This section is dedicated to Stephen C. Ferguson’s great collection of fractal generators. For many… many years, they have been my favorites, so many of my pictures have been created with some of his programs. I still use several of them on Windows 11, and they still run smoothly. Yet, since they are 20+ years old I must say this: Warning: use at your own risk. A couple of years ago, it was required to pay a small fee to access a restricted download area to get any or all of them, but right now they are freely available from the VChira website (see links below). I can’t say if they will remain free from now on or if it will change again in the future.
Atriatix ~ v0.010
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Atriatix plots interesting fractals from the Gumowski/Mira particle simulation formula. The resulting image represents the particles’ trajectories. Source code available. Several versions are still available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 7 May 2000.
Cold_IFS ~ v0.002
OS: Win9x/Me/NT ~ 482 Kb
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Cold_IFS plots orbit trajectories using an IFS based formula. The images it produces are usually associated with flame fractals in other fractal generating programs. Pictures can be saved in several different formats, but parameters cannot be saved in any way. Ferguson stopped working on this application (this was the second and final preview), but incorporated most of its functions in Atriatix (see avobe). The Draw button works as a random image generator. Several versions are still available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 19 July 1999.
Emberj ~ v0.005 ~ JAVA
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Emberj is a cross-platform fractal generator that can draw mainly Mandelbrot set and Lyapunov images. Compared to other Ferguson applications, this one is simple because it doesn’t include the full-range of options all of his other projects have, but it’s as fast as any of them, and works the same way (for those who are familiar with his software). Although it doesn’t save the parameters, images can be saved as PPM files. Will work in any system that has the Java Development Kit (JDK) installed. Open source. Several versions are still available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 31 January 2000.
Flarium24 ~ v8.9
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: http://tierazon.com
Flarium24 draws fractal images using some 160 equations and 60 filters in three different methods: M-Set, N-Set, and F-Set, and as other Ferguson’s programs, it also lets you input your own formulas. Can also draw strange attractors. Source code available. Available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 9 March 1998.
GrafZViZion ~ v4.2
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
GrafZViZion can save images in various formats (including jpg, tif, PNG and BMP), and has some special post-processing tools. Includes point-and-click zooming. Can be slow. Source code available. Available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 3 February 1999.
InkBlot Kaos ~ v2.9
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
InkBlot Kaos is one of the fastest generators in doing calculations. Notwithstanding its size (less than 200K), it is capable of generating stunning and beautiful images. One of my favorites. Source code available. Version 2.8 is still available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 26 January 1999.
Iterations ~ v29
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Besides creating a myriad of fractal pictures, Iterations is also capable of generating fractal movies by zooming and panning in and around the image. The movies can be saved as .avi files. Source code available. Available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 25 May 1998.
Ktaza ~ v4.2
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Ktaza combines Sterling-ware-like 40-plus fractal types with Atriatix’s strange attractors and Martin – Gumowski Mira fractals. It opens two image views, one for each method. Not so easy for beginners. Source code available. Version 0.10 is available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 18 December 2000.
Qtrnion ~ v0.03
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
QTrnion uses Open-GL to plot Mandelbrot-based quaternion fractals and surface maps. Images can be saved as BMP files only. Zip file includes source code. I never used it extensively, so I can’t comment on how it works in detail. Available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 7 September 1999.
Quaternia ~ v1.0
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Quaternia is a small program to generate quaternion fractals. It is based on Frode Gill’s Quaternion Generator (see below). Images can only be save as BMP files. The 238 kb zipped archive includes the source code. It is no longer available from Ferguson’s site, so most probably it was incorporated into a later program.
Last revision: 10 June 2001.
Root-IFS ~ v0.006
OS: Win9x/Me/NT
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
As Cold_IFS, Root-IFS plots orbit trajectories using an IFS based formula. The images it produces are usually associated with flame fractals in other fractal generating programs. Pictures can be saved in several different formats; unlike its predecessor it saves parameter values to a file. Also features a button to generate pictures randomly. Compressed (ZIP) file includes source code. Several versions are still available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 6 May 2000.
Sterling-ware ~ v1.7
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Point-and-click zooming at an incredible speed. This new version includes sine trap functions, Lyapunov exponents, orbit counting, the Triangle Inequality Variation by Damien M. Jones, and “LDerivatives.” Version 1.7 adds some extra new formulas. For those of you curious enough, all past versions of Sterling-ware are available with source code from Iterations et Flarium 24 web site. Source code available. Several versions are still available at the vchira website (software section), but only the latest one is working fine on Win 11.
Last revision: 11 October 1999.
The Talis Project ~ v3.6
OS: DOS
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
This is a simple fractal generating program for DOS, but can be use in other MS Windows up to Vista with no problem (it won’t run in more recent versions, and certainly not in Windows 10). It also works very similar to other Ferguson’s generators. I used to like it very much. Available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 16 November 1997.
Tiera-Zon ~ v2.9
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Tiera-Zon combines great features with great speed. Highly recommended for computers with slow processors. Important: It comes with coloring methods to the ones used in previous versions, so keep those handy in case you need to reproduce earlier images as intended (older parameter files will render, but with totally different, and not necessarily better, color interpretations). Tends to crash on Windows XP if user changes parameters too fast. Source code also available. Several versions are still available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 22 November 2002.
Tiera Zon 2 ~ v0.6
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Tiera Zon 2 works similar to Tiera-Zon, but its formulas and filters are accessible from a secondary window instead of the menu bar. Additional formulas and parameters are also available. This one is known to be slower than its sibling, Tiera-Zon. Source code available. Several versions are still available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 2 January 2000.
Vchira ~ v0.5
OS: Win
author: Stephen C. Ferguson
url: https://vchira.com
Another great fractal generator from Stephen Ferguson’s genius, Vchira was (and possibly still is) the first freeware fractal generator (as far as I know) to introduce layers and alpha channels. And it is as good as all of the other software in Ferguson’s outstanding collection. Source code available. Available at the vchira website (software section).
Last revision: 11 August 2002.