Free Fractal Software for Windows – Playable Live, with Wiimote Control

Fractice Whorld from Jeff Mission on Vimeo.

Fractal-generating software was once all the rage. But fractal geometry is as compelling and organic as ever. And newly-released Fractice software is not only free, but has some unique features that make it worth a look – particularly real-time control for live visuals – and that bring fractal software into the year 2009:

• Anti-aliasing
• Deep zoom (a natural feature for fractals)
• Multicore and distributed processing
• Movie recording
• Live visual controls: mixing, mirroring, origin motion, palette tweening, dual-monitor support, and MIDI

Where this gets even more interesting is that our friend Jeff Mission, maker of the generative, Wiimote-controllable software WiiWhorld, has written scripts allowing you to control Fractice with gestures on your Nintendo Wii remote. The video at top shows what happens when you blend Fractice as a background layer with Jeff’s own generative creations in WiiWhorld.

Jeff writes:

We’ve had a lot of fun working on this over the past several months, and putting it through its paces at some local events.  Like Chris’ other software, it’s open-source and free to all.

Fractice is software by Chris Korda:

http://fractice.sourceforge.net/

And to connect your Wiimote, you can use this script, in conjunction with the free, powerful game controller-mapping software for Windows, GlovePIE:

FractalBasic.PIE

GlovePIE

I’d still like to see people push fractals in different aesthetic directions, but I find this fascinating, nonetheless. Curious to see what folks do with it.