I've been using KDE 4.x since 4.0 was released and on occasion I've seen "Mandelbrot" as a wallpaper option on the desktop settings (right click on desktop, "Desktop Activity Settings"). Looking at the preview, and once applying it, it didn't look that nice and I switched to another alternative right away.

Recently I decided to try it again and I discovered you can pan and zoom

After adjusting the colours slightly I must say I quite love this wallpaper type, and of course decided to share it with anybody as ignorant as I have been (I know a few people on IRC didn't know this feature was there either) - you can pan by dragging the left mouse button, and zoom by dragging the middle mouse button.

Here's my current lovely desktop, click to see it in full resolution (and it will look much better!)

Moult wrote:I've been using KDE 4.x since 4.0 was released and on occasion I've seen "Mandelbrot" as a wallpaper option on the desktop settings (right click on desktop, "Desktop Activity Settings"). Looking at the preview, and once applying it, it didn't look that nice and I switched to another alternative right away.

Recently I decided to try it again and I discovered you can pan and zoom

After adjusting the colours slightly I must say I quite love this wallpaper type, and of course decided to share it with anybody as ignorant as I have been (I know a few people on IRC didn't know this feature was there either) - you can pan by dragging the left mouse button, and zoom by dragging the middle mouse button.

Here's my current lovely desktop, click to see it in full resolution (and it will look much better!)

Thanks. I had a feeling that madelbrot can't be just the default blob. But never know how to set it up, though.

I didn't know that you could zoom in/out by dragging the middle button - I usually use the scroll wheel to zoom in/out.

In 3D software dragging the MMB is normally used to rotate the object in 3D space - scrolling is used for zoom. As a guy who does 3D as a hobby of course I tried it (though of course we don't have 3D mandelbrots yet - but the mandelbulb is coming close ). It does seem a little unintuitive I agree. Another thing which frustrated me was that you cannot right click on it to get to the desktop menu.

Added as a brainstorm idea, scrolling (edit: removed) and right clicking (edit removed)

Edit: my bad.

I can right click and scroll just fine in 4.3.4. I guess the new behavior has to do with the introduction of mouse plugins in KDE SC 4.4 - do you happen to use 4.4 RC1 or something like that?

I'm on RC1 now, scrolling works (wasn't working in beta I guess), but right clicking still doesn't work.

Moult wrote:I'm on RC1 now, scrolling works (wasn't working in beta I guess), but right clicking still doesn't work.

It does, if you check the "Lock view" option. Of course that disables zooming in and out of the set but makes the desktop work properly when you've managed to get to a nice looking mandelbrot.

I'm leaving it up because I can't decide if I like it or not

Guys:
- the right click bug is fixed, will appear in 4.4.2 and in trunk.
- in trunk (to become 4.5) you can export/import settings to/from text files, you can export PNG image, the rendering is faster (scales better to multi-core CPUs, detects interior regions...) and improved (dithering for perfect gradients...), the coloring is improved too (more natural), the config dialog has a quick explanatory text about mouse usage, and the code is simpler/nicer.

Enjoy!

Here are a few parameters files that you can import with the trunk (to become 4.5) version. Just right click on the desktop and "Import Mandelbrot parameters..."

You can use them too with KDE 4.4 by editing your plasma-desktop-appletsrc file and replacing your [Mandelbrot] section by the contents of these files.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5490837/blue_tentacle.txt
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5490837/julia_g ... lyfish.txt
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5490837/red_dra ... e_wind.txt
(and beware, the next one takes very long to render)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5490837/moonlight_rose.txt

And here are the corresponding images (scaled down...) just to make it clear that you can really do a lot of things with the Mandelbrot wallpaper... just FYI a friend of mine is a specialist of fractals (we both are mathematicians) and he was wow-ed by the realism of this renderer

Blue Tentacle:


Red Dragon in the Wind:


Julia Grey Jellyfish:


Moonlight Rose:

Wicked! I really like the third one

I can't understand what you means. I can't find these options.

wbprime wrote:I can't understand what you means. I can't find these options.

You need KDE 4.5. Just use the Mandelbrot wallpaper type, then right-click on the desktop, you should see these options in the context menu.

I found an interesting area:

Cool area

Each of the adjacent "lightning bolts", if you go out a little ways and zoom in on one of the lighter dots, turns out to have a very different pattern. As you move up they get straighter, and as you move down they get more twisted and complicated. Here are a few examples:

crown of thorns starfish


Firewheel


White Spiral


Long Flame


Red Lightning