On my Christmas wish list-a utility to convert Fractint's 16 bit .pot files to a high color depth format like say png or tga. While the continuous potential coloring method overcomes some of the limitations of the 256 color limit of the gif format the proprietary .POT file format is only recognized by Fractint. I can do a screen capture in DOSBox but I am limited to a resolution of 1024x768. Does anyone know of such a utility or workaround? Now on to today's fractal, a veggie like thing from Fractint's built in fn+fn formula. Love that green! On display at http://maxitersfractalfollies.blogspot.com. fract334.gif { ; vegetation ; blank ; calctime 0:08:54.10 ; created Jul 27, 2010 ; Fractint Version 2004 Patchlevel 9 reset=2004 type=fn+fn function=log/sin center-mag=0.987646/0.892526/26.69229/1/27.4999999999998685/-2.505634588\ 70090017e-014 params=0.1602221747489853/0/1/0 float=y maxiter=1000 bailoutest=or inside=0 proximity=25 outside=fmod cyclerange=0/255 colors=0Azzz0yz0xz0xz0wz0vz0vz0uz0ty0ty0sy0ry0ry0qy0py0py0oy0nx0nx0mx0lx\ 0kx0kx0jx0ix0iw0hw0gw0gw0fw0ew0ew0dw0cw0cv0bv0av0av0`v0_v0Zv0Zv0Yu0Xu0Xu\ 0Wu0Vu0Vu0Uu0Tu0Tu0St0Rt0Rt0Qt0Pt0Pt0Ot0Nt0Ms0Ls0Ks0Js0Js0Is0Hr0Hr0Gr0Fr\ 0Fr0Er0Dr0Cr0Cq0Bq0Aq0Aq09q08q08q07q06p05p05p04p03p03p02p01p00o00o00n00n\ 00n00n00m00m00m00m00l00l00l00l00k00k00k00k00j00j00j00j00i00i00i00i00h00h\ 00h00h00g00g00g00g00f00f00f00f00e00e00e00e00d00d00d00d00c00c00c00c00b00b\ 00b00b00a00a00a00a00`00`00`00`00_00_00_00_00Z00Z00Z00Z00Y00Y00Y00Y00X00X\ 00X00X00W00W00W00W00V00V00V00V00U00U00U00U00T00T00T00T00S00S00S00S00R00R\ 00R00R00Q00Q00Q00Q00P00P00P00P00O00O00O00O00N00N00N00N00M00M00M00M00L00L\ 00L00L00K00K00K00K00J00J00J00J00I00I00I00I00H00H00H00H00G00G00G00G00F00F\ 00F00F00E00E00E00E00D00D00D00D00C00C00C00C00B00B00B00A0 } Roger Alexander _________________________________________________________________ Turn down-time into play-time with Messenger games http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9734385
Roger Alexander wrote:
On my Christmas wish list-a utility to convert Fractint's 16 bit .POT files to a high color depth format like say PNG or TGA.
I was thinking that POV-Ray could handle such file types, but I am not on my machine at the moment and unable to verify that. I believe that the .POT files are supposed to be quite similar to the .GIF format, which means it should not be difficult to write a conversion utility. But why create a specialized file format unless there were a way to handle such files?? So there must be something around to do this. Sincerely, P.N.L. -------------------------------------- http://www.Nahee.com/PNL/Fractals.html http://www.Nahee.com/Fractals/
Paul N. Lee wrote:
Roger Alexander wrote:
On my Christmas wish list-a utility to convert Fractint's 16 bit .POT files to a high color depth format like say PNG or TGA.
I was thinking that POV-Ray could handle such file types, but I am not on my machine at the moment and unable to verify that. I believe that the .POT files are supposed to be quite similar to the .GIF format, which means it should not be difficult to write a conversion utility.
But why create a specialized file format unless there were a way to handle such files?? So there must be something around to do this.
I tried Googling around. Most sites insist that .POT files are Powerpoint presentation templates. But I always thought Powerpoint presentation templates were PPT files. But I remember there being utilities that could read and convert the 16-bit POT files. I could have sworn it was IrfanView, but that program's website doesn't say anything about them. -- David gnome@hawaii.rr.com authenticity, honesty, community
david wrote:
I tried Googling around. Most sites insist that .POT files are Powerpoint presentation templates. But I always thought Powerpoint presentation templates were PPT files.
The .PPT format is definitely used for a normal PowerPoint file type, but the .POT is the Template format for PowerPoint.
But I remember there being utilities that could read and convert the 16-bit POT files. I could have sworn it was IrfanView, but that program's website doesn't say anything about them.
IrfanView handles a huge amount of graphic/video/audio related file types, but the .POT is not one of them. I too was thinking there was a utility for this, just been way too many years since it was discussed anywhere. Maybe a search through the old FractInt Discussion List archives would turn up a hit?
Roger Alexander wrote:
On my Christmas wish list-a utility to convert Fractint's 16 bit .pot files to a high color depth format like say png or tga. While the continuous potential coloring method overcomes some of the limitations of the 256 color limit of the gif format the proprietary .POT file format is only recognized by Fractint. I can do a screen capture in DOSBox but I am limited to a resolution of 1024x768. Does anyone know of such a utility or workaround?
Roger, Fractint 16 bit .pot files are regular gif89a files. You can load them into any decent image viewer (if your favourite program balks, change the file extension from .pot to .gif). They were invented by the Stone Soup Group guys to replace the 16 bit .tga format used before for rendering smoother-than-ordinary-gif height fields. (To check this out, calculate and save a continuous potential image of i.e. the whole Mandelbrot set , but with "16 bit values" disabled, then produce a 3d transformation with lighting using that gif file - you'll get ugly steps in the landscape, because there are only 256 height values in the source.) As of the format: They are, as said above, gif89a files, but with double width lines. A continuous potential fractal (with 16 bit values enabled), calculated in, say, size MxN will end up as 2MxN gif file with the ".pot" extension. Each line's first M pixels will contain the same info as a continuous potential calculation with 16-bit disabled (a single byte representing the palette table number, with the same number also being used as a height value in a 3d transform), the second M pixels (bytes) do represent the refinement values for the heights of the first M pixels in a 3d transform (they won't have any influence on the color). The raw height data of pixel X (1 <= X <= M) of any line (before being scaled, rotated, shifted according to user input on the 3d transform input screens) in Fractint will be: pixel(X) + pixel(X + M)/256. So, there *is* 16 bit information contained in a .pot file, but not in the form of directly-to-use 16 bit color. One way is not to interpolate height values, but color values. After all, pixel(X) is an index into the palette table, too, and we can interpolate between the color it points to and the next color after it, like this: f = pixel(X + M)/256 r = r(pixel(X))*(1.0 - f) + r(pixel(X)+1)*f g = g(pixel(X))*(1.0 - f) + g(pixel(X)+1)*f b = b(pixel(X))*(1.0 - f) + b(pixel(X)+1)*f In fact, I have written a small command line utility ~10 years ago doing just that (reading a 16-bit .pot and outputting an uncrompressed 24-bit .tga with interpolated colors). The problem is, it is written and compiled in DOS 16-bit QuickC 2.5, with no regards to portability and probably full of Microsoftisms. The gif decoder is by Steven A. Bennet, the same originally used (with modifications) by Fractint. Plus, my memory of it (simple as the program is in principle) is very hazy. Should anyone be interested despite this, I'll gladly send it - exe and/or source (refusing any responsibilities, of course). Regard, Gerald
Gerald K. Dobiasovsky wrote:
Roger Alexander wrote:
On my Christmas wish list-a utility to convert Fractint's 16 bit .pot files to a high color depth format like say png or tga. While the continuous potential coloring method overcomes some of the limitations of the 256 color limit of the gif format the proprietary .POT file format is only recognized by Fractint. I can do a screen capture in DOSBox but I am limited to a resolution of 1024x768. Does anyone know of such a utility or workaround?
Roger, Fractint 16 bit .pot files are regular gif89a files. You can load them into any decent image viewer (if your favourite program balks, change the file extension from .pot to .gif).
They were invented by the Stone Soup Group guys to replace the 16 bit .tga format used before for rendering smoother-than-ordinary-gif height fields. (To check this out, calculate and save a continuous potential image of i.e. the whole Mandelbrot set , but with "16 bit values" disabled, then produce a 3d transformation with lighting using that gif file - you'll get ugly steps in the landscape, because there are only 256 height values in the source.)
As of the format: They are, as said above, gif89a files, but with double width lines. A continuous potential fractal (with 16 bit values enabled), calculated in, say, size MxN will end up as 2MxN gif file with the ".pot" extension. Each line's first M pixels will contain the same info as a continuous potential calculation with 16-bit disabled (a single byte representing the palette table number, with the same number also being used as a height value in a 3d transform), the second M pixels (bytes) do represent the refinement values for the heights of the first M pixels in a 3d transform (they won't have any influence on the color).
The raw height data of pixel X (1 <= X <= M) of any line (before being scaled, rotated, shifted according to user input on the 3d transform input screens) in Fractint will be: pixel(X) + pixel(X + M)/256.
So, there *is* 16 bit information contained in a .pot file, but not in the form of directly-to-use 16 bit color. One way is not to interpolate height values, but color values. After all, pixel(X) is an index into the palette table, too, and we can interpolate between the color it points to and the next color after it, like this:
f = pixel(X + M)/256 r = r(pixel(X))*(1.0 - f) + r(pixel(X)+1)*f g = g(pixel(X))*(1.0 - f) + g(pixel(X)+1)*f b = b(pixel(X))*(1.0 - f) + b(pixel(X)+1)*f
In fact, I have written a small command line utility ~10 years ago doing just that (reading a 16-bit .pot and outputting an uncrompressed 24-bit .tga with interpolated colors).
The problem is, it is written and compiled in DOS 16-bit QuickC 2.5, with no regards to portability and probably full of Microsoftisms. The gif decoder is by Steven A. Bennet, the same originally used (with modifications) by Fractint. Plus, my memory of it (simple as the program is in principle) is very hazy.
Should anyone be interested despite this, I'll gladly send it - exe and/or source (refusing any responsibilities, of course).
Release both - EXE and source. Then perhaps someone can migrate it from it's MS roots to something much more portable. -- David gnome@hawaii.rr.com authenticity, honesty, community
david wrote:
Gerald K. Dobiasovsky wrote:
In fact, I have written a small command line utility ~10 years ago doing just that (reading a 16-bit .pot and outputting an uncrompressed 24-bit .tga with interpolated colors).
The problem is, it is written and compiled in DOS 16-bit QuickC 2.5 .....
Should anyone be interested despite this, I'll gladly send it - exe and/or source.....
Release both - EXE and source. Then perhaps someone can migrate it from it's MS roots to something much more portable.
If you do not mind, please send me both. I can even make them available from my web pages for others, if you wish. Sincerely, P.N.L. -------------------------------------- http://www.Nahee.com/PNL/Fractals.html http://www.Nahee.com/Fractals/
Gerald K. Dobiasovsky wrote:
In fact, I have written a small command line utility ~10 years ago doing just that (reading a 16-bit .pot and outputting an uncrompressed 24-bit .tga with interpolated colors).
Should anyone be interested despite this, I'll gladly send it - exe and/or source (refusing any responsibilities, of course).
Still waiting on the email including both of the offered files. I know it has only been a little over three days, but figured Gerald would have checked his email by now. (Next reminder in a few days.) Sincerely, P.N.L. -------------------------------------- http://www.Nahee.com/PNL/Fractals.html http://www.Nahee.com/Fractals/
Gerald K. Dobiasovsky wrote:
In fact, I have written a small command line utility ~10 years ago doing just that (reading a 16-bit .POT and outputting an uncrompressed 24-bit .TGA with interpolated colors).
Should anyone be interested despite this, I'll gladly send it - EXE and/or source (refusing any responsibilities, of course).
Gerald sent me a .ZIP file containing several files concerning the .POT utilities he has created and/or worked with. I have decided to make this (along with the email notes) available to others, if they wish to have a go with them: http://www.Nahee.com/spanky/pub/fractals/programs/ibmpc/utils/POT_file_utils... [53,933 bytes] Sincerely, P.N.L. -------------------------------------- http://www.Nahee.com/PNL/Fractals.html http://www.Nahee.com/Fractals/
participants (5)
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david -
Gerald K. Dobiasovsky -
Maryetta Campbell -
Paul N. Lee -
Roger Alexander