send an email to support@fractalarchitect.net.

One of the new Macbook Pro models has a Retina display. It seems to not be available yet, so we can’t test how the app looks on it.

One note concerning a Retina display is that it has 4 times as many pixels compared to a standard display. Rendering high resolution images targeting these new Retina displays will take 4 times longer too. (Rendering times are proportional to the number of pixels in the rendered image.)

Testing with a Retina iPad shows that its not necessary to render at a higher DPI. A standard resolution image still looks very good on a Retina display.

We will keep you posted once we have the opportunity to test the app on these new Macbook Pros.