Its so easy to explore Deep variation chains, by using a Custom Lua script list.

Pick a handful of variant scripts and just add them to the Script list. The variant scripts will be run from top-to-bottom.

To add a script to the list, select the script name to add, then click the Add Selected Script to List button.

See how I have created a list of 7 scripts to apply to every fractal produced by the main Lua script.

You will be amazed how powerful this technique is.

The coup-de-grace is to add a randomizeChains script to the end of the list. This script scrambles the variation group chain and can find some really different fractals.

With this fractal:

I ran some variants using Color gradient and the randomizeChains script. Result:

Matrix variations work just like ordinary transform Pre and Post transformation matrixes. They allow you to avoid linked transforms. Linked transforms require special Xaos matrix configuration, which is so easy to mess up in practice.

Special Support in Triangle Editor

If you select Variation for Which Matrix, and select the matrix variation instance in the Variations table, you can manipulate the Triangle representing that matrix variation.

Matrix Variation Types

• matrix2d – embed in its own group
• pre_matrix2d – embed in group containing other variations
• post_matrix2d – embed in group containing other variations

For 3D variation sets, these are available:

• matrix3d, pre_matrix3d, post_matrix3d

No special transform editing support in the Triangle editor  is available yet for the 3D matrix variations.

The best way to use matrix2d variations is to embed them in their own variation group and insert them between two other variation groups.

Example

As you can see in this image, the second transform has a chain of 5 variation groups.

The Post #1 group has a transformation Matrix variation, matrix2d.

Note how the Triangle editor allows you to manipulate that matrix variation just like a standard Pre or Post transformation matrix.

Using these inline transform matrixes is so much simpler, than traditional linked transforms.

One of the minor changes in FA 4 is that it reports render performance in a manner that allows you to compare the performance between CPU and GPU and between different Mac models. The app reports performance in Mips (millions of iterations per second) which is  the number of iterations per second done by the outermost loop in the Fractal flame algorithm. It measures the render time only during histogram construction, as that is the performance bottleneck in flame fractal rendering. I hope other flame fractal products report this figure in the future.

You can find the render performance in the Window > Render Status Log menu after a render to file is finished.

I have been using the Worlds Gallery fractal as the basis of comparison. I always render it at 1440 x 900 pixels at quality 3000.

There is a huge difference in render performance across different Mac models from the same model year.

A 2013 Macbook Air with 1.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU achieves 9.71 mips (400.61 secs to render the final image with FA 4 v 4.0.1 Yosemite 10.10.3).

A 2013 Mac Pro with upgraded twin D700 GPUs and Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1650 v2 @ 3.50GHz – 6 core CPU achieves 778.22 Mips (5.00 sec to renderr the final image with FA 4 v 4.0.1 Yosemite 10.10.3).

Rendering with just the CPU on the 2013 Mac Pro achieves 37.72 Mips (103.13 sec to renderr the final image with FA 4 v 4.0.1 Yosemite 10.10.3). . On this Mac Pro, the twin GPU rendering time is 20.6X faster than on its CPU.

So the Mac Pro renders  over 80X faster than the Macbook Air (same year model)!

Even using its CPUs alone, it is almost 4X faster rendering than the 2013 Macbook Air.

For single image renders, FA 4 on a 2013 Macbook Air has reasonable performance during a typical editing session.  But movie rendering will be painfully slow.

Apple’s 2013 Mac Pro is a spectacular rendering workhorse. And the price difference over 2013 Macbook Airs is very reasonable (about 3.5X higher cost for 80X rendering performance).

Note: 2015 Macbook Airs are faster than 2013 ones at the same price point – but I did not want to compare Macs across different model years.

Way to go Apple!