Real-Time Julia Set Generation

Hello internet!

I've decided to do some programming with Xlib this time (Xlib lets you make use of the X Window System (which provides the basis of GUIs on Unix systems) on a low level).

Using Xlib, I made an interactive Julia Set viewer. A Julia Set is a sort of fractal which can be calculated using very simple rules and is closely related to the famous Mandelbrot fractal. Unlike the Mandelbrot fractal however, Julia sets have a parameter (a complex number which I call 'a' in my program; it's displayed in the upper left corner) which defines their shape. I set this parameter using the mouse.

Even though this demo ran in real-time on my computer, this program is pretty inefficient. It used all of the 4 cores on my Intel i5 2500 most of the time. A much better fractal viewer is Xaos, which also includes the option to calculate Julia sets and can be downloaded for free.

Have fun!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• julia
• set
• fractal
• xlib
• graphics
• programming
• X11