Public formulas

Ultra Fractal comes with a set of 

standard fractal formulas

, 

transformations

, and 

coloring algorithms

. 

They are easy to use and well documented. However, when you get more experienced, you will want 

to work with more different formulas.

Most of the custom formulas written for Ultra Fractal are available through a public formula database 

on the Internet (

formulas.ultrafractal.com

). Here, you can download a complete set of formulas, 

browse the collection, and add your own formulas.

You can download formulas from the database from within Ultra Fractal. This will automatically 

download new and updated formulas and install them appropriately. 

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To start updating your collection of public formulas, click Update Public Formulas on the 

Options menu. You can select what to download: the weekly or monthly update, or the full 

collection. Ultra Fractal will automatically select the most appropriate option depending on 

how long ago you last updated the formulas.

The downloaded formulas will be installed in the Public formulas folder. By default, its location is My 

Documents\Ultra Fractal 4\Formulas\Public. It is always located under the main Formulas folder. 

The formulas will be installed according to the following rules:

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If a formula file already exists in the Public formulas folder or in a subfolder, it will be 

overwritten. If the existing file is newer than the downloaded file, you will be prompted for 

confirmation.

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If a formula file does not exist yet, it will be created in the Public formulas folder.

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If a formula file already exists outside the Public formulas folder, it will not be updated or 

overwritten. These files are listed as skipped. If you are a formula author, you can thus avoid 

overwriting your own files when updating the formulas by placing them in the Formulas\My 

Formulas folder instead of in Formulas\Public.

When all files are downloaded and installed, a short summary of the changes is shown. Details can 

be found in the Update.log file created in the Public formulas folder.

Notes

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You are free to organize the public formulas in subfolders in the Public formulas folder, for 

example to put files that you rarely use in a separate folder. The files will still be updated 

correctly.

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You can change the location of the Public formulas folder in the Folder tab of the 

Options 

dialog

.

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The formula database also contains text files with documentation and parameter files with 

examples. These are copied to the Public formulas folder as well.

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If you have a dial up connection, make sure you are connected to the Internet before 

updating your formulas. Otherwise, Ultra Fractal might not be able to connect to the formula 

database.

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When opening a 

parameter set

 that uses formulas that cannot be found, you can directly 

download the file from the formula database.

Next: 

Standard formulas

See Also

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