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`XyrusWorx

Fractal Kraut Magic
Formerly Xyrus02
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Long time no word like this but I think I want to share this with you since I have a feeling that this is or is gonna be a controversal topic to discuss about. I'm highlighting my opinion here and maybe it sparks a discussion or maybe everyone just agrees to me (whereas the latter option is quite unlikely)

What I want to talk about is the urge to render everything huge and with the highest antialiasing level possible and - a thing I disagree with even more - the pressing urge to monetarize fractal art. These two things are entangled since the first urge is mostly there to feed the second urge. I'm also not talking about something which is about my own artwork but I'm talking generally as a result of observations I made in a number of comment sections across deviantART.

You may or may not believe it - even if I don't *appear* active, I still browse galleries. I don't separate into "beginners", "potential talents" and "divine artists". I like all fractals and I think there is no real skill level in fractaling. Everyone has got the potential and everyone can render beautiful flames if they simply put enough passion into the matter. That's why I feel the urge to spit a constant, mile-long stream of steaming, green vomit into every face which emits the words "I wish you would render this at higher resolution and with more antialiasing" because it SIMPLY IS NOT RELEVANT how small and jagged the render is. What you see is what the artist wants you to see because the artist decided to upload it this way. If you can't see enough for your oh so fine taste then it's your fucking bad and you should either shut the fuck up and look at another fractal or render your own fractals which look exactly alike and are at the size of seventeen and a half football stadiums if it bugs you so much because appearantly you know it all better, you unbelievably arrogant, elitist dickface!

One step up on the ladder of annoying asshats are people who constantly disrespect an artists decision about monetarizing his artworks. It is art, for Christ's sake. Since when is art something which is ought to be sold? Some people just want to make art because it's fun and not because they want to generate money (or points, however you damn well please) And yet again, I'm not talking about my own artworks. Over the years, I've always seen people who simply don't want to sell their artwork. They decided so because they think it would ruin the spirit of their art if they would print it on T-shirts, mugs, posters, postcards or albino mooses. These people see their work as art and not as some sort of merchandise. Others don't have a problem with selling their art - me included. So now here is the question: if you sell your art (and maybe sell it quite successful, who knows), why do you think another artist wants to do it? I tell you why: because again, you are an arrogant dick. You think the way you see your art is the ultimate way to see all art. You're going to a person's gallery, you don't know the true intention the person has for their art and you simply imply that the person wants to generate the maximum profit out of their art. Congratulations for failing so hard in life that my ass hurts when I think about it. Of course, the same thing goes for people who run to galleries of successful printers and bitch at them because they are commercial dickbaits for selling art. This direction, however, is much less likely in the fractal art scene of today.

Concluding, I want to ask you to accept two things:

1. High-res =/= good. Low-res =/= bad. If you want big renders, go ahead and try to clone my fractal and then render it yourself as big as you fucking want and leave me the fuck alone.
2. If you print, I don't have to. If you don't print, I don't have to. I print whenever I damn well please or somebody asks me in a friendly way to provide one of my artworks to them PERSONALLY in a print form which is an absolute fine and legitimate question as long as both "okay" and "no" are valid answers.

Because it just occured to me: the same thing goes to Apophysis as well. Many many people were repeatedly asking for Linux or Mac versions of Apophysis. And I am always giving a friendly "no" as an answer and if the question "why" arises, I tell them, in a friendly way, that I simply don't enjoy programming for these systems because I also don't like to use them. Unfortunately, some like to enter bitch mode because they don't like this "no" so for everyone who feels addressed: there will be NO Linux or Mac version of 7X or anything I make and provide for free. If you want it so bad then do it yourself or pay someone who does. How dare you bitch at me because I don't spend my free time to serve you and your needs you dick! Everyone uses the system they like and everyone programs for the system they like. I don't give a cold, wet shit about why you think Windows sucks and Mac/Linux rule. Period.

That being said: good night :)
Hello,

as some of you noticed, the bug tracker on bugs.apophysis-7x.org is currently down. But why?

A few weeks ago, specifically on April 3rd, the hard disks on my root server died. As I would expect from a server provider, I requested to restore the system from a backup. After 2 days on tech-support, the guys admitted that there were no automated backups even though they were configured. In the following week, I brought up almost every service from my own backups again - except the Mantis bug tracker. Fortunately, the recorded bugs and feature requests were all resolved and I had the information I needed already. But as of now, the service is still down.

So right now, I'm looking for a better service to host a bug report / feature request-platform. This is a process which takes a few weeks because I'll build on a paid, managed service and I want to choose the one which is best for the needs of the project. This means: as of now, it is not possible to report bugs and request features for Apophysis 7x. I would like to ask you to NOT send them to me via note or e-mail because this just results in cluttered inboxes and boundless chaos and your requests and reports will most likely be forgotten. Keep your things until I brought up the new service again.

I will notify you when it is done and you can reach the server again.

Thank you :)
George
Indeed. Over the years, I took some pictures here and there and threw some of them on Facebook and whatnot. But this is an art community and even though one my discuss their artistic value (I'm as far away from being a photographer as Switzerland is from an ocean), I decided to share them anyway - also because I wanted to see how one can work with the "Stash Writer". Please enjoy :)

Thuringia


State in central Germany, known for its forest and called the "green heart of Germany"



From left to right:
  • Schmalkalden, Altmarkt
  • Abandoned Trabant 601
  • Eisenach, South District


Berlin


Capital of Germany, formerly divided into a Soviet east sector and three allied western ones. The western sectors were later united to a West German exclave while the east sector became the capital of East Germany.

Img 20130420 222200 by `XyrusWorxImg 20130420 222304 by `XyrusWorx
  
From left to right: 
  • S-Bahnhof (train station) Warschauer Straße in Friendrichshain, East Berlin
  • Eastern entrance of Treptow, East Berlin


Karlsruhe


Called the "Residence of Justice" because of the fact that the city houses the office of the federal general attorney, the supreme court and the constitutional courthouse. The secondary name is "The capital of the internet" since most of the biggest internet and telecommunication companies like United Internet (1&1, Web.de, ...) have their main offices in Karlsruhe. The city is dominated by the high-tech industry and lawyer compounds.

Img 20130413 135956 by `XyrusWorxImg 20130414 194236 by `XyrusWorx
Img 20130414 194633 by `XyrusWorxImg 20130420 222040 by `XyrusWorx

Clockwise, starting at top left:
  • Main building of the Baden-Württemberg state bank, entrance to the east district
  • City Park, a high-standard residental district
  • Karlsruhe Palace
  • Beiertheimer Allee, an avenue leading to the southern district of Beiertheim

I know it's non-standard but I thought you might enjoy these :)
Cheers!
Hi guys :)

Since I obviously don't have anything better to do this fine day, I sat down and made 94 (!) existing plugins for Apophysis readable for the 64-bit-version of Apophysis 7X (commonly known as 7x64) - I'm talking about almost all of the plugins available as source code on SourceForge.net including my own. I just skipped some odd non-standard ones, those which are built-into Apo7x15 and dc_image. I don't know what else is floating around in outer space so if you note me the source code (*.c), I'd convert some more too.

It cost me an imaginary pack of cigarettes and 90% of my remaining sanity. So here is the download link:

click me!

Please make sure you read the file README.TXT before you send me messages and comments whining about that it doesn't work for you :)
Also, be advised that I just compiled them. I did not test each single one of them. That'll be up to you. Enjoy ;)

Cheers!

PS: If you're still having the final transform bug (FX won't save), there is a patch available for 7x15D: [link]

PS2: If you're getting an error message about a DLL missing, you need to download and install this: [link]
So I believe all these efforts of getting used to the digits 2-0-1-2 in dates is with the devil now. We got upgrades :lmao:

For those who puzzle about what I want to tell you here: happy new year! And merry belated xmas, I guess. And for shit's sake: congrats for surviving the apocalypse! I'm glad you did not die in a fiery eruption of the mayan poop deck.

I wonder what you guys have been up to. What I did remains pretty much the same as for the majority of the passed year. I've been playing wizard in the company who pays my rent and food. These guys need a lot of attention because ... well! Let's not spill corporate interna here. Let's just say we've been busy over the year and it was good. My job is challenging and I like what I'm doing. Especially since the results of my work are honored and people are thankful for it. So pretty much exactly like with what I'm doing here on deviantART. Or not doing, as I can't clone myself yet :)

There is something I'd like to ask you. I know my folks here, pretty much. All those great people who do great stuff and appreciate the stuff I do. I'll just throw in some random names (don't be offended if you aren't listed - it just means that I'm not sure how your new name might be or whether you changed it): `lindelokse `SuicideBySafetyPin ~morphapoph ^SaTaNiA ~oppenheimer =suki-w *Fiery-Fire etc etc etc. You rock and I love you! The question now is: who are all the new people? I've seen quite a lot of deviants who commented on my stuff which I never heard about ever. I mean okay, unknown people comment on my stuff, yes. But it's been unusually many lately. Is that just a feeling or did many new people join the fractal crowd?

I would love if you - if you're one of the newer "followers" (I think that's the appropriate term) - could comment here and give me a brief introduction of who you are, what you do, what kind of fractals you like, what kind of fractal software you use (and why?) and I might click and wander around in your galleries and just feature the stuff I like :) Sounds good? Okay go!

For all of you - old or new - a happy new year, good fortune and may Odin bless your ancestors!

PS: Don't be sad if I didn't respond to your comment. I breached 10,000 messages in my inbox in like september and I don't have a secretary! I love you anyway! :)
Hey guys :)

I know it's been some time but I'm having hell of a release going on here. So I just didn't came to check on what's wrong with the saving of final transforms. I finally made it so that I'm not there 7am to 10pm every day. This means: it's fixing time.

To provide you with an acceptable solution, I just reverted the behavior of FXes to the one of 15C. So that you at least get to use 64 bit plugins / scripts AND final xforms :lmao:

Here it is: [link]
It's a patch so just replace the EXE files in your installation. If you didn't update yet, you can with this. In this case, you also just replace the EXE files. Remember the release notes from the original 15D package, though. It contains valuable information on how to use 64 bit plugins and compile multi-architecture plugins (32/64) from existing and new plugin code.

See you soon :)
Hey uh...who does still know who I am? :lmao:
No seriously. I'm just writing this so that you guys know that I'm neither dead nor vanished!

I try hard to keep up but as you may remember (even though it's been 6 months or so) I flipped a switch some time ago and went into oblivion, pretty much. My study has ended and I moved on to a programmer's job. Some of my friends, namely ~utak3r and ~Zueuk can probably sing the song of their people about how time consuming such a job is. And there we have the hard facts: I don't have time!

On top of this, I entered the company in troublesome times where every second of every worker is needed to accomplish a goal. But let's not whine about it - this is the challenge I was looking for. I love the software we are creating and I'm proud and happy to give my best for this team. The knowledge I gained triples the knowledge I gained during my studies. That is something you don't priorize away and so we face the result: I'm not really online here anymore. I started a poll recently and the response was clear: don't close the account or other stupidities - stay under the radar and check back occasionaly. And that is what I'm doing. At last, I find time for Apophysis' development next to my other tasks ;)

Good news to sum this up: I'm not being tested anymore since wednesday. I got the job with no time limit now. Which means the only way I'm leaving this company is me quitting out of free will. An unrealistic scenario for the next few (many?) years!
Other good news: my plane to the US lifts of this saturday, Oct 20th at 9.20am CET :)
One of my personal friends and most likely one of your friends experienced the loss of his home and belongings in a fire recently.
What's happening to this guy is really sad and I would be moved if you could consider a small contribution to the ongoing fundraising and/or pass along this message

The link to the fundraising is as following: [link]

Thanks for your attention! :heart:
I finally managed to upload an update for Apophysis 7X. In version 15D, I added support for 64-bit plugins and scripts in the 64-bit version plus some bugfixes for both versions.

Go grab it on Apophysis-7X.org!
Some people are just too stupid to protected their accounts by choosing strong passwords and they like to conceal that sloppyness by turning themselves into pityful victims and whine like little schoolgirls. If you write a journal, write facts, not rumors. Thank you.
You might or might not know that I've been fiddling around with Turing McCabe-patterns in the past. Well the good news is: in the present too! For those of you who don't know what this is: it's an algorithm producing nice images like this one:




I've created an explorer utility for myself. Well, I created one for you too but it's old. I'm constantly changing mine and see what you can do with the algorithm. And I've come to a major progress I wanted to share with you.

One thing is a thing you might already know. The original algorithm initializes with a noise field. This means, the first frame is just noise and then the pattern develops. I had one thought which changed that concept a bit: why noise? The Jonathan McCabe seemed to need a field of unstructured data from where a pattern evolves through convolution. My idea was to replace that with something else. To the mathematical idea, an image is sort of unstructured too. It's man-made. Most of the time. So technically, you could use an image to ignite the algorithm. And I did.

The below video shows how that looks like:



Now imagine what it could do to a fractal (flame) rendered into an image file and loaded into the algorithm...!



The second thing was sort of not my idea. I want to say that right away because I was victim to a mistake. When I started to implement this thing, I wasn't aware of that somebody did that before me. I discovered when I was done. But through the fact that there are two independent implementations now, my version and the other author's version are unique in their own ways now. I'm talking about painting into the algorithm's data field using your mouse. Something which provided me HOURS of fun!

My way was to "reset" the areas I was painting on. So basically, wherever your brush strokes the field, there will be noise. It's sort of like you're "stirring" that reactive soup the algorithm paints on your screen. Effectively, you're agitating the algorithm in a limited area.

See how that looks like in the below video:

 

This gives the whole thing some more interactivity than just dragging sliders and pushing in images. I sort of want to experiment with more ways to influence the algorithm.

I'll keep you up-to-date!

The purchase thing...

Wed Jul 11, 2012, 9:41 AM
...yes, I was a test participant on this feature. So now that it's out and public, I went ahead and turned it into a regular, free download because I won't sell resources :)



DD !?1oneeleven?

Wed Jul 11, 2012, 9:33 AM
Well that's something sweet to see when you get home :) I got a DD on this piece:



I'm especially honored with this one because I really just fiddled around in Apophysis to find my way back into it (and potentially find a bug or two) :D

Thanks to `SuicideBySafetyPin for featuring this fractal old-school doodle :hug:

Oh yeah and...

Sun Jul 8, 2012, 12:25 PM
...that purchase thing popping up in your devWATCH!
I hope you know me well enough that I'm not gonna charge points for anything ;) I was testing it together with other people. Once the purchase thing is released (is it now?) I will of course make it free.

Confused?

Thu Jul 5, 2012, 7:37 AM
:thumb312524196:

This up there is kind of a test. DeviantART is adding a feature and you will see it soon. I was asked to write up something really quick and submit it to test that new feature. I think it's normal that you don't see a download.

Also, it is not the new Apophysis.

Just don't mind that upload.

A quick note on my "Making of"s

Mon Jun 25, 2012, 10:18 AM
If you use the tutorials I shared for your gain of knowledge to create works which look exactly like mine (even if they have different colors because you couldn't even figure out how to load my gradient) then you're stealing my stuff. There, I said it.

"Making of What happens with faith" has been reproduced pretty frequently and the results (which look like my original work) are being credited as original artworks which I don't approve (duh)

Simply said - this doesn't really encourage me to share more how-tos. Got that?

I created another domain for Apophysis 7X. But before you panic: the old domain (apophysis.xyrus-worx.org) is still reachable and will be reachable :)

The new location is http://apophysis-7x.org; you can see the main page there. Downloads, history, etc.
Then there is http://code.apophysis-7x.org; you can read the current source code online at this location. Live. As I commit it (for example when I fixed a single bug)
And finally (for now) there is http://code.apophysis-7x.org; this is the new main bug tracker for Apophysis 7X.

The bug tracker lives on SourceForge.net as does the source code. The alternative URLS are:
- https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=284068&atid=1204394 for the tracker and
-http://apophysis7x.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/apophysis7x/

If apophysis-7x.org is not reachable in the next hours, this is because it's still being setup by the provider.



Now that we cleared that up, here comes some very important information! READ UP CAREFULLY!

Since I clearly have less time now but still want to care for and continue Apophysis 7X, we need to make up some rules concerning bug reports. I don't have the time anymore to run between my e-mail inbox, deviantART and Facebook or whatnot to gather all the reports. I need it at a central place. This is said bug tracker!

Only reports in that tracker are being taken care of. It's not that I strictly ignore any report anywhere else but I will oversee them naturally. Don't complain if I didn't read your note or your message on Facebook. I didn't see it. I'm looking into my e-mail inbox like once a day. Apophysis bug reports have a folder there which gets filled by SourceForge. The e-mails you send me directly are drowning in whatever things I get daily. So don't wonder if I don't see them. So please stick to this act of centralization if you want to have your problem fixed or fix it yourself (the source is online)

We need to be prepared for that another developer will either join or take over the project. Thus the outsourcing. Whoever might join or overtake in future will certainly not gain access to my e-mail inbox or deviantART account to see all the bugs you are reporting in your habit. Better switch now :)

The bug tracker acts as my to-do list. It takes too much time to formulate a clear to-do item for every 1000 words-story you sent me via note. Not that I don't appreciate detailed reports but sometimes I just don't need to know that you have X gigabytes of RAM and a spaceship of a GPU (not to speak of that Apo itself gives a crap on your GPU because it's a pure CPU application)

I don't need to announce known problems anymore. You can just check if your problem already exists in the tracker. I won't answer duplicates.

You can observe the bug processing in the source code browser on code.apophysis-7x.org. When I commit a bugfix, I will write the username you wrote your bug report with into the commit comments as a reference. Commits are visible as they are done. If there have been enough commits, a release will be published. Of course, you can always checkout the source code yourself via SVN and build your own release if it's THAT important :lmao:



There are also some simple submission rules which I put in a paste bin and linked on the top of the submission form on the bug tracker page.

Please make sure you include the following information in your artifact:
1) What happens NOW (is-status) and what SHOULD happen (should-status)?
2) How can the I reproduce/provoke the problem you have?
     
Before you submit a new artifact, make sure:
1) that you have the newest version of Apophysis 7X / 7X64 (remember Hotfix releases)
2) that you are working on Windows XP or higher; Linux or Mac versions are available using WINE but can act strangely
3) that your computer is clean of viruses (of course) and you are not using any desktop enhancement or shell replacement software such as Aston, NextStep or WindowFX
4) that your font size is set to normal in the Windows appearance settings (only for interface related problems)
     
Bug or feature? An artifact without a should-status can't be processed as I won't know what program behavior you wish for. Maybe you are reporting an error message and it should appear because of another problem in your configuration?

My USB-crystal ball is in the laundry. An artifact without reproduction steps can't be processed as I won't know what you did before the problem occured. What steps were you following in the program before the problem occured?
     
Avoid unneccessary information. Save me some time by double-checking your settings and making sure that I can see it on my machine! This way, your artifacts will be processed efficiently and fast. If Ineed to know your CPU type, how much RAM and operating system you got and what graphics card you are using, I'll let you know. I don't care if you are an animator, a print artist or a casual playing around. During the bug processing, you are a user. You don't need to tell me that. Be clear and focused. :)

Use english language. I don't care if your grammar is not the best and you misspell words. If I can understand it somehow, it's fine. Google translate is okay too - as long as it's not TOO wild. But avoid writing in french, german, spanish, zulu or whatnot. If you don't speak english then I can't help you. Sorry.

Don't abuse for feature- and change requests. This tracker is about BUGS. You are seeing a bug when the program clearly behaves in another way than it's intented to behave. Sometimes, error messages pop up for a good reason. Your wish that the editor background should be hot pink is a change request, not a bug. So is your wish that you can render exotic image format XYZ with Apophysis is a feature request. But your wish that Apophysis should not open your CD/DVD-drive every time you click on "Render" is a bug report because that is a clear misbehavior.

Don't abuse anonymous reports. You can report bugs without logging into SourceForge (even though you can do so with OpenID, a Google account and whatnot. If I get fishy shit in the tracker, the anonymous reports will be turned off immediately and indiscutably and you will have to log into SourceForge and potentially make an account to be able to report bugs.
     
Thanks for acknowledging!

FYI

Fri Jun 15, 2012, 8:41 AM
There are bugfix commits in the Apophysis 7X repository :)
(If enough bugs got fixes, I'm gonna build a release)

Since I foresee that I'm not gonna be that active on Apo7x anymore, I restructured the code repository with the goal of making it more transparent and usable by other developers.

First and foremost: the URL! --> [link]
The checkout command is: svn co https://apophysis7x.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/apophysis7x ./apophysis7x

I resetted the repository and added all relevant things. This includes XE2 project files, help files, assets (graphics, the chk64 tool), plugin headers and the installers.

However, you need some things on your workstation to work with these things. This includes:
+ Delphi XE2 (licensed, of course)
+ TMS Scripter Studio (licensed, only for x86 aka 32 bit)
+ Photoshop and Axialis IconWorkshop for the icons
+ Help File Writer for the help files
+ A certain folder structure; more details in the file "Repository notes.txt" on the repo root

All dependencies except TMS have been moved to the repo. You check them out with the code. TMS can't be included because it's commercial and SVN inclusion would violate the EULA.

The WinForms-project (7x16) has been added as a branch; same for the installers.
The console project (latest release) has been added as a branch too. It builds fine.

You can't commit to the repo unless I add you as a developer but you can sure as hell read from the repo and play with the code :)

Happy programming!

EDIT: The source code of all my plugins can be found in assets/plugin now

A new life and how things go

Sat Jun 2, 2012, 6:40 AM
A few people MIGHT have noticed that I've been very inactive lately :lmao: This is due to a reason. Background is that I moved and started a new job because my old (freelance) work didn't pay my things anymore and the place I lived at was kinda dead and on the edge of the universe :)

I started working there 2 weeks ago. It's a software company in Karlsruhe, Germany which provides lawyers and courts with applications they need to keep things running. Namely office-, file- and document-management solutions. I'm in the development department of the office-management-solution.

I'm working 8.30am to 6.00pm every monday till friday so there is not much space left for my own projects BUT I'm also gathering a lot of knowledge to optimize and speed up the development process for my own projects. This enables me to not shut down everything and continue on weekends and such. Pretty much like everybody does their hobbies when working during the week. And as a nice bonus, I'm now financially able to stop holding my things up as donation-ware and turn them into "real" freeware because somebody else pays my bills :lmao:

Right now, I have to use my free time to settle and close the files on my old place. But there will be times where I have time to fractal and fractal code again. After all, the majority of the tasks before me are done.

Anything else to say? Yes! Thanks a lot to all morale boosters and supporters who provided heartfelt help during the big transistion :hug:

Shoutbox

~Fujakura:iconfujakura:
Great work here! Very Inspiring!
Fri Mar 22, 2013, 9:51 AM
~FluffyTabby:iconfluffytabby:
hi whats up XD
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 7:56 AM
*MothersHeart:iconmothersheart:
:wave:
Thu Sep 20, 2012, 6:17 PM
~Dezenerate:icondezenerate:
:B
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 11:53 PM
=Daeurth:icondaeurth:
:hug:
Sun May 27, 2012, 8:28 AM
`lindelokse:iconlindelokse:
:cuddle:
Mon May 21, 2012, 3:13 PM
!AlexGrayeser:iconalexgrayeser:
ATTENTION WHORES :D
Wed May 9, 2012, 1:01 AM
=ZandKfan4ever57:iconzandkfan4ever57:
Happy Birthday! :cake:
Tue May 1, 2012, 2:09 PM
*timemit:icontimemit:
hey ..thanks for all as ever
Fri Apr 6, 2012, 4:00 PM
*anjaleck:iconanjaleck:
Howdy, George! You're awesome! :squee:
Mon Apr 2, 2012, 7:31 AM
Nobody

Does it make sense for me to stay on deviantART? 

96%
127 deviants said Yes because...
4%
5 deviants said No because...

Journal History