Apophysis 3D Revealed

I encounter various bugs in Apo quite often. That’s part of the nature of the program and a person learns to work around those bugs. For beginners who haven’t encountered them yet, they can prove puzzling or confusing.

Eventually I hope to list as many of them here as can be identified. Maybe it will help beginners and maybe a programmer working on updating the code will find it useful in making the program better! If you know of specific bugs and a work-around method, feel free to comment about them here, or send me an email with the information.

I’ll start with a simple one.

While working in the “Adjust Panel” one can enter numerical values directly by selecting the value already there, then typing in the new value. For some reason this process frequently stops working. The program fails to update, despite entering the number and clicking ENTER on the keyboard.

That is partly why I wrote the Rotate Pitch Script because I found that when the above problem occurs, the script will force the values to update correctly.

One effect of the bug is that as you work with Pitch=90 and make edits, it is useful to occasionally look at the fractal from a different vantage point such as Pitch=0. Often after switching back and forth by manually entering a value, the program refuses to recognize the activity, but the little Pitch value window will show the value I’ve entered, making it seem as if it changed, but the preview remains the same.

A similar effect of this bug is that after working at Pitch=90, then opening the Mutation panel, the central window in that panel will show the current side view, but the previews are all rendered from Pitch=0. Often if one of those Mutation options is clicked, the main preview will redraw showing the new flame from a Pitch=0 direction, but the Pitch control box fails to update and still shows Pitch=90.

This causes confusion because it is false information.

To verify the actual value, click on the word “Pitch” and start to slowly drag the mouse either left or right. This forces the value to update and begin incrementing as you drag. If it has been showing false information of Pitch=90 while the program is really working from Pitch=0, then this click drag action will cause the values to instantly change from the visible but false 90, showing that now you are adjusting values near Pitch=0.

There seems to be only two solutions to this issue. Use a script to control the values, or use the click-drag action of your mouse. The issue with Click-drag is that it can be difficult to arrive at the precise value you’re trying to get to.