Public formulas

Ultra Fractal comes with a set of standard fractal formulas, transformations, coloring algorithms and plug-ins. 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 and plug-ins 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 and plug-ins from the database from within Ultra Fractal. This will automatically download new and updated files and install them appropriately.

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 files will be installed in the Public formulas folder.

Notes

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.
The formula database also contains text files with documentation and parameter files with examples. These are copied to the Public formulas folder as well.
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.
When opening a parameter set that uses formulas that cannot be found, you can directly download the file from the formula database.

How are the public formulas installed?

The formulas will be installed according to the following rules:

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

By default, the location of the Public formulas folder is Documents\Ultra Fractal 5\Formulas\Public. It is always located under the main Formulas folder. You can change its location in the Folder tab of the Options dialog.

Next: Standard formulas