YES, INDEED...STERLINGWARE...WHY NOT!!!

NO, THIS ISN'T ACTUALLY A TUTORIAL...JUST THE SHARING OF INFORMATION THAT MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE OF USE TO ANYONE INTERESTED. So there.

Well. Everything you never wanted to know about using the fractal program STERLINGWARE. Yeah, right ...or basically what I have discovered in all the years I've been using it. No, I am definitely not a mathematical wizard who spends hours creating my own formulas (no patience )...I just tinker around with what is available in the program. And Sterlingware is one of the better older fractal programs...it is still coming up with variations on designs for me even after all these years. And just recently I discovered STERLINGWARE 2 which was created (in 2007-2008) by someone who apparently got permission from the original creator to play God with the formulas. And indeed he has put a new spring in the step of many of them and I'm now finding all sorts of new goodies lurking in the deep recesses of the designs. Yes, the whole secret to finding the best designs is in the ZOOMING. You zoom in on anything that remotely looks interesting and...what do you know...it usually is. Shiny things always get my attention. And after finding something interesting, then you try different setting combinations to see if you can make even more interesting designs. Nothing too scientific about that. Oh, yeah, but first you need the program...right-t-t-t. PAUL N. LEE'S FRACTAL LINKS...do a web search and you'll find it very quickly. Lots of older fractal programs can be found at this website including both versions of Sterlingware. Cost??? Freeware. Yes, there is the Sterlingware home website that will say that it is $25 to get the program. We won't mention the word FREE. Moving right along.

Now that you've downloaded the program...or wiped the dust off from a copy of it on some long buried disk (strictly out of curiosity)...you can discover for yourself what it can do. First of all, you CAN use the parameters from either program in both, but they will not be the same...just thought you should know that. Yes, the formulas were definitely tweaked so if you want the same design you've created to come up...make sure you're using the version that originated it. Another neat thing I found out was that if you have FRACTAL EXPLORER (another VERY good older program) the formulas from Sterlingware will just magically migrate to FE and you will notice them in the SELECT FRACTAL menu. No, honestly, I didn't put them in there ...they just showed up all on their own. Go figure. Makes for some nice extra variations in designs and color palettes. No, you can not then go use these parameters in Sterlingware or the other way around. Can't have everything, I guess. Well.

If you need some sort of a starting point, both Sterlingware versions come with a zipped compressed file in their folders that have sample parameters. I did discover that when you bring these up in the program most of them won't show you anything. Click on the RESET COORDINATES button in the menu and then you'll see if there actually is a design of interest or not...Sterlingware has a tendency to go to an advanced zoom setting when you first bring up a formula. Using RIGHT CLICK on your mouse will bring up a handy menu of some of the most frequently used commands. The menu/tool bar at the top of the program's screen has a self-explanatory row of symbols that also makes it very easy to use. Now I'm one of those dive-right-in-and-try-all-the-buttons kind of people so I will not mention reading any so-called help files. Yeah, who needs those anyway. And neither program has them anyways...oops. Really, Sterlingware is a VERY easy program to use. So after you've gotten done playing with ALL-L-L the buttons you should probably know basically how it works. Now how each person tackles making a fractal design is a very personal and individual process so I would never tell anyone what they should do to achieve it. Here, instead, is a list of HELPFUL HINTS:

...ZOOM...ZOOM...and ZOOM-M-M-M on anything and everything of interest (yeah, I already said that, didn't I)!!!
...the INSIDE OUT and JULIA settings in the IMAGE menu (or RIGHT CLICK mouse) can create some very noticeable differences in a design.
...the NONE or ARCTAN settings in the TRANSFORM menu will make some of the most detailed and clearest images.
...some of the MOST PRODUCTIVE, MOST DETAILED and CLEAREST formula settings (when working with the overall variety of other combined settings)...3, 5, 7, 9 and 26 (I tend to get stuck in a rut using only one or two formulas most of the time in creating designs). But do try them all and find what you like. I would mention that formulas 36 through 55 tend to make far too busy of designs...just my opinion.
...in the REND menu you should get consistent results when using 8, 18 or 21 and then for some VERY-Y-Y interesting designs try 30 through 33 but only use the LDERIVATIVE settings in the menu for adjustments to the designs. The LYAPUNOV, LDERIVATIVE and LMAPPING settings will create a more geometric style of designs (or as best as I can describe... sort of geometric). It's another example of just trying them all to see what each one basically looks like then come to your own conclusions.
...in the COLOR menu the best and most consistent setting is 13, but, what can I say, with other various combined settings used for creating the designs 8, 12, 14, 15, 21 and 26 can be just as good. Unfortunately, either it's 23 or 24 which will show one set of colors in your 'working' image (I work with a 320 x 240 pixel size) and then when it renders (in whatever size) it will be an entirely different display of colors...what a bummer if you JUST got the colors the way you wanted them...I don't know if anyone has ever tried to fix this glitch. The RGB settings will further change the color combinations. Lastly, do try the COLOR MIXING CONTROLS in the menu...best to click settings up or down one at a time...color can get drastic really quick especially in the SATURATION and OFFSET settings. In the RENDER setting it can lighten, darken and contrast colors of the design as well as change colors further. Good time to make a note of any pleasing color adjustments for future reference (or a note of which parameters you used the colors in).

... BUT MOST IMPORTANT...GIVE IT A TRY. EXPERIMENT WITH ALL THE SETTINGS. THEN CREATE.

And IF you feel the need to tweak at the formulas there is a PARAMETERS adjustments in the DIALOGS menu.

And that's about my dime's worth of wisdom about this program. Except that I've always liked working with it...and always will.

..............UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE...................

I could have sworn that I mentioned that I didn't really like playing around too much with the numbers in fractal programs.

But I got to tinkering with the parameter adjustments (in the DIALOGS menu) in Sterlingware and Sterlingware 2 and discovered that by clicking the numbers up or down will let you see a very significant difference in the design (no, it did not involve typing in the numbers). You have to be using the JULIA setting for the X and Y values to work, but you can adjust the Max. Iterations while in the NONE or INSIDE OUT settings (while in whatever formula and combination of other settings) and see some changes occurring. So I have actually been creating some of my own parameters. Well, it's incredible to me. I'll be putting together a zipped file of some of these soon. I've also been coming up with some interesting color palettes that you will have noticed in some of my more recent submissions...these were created using strictly the color menus available in Sterlingware and Sterlingwares 2 so there are some very surprising colors lurking around.

Another fractal program that is actually very similar to Sterlingware is VCHIRA. It has a lot of the exact menus and I've started playing around with it again...and the parameters. We'll see what happens.

TRY EM...YOU'LL LIKE EM!!!!!!

MAKE SURE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE PARAMETERS THAT I SUBMITTED. GOOD STUFF!!!

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I'M WATCHING YOU...




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FOR YOUR INFORMATION...

A good selection of mostly freeware fractal programs can be found at PAUL N. LEE FRACTAL LINKS. Another good website is SEATTLE'S AMAZING FRACTALS (or close to that name). Just do a web search and they will come up.