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Topologic Changelog

What's new in Topologic 10

Dec 27, 2014
  • Frontends:
  • There is now a Chrome app, based on the revamped WebGL frontend. The latter has been enhanced using jQuery Mobile, so it'll be a lot smoother and work fine on mobile devices. In particular, the WebGL frontend now works fine and looks pretty good on iOS 8 and recent versions of Android.
  • The WebGL client has moved to https://dee.pe/r - because the old URL was waaaaaaay too long to remember.
  • Chrome users can now download this frontend in the Chrome App store, at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hnfpoonnkobplgfaafpkbamebbccjegb.
  • Models:
  • This release includes a snapshot of what I'm trying to do with attractors. The attractors are randomly generated, but they show nice symmetries and a lot of the parameters have interesting effects.
  • Fractal Flame Colouring:
  • The fractal flame colouring algorithm is currently being revamped. If you use the OSX frontend, then the new algorithm is using maths much closer to the original, thanks to floating point textures in OpenGL 3.2+. Unfortunately this doesn't work too well on WebGL and OpenGL ES, so this isn't enabled in the other frontends. Regardless, the new colouring method is quite promising, a lot prettier, closer to the original paper and even faster to render - thanks to requiring fewer rendering passes.

New in Topologic 9 (Feb 7, 2014)

  • Model factory has been integrated into libefgy:
  • The model factory was previously part of Topologic, but has now been moved into libefgy. This means that whenever new models are added to libefgy, your favourite Topologic frontend is just a recompile away from drawing that new model.
  • The available models and the available vector coordinate formats are queried with this factory whenever Topologic needs to know about them, so ./topologic --version and the listing in the OSX frontend will behave as expected.
  • New model parameters in libefgy:
  • libefgy-5 and 6 introduced new model parameters along with some new models; the new parameters are a minor radius for tori and klein bottles, and a model-dependant constant which is only used by the klein bottles.
  • New models: torus and klein bottles. This is actually part of libefgy, but it still feels right to point out that these two new models are now available in all frontends.
  • Variable base coordinate format:
  • The new libefgy supports specifying the coordinate format that vectors are interpreted as before they're fed to a renderer; currently libefgy supports polar and cartesian coordinates for its vectors, more coordinate formats will probably be added to libefgy sometime soon. In case you're wondering what that looks like, have a look at the screenshots.