Chaoscope Manual

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Previous: Miscellaneous 5 Project file format  

 

Project files are saved as "editable" text files. Their syntax is loosely based on the C language and is very similar to POV-Ray source file syntax. It is not necessary to understand how project files are built unless you intend to create your own tools to circumvent the lack of advanced features in Chaoscope.
 

5.1 Syntax and keyword types
 

Keywords are short, lowercase words which may contain the "underscore" character. These keywords can indicate a block, where related keywords are grouped, or can be followed by one or more values. There are six types of keywords in project files:

Block:
Blocks group related keywords together. They enclose two or more tokens, including nested blocks, on separate lines within curly brackets { and }. Example:

gradient {

variable color
colors <0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1>
}
Value:
A keyword followed by a numeric value, either an integer or a real number. Example:

attractor {

type lorenz
iterations 20000000
...
Value Array:
A keyword followed by two or more numeric values separated by commas, enclosed by angle brackets < and >. Example:

attractor {

type pickover
iterations 20000000
parameters <-0.96, 2.79, 1.85, 1.5>
}
Enumerated:
A keyword followed by an identifier rather than a value. Each enumerated keyword has its own set of identifiers. Example:

view {

mode light
width 640
height 480
...
String:
A keyword followed by a string of characters enclosed by double quotes. Example:

info {

version "0.3.0"
author "Chaoscope User"
date "18/04/2006"
}
Switch:
A single optional keyword. Example:

attractor {

type ifs
matrices 4
coefficients
...
}

5.2 Reference
 

Project files consist of three main blocks: info, attractor and view. These blocks can only appear once in a project file. Attractor parameters files consist of a single attractor block while View settings files consist of a single view block.

 
 

info

 block  
  version string version of Chaoscope the project was created with, should be 0.3.0
  author string User name in Options
  date string Date the project was saved

attractor

 block  
  type enumerated

chaotic_flow | icon | ifs | julia | lorenz | lorenz_84 | pickover | polynomial_a | polynomial_b | polynomial_c | polynomial_sprott | polynomial_func | unravel

type of equation
  order value specific to Polynomial Sprott, order of the equation
  matrices value specific to IFS, number of matrices
  coefficients switch specific to IFS, if present indicates that the parameters are the raw matrices coefficients rather than the affine transformation values. Useful if you want to import an IFS from FractINT.
  function enumerated

abs | power | sin

specific to Polynomial Function, subtype of equation
  parameters value array the equation parameters in the order they're displayed in the attractor palette. Non-numeric Chaotic Flow parameters (Mi Op.) are coded as follow: 1 = 0, X = 1, Y = 2 and Z = 3.
  exclude value array index of the parameters excluded from Search. Starts at 0.

view

 block  
  mode enumerated

gas | liquid | light | plasma | solid

render mode
  width value render width
  height value render height
  scale value attractor scale
  model_scale value internal value, calculated when view is adjusted, used to make all attractors roughly the same size with scale = 1, keeps the preview consistent
  origin value array

internal value, calculated when view is adjusted and centered, is a rough estimate of the center of the attractor. Vectors and coordinates terms are stored as follow:
<x, y, z>
  translation value array distance between the attractor origin and the center of the image
  rotation value array

rotation of the attractor encoded in a quaternion: the first three elements are the axis vector terms and the fourth element is the angle in Radian. To spin the attractor around the Y axis, set the rotation elements as follow:
<0, 1, 0, phi>
With phi the amount the attractor is rotated by.
  peak value Highest accumulation value. Each pixel value is divided by peak before Contrast, Brightness, Opacity and/or Gamma are applied. During Batch Processing, peak supersedes internal calculation before render updates. It is important to have a constant peak (or a smoothly changing value) across all project files if you aim to create an animation. Peak is ignored when the project is loaded manually or when its value is zero. Make sure to set it to zero if you intend to render a set of independent projects with Batch Processing.
  gamma value Gamma factor
  contrast value Specific to Gas and Liquid modes, contrast factor
  brightness value Specific to Light and Plasma modes, brightness factor
  opacity value Specific to Solid mode, opacity factor
  roughness value Specific to Solid mode, roughness factor
  gradient block One instance only for Gas and Liquid modes, two instances for Light and Plasma, describes a gradient
    variable enumerated

color | speed | angle

Variable the gradient is assigned to. Can only be color for Gas and Liquid and either speed or angle for Light and Plasma.
    colors value array Colors are listed one after another, with four values per color. All values must range from 0 to 1 inclusive. The first value is the color position within the gradient, start is 0 and end is 1. The following three values are the RGB component values.
  light block At least one instance for Solid, describes a light
    direction value array Lights in Chaoscope are directionial, all rays are parallel. Direction is a vector which represents the direction of the light, with -X pointing right and +X pointing left. Avoid setting the Z term to zero.
    color value array Red, Green and Blue components of the light color, respectively. Range from 0 to 1 inclusive.
  colors block One instance only for Solid
    primary value array RGB components of the attractor color
    secondary value array RGB components of the secondary attractor color
    specular value array RGB components of the specular highlights color
    ambient value array RGB components of the ambient color
    background value array RGB components of the background color

 

5.3 Creating View Settings presets
 

Unlike Project and Attractor files, all keywords are optional in View Settings files, apart from the mandatory view block. This feature allows you to create your own view presets of sizes, gradients, lights or colors combination for instance.

How to proceed:

  • Load the project you want to extract the View Settings elements from (horloge_interne.csproj in this example)
  • Save the View Settings (csview extension)
  • Open the View Settings file in a text editor. The file will look like this:

view {

mode solid
width 800
height 800
scale 0.715189266698166
model_scale 1.50385059546358
origin <0.145753189921379, 0.227515641599894, 0.105339765548706>
translation <-0.0448339065768939, -0.000359932688852257, 0>
rotation <0.927640394247866, -0.257419191317068, 0.270589465614112, 1.66081112521159>
peak 0
gamma 1
opacity 800
roughness 0.008
light {
direction <0.589738587972997, -0.635278914265787, 0.498627214404607>
color <0.98897647857666, 0.964678347110748, 0.0741382092237473>
}
light {
direction <-0.780422137651891, -0.622402901995893, 0.0596314904219498>
color <0.81045526266098, 0.594928383827209, 0.140293717384338>
}
light {
direction <0.44047114948812, 0.497843708825242, 0.747085542660104>
color <0.628062665462494, 0.90900331735611, 0.67468786239624>
}
light {
direction <0.346305259829165, 0.144369599158307, 0.926946646713566>
color <0.927183747291565, 0.591311573982239, 0.335972815752029>
}
colors {
primary <0.345098048448563, 0.250980406999588, 0.156862750649452>
secondary <0.752941191196442, 0.690196096897125, 0.627451002597809>
specular <1, 1, 1>
ambient <0, 0, 0>
background <0.596078455448151, 0.627451002597809, 0.533333361148834>
}
}
  • Delete the unwanted keywords and keep those you want to reuse. For instance, to create a light preset, remove all keywords apart from the mode keyword, the light blocks and their content. Again, all keywords are optional, even the mode keyword, however it is recommended to include it when your preset contains mode specific keywords. Your new View Settings file then becomes:

view {

mode solid
light {
direction <0.589738587972997, -0.635278914265787, 0.498627214404607>
color <0.98897647857666, 0.964678347110748, 0.0741382092237473>
}
light {
direction <-0.780422137651891, -0.622402901995893, 0.0596314904219498>
color <0.81045526266098, 0.594928383827209, 0.140293717384338>
}
light {
direction <0.44047114948812, 0.497843708825242, 0.747085542660104>
color <0.628062665462494, 0.90900331735611, 0.67468786239624>
}
light {
direction <0.346305259829165, 0.144369599158307, 0.926946646713566>
color <0.927183747291565, 0.591311573982239, 0.335972815752029>
}
}
  • Save the View Settings under a different name while keeping the csview extension.

When you want to apply the preset to a project, just load the View Settings file you've created. In our example, the mode solid keyword will switch the render mode to Solid and all the lights will be replaced by those defined in the View Settings file sampled above.

 

Previous: Miscellaneous 5 Project file format