Hi, it's me again! Introduction Since December 2018 I have been working on a Mandelbrot Explorer application. On September 1st I finished version 1.7 of it, which, among other things, implements saving and loading images. To join this contest, you have to download the application, find a beautiful spot for a picture, and send me the image. Should be fun! The application is for Windows only, although it might be possible to get it to run on other platforms too. Rules When finding a position for your image, start from the default, zoomed out view. I do not want you to load up one of the examples that come with the program, move a bit to the left, and submit the picture. It is fine if your image is similar to one of mine (I have done a lot, after all!), but you must find it yourself. Of course it is totally okay to use my examples for inspiration, but make sure to go back to the beginning afterwards (load the example for the default colouration). You may use whatever settings you please, with two exceptions. Don't increase the scale so far that the picture will be pixelated (you'll know what I mean if it happens, you'll have to zoom in quite a lot). And don't increase the amount of maxiterations to above 50000. This is to ensure that I can load your image without it taking minutes (the max included with the examples that come with the program is 8000). To submit an entry, save your image with the program, and send it to me. You can upload it to Google Drive or Dropbox (or similar) and pm the link to me, send me it on Discord at 607#2735 or mail it me at 607.filler@gmail.com. You cannot upload it to imgur and send me the link, as imgur removes the data necessary to load the image back. I will allow three entries per person, to encourage diversity. If you happen to create a fourth or fifth amazing image, that's fine: send it to me and clarify which of your pictures you want to retract from participation. Each of your participating pictures must be in a different spot and use a different colouration. You may ask friends or family for assistance in deciding which pictures to submit, but please do not share the images you are submitting with anyone on EMC (besides me ) before the contest ends. Judging I have not yet set a deadline for this contest. When I will have done so and it is approaching, I will compile a panel of judges. I am aiming for 10 judges of different ages and interests. Naturally, I will seek these outside of EMC. The pictures will be judged on the default size of 500x500. This is so that contestants with a small screen resolution or a slow pc are not at too much of a disadvantage compared to those using the program in 1080p full screen. Each judge will rate each picture on a scale of 1 to 10, and all the scores for each picture will be added together. Based on this I will create a ranking. Prizes To encourage people doing their best on all of their submissions, I will offer more than I am used to. So far I don't think I will write a book, but I might change my mind on that. What I will give away: First place: 250,000 rupees, Can Opener and a 100k Members Item of choice Second place: 150,000 rupees and a 100k Members Item of choice Third place: 50,000 rupees and a 100k Members Item of choice Besides that the entire top 10 will receive a vault voucher each. Finally, every participant will be awarded Club Points, according to a formula which I will decide on once I know the amount of entries. Note: As there are three main prizes, and you can make three entries per person, it is theoretically possible to win all three. And by the way: donations are very welcome! (do notify me of them, so they don't get lost in my rupee history or mail) When I get enough, I will also offer prizes to fourth and fifth place. Otherwise, they will simply be divided among the top 3. How do I start? Download the application from the thread here! Have fun! If you have any issues or questions, please let me know.
Sounds and looks awesome! Unfortunately, I am going to have to pass on this myself, because I am not a creative person at all. I'm more of a "logical kind" of person. I played around with the program a bit and it looks cool, but I do not think that this is something that I will be able to contribute to... I really look forward to seeing what people are going to be able to create with such a program. ^^
Hm, really? I am almost certain that you would be able to find some cool places! You do not have to be a creative person for it. Just pick a colouration that sounds or looks nice and go zooming in on the picture. The colourations themselves were programmed with creativity (well, most of them... the first four not so much ), but the beautiful examples in the OP (and included with the program) were found by simply looking around and thinking "Ooh this is cool"! In any case, thanks for the compliment and thanks for trying the program; I'm glad to understand it works. However, I do think you could certainly participate. You don't have to get a podium place! Seeing you are a "logical kind of person", you might have most fun with the "Classic" colouration option. A simple picture might actually be loved by some judges! But I'm sure you can find something you like with some other colourations as well. ... That's enough, now it's up to you whether you'll be persuaded or not.
Aw. What platform are you on? I could do some research to see if it's possible to target another platform.
I've got a Chromebook, running on Chrome OS, which doesn't allow anyone to really download any executable file. It only allows items from the Chrome Web Store. Oh well.
Heh, right, I won't be able to do anything for that. Well, that's unfortunate! Thanks for the interest regardless.
I'm afraid I should cancel this contest, as sad as it is. Besides from Jelle and Tom, whom I discussed this with in a pm, I have not got to know of a single person's intention to join this contest, and have not yet received any submissions. I don't feel like giving just anyone who happens to join the prizes, and moreover, I don't think I would feel comfortable about requesting the time of 10 judges, to judge the entries of 1 or 2 people.
So it turned out that the saving and loading didn't work properly for people with regional settings that didn't use the period as the decimal separator. As those have been fixed now, I will try to kick-start this contest once more! Remember: you don't need to be an artist or a technician to join this. If 10 people submit their entries before the end of 2019, I will finish this contest and find the panel of judges. Otherwise, everyone will get a small reward for participating and I will post all the entries here without judging. I hope this is fine by everyone; it's a bit strange that you might be putting in effort and end up without a chance at the real prizes, but this contest is only fun for me and the judges if enough people participate. And besides, participating in the contest itself will hopefully be fun for you, so you don't have to do it just for the potential prizes. If you already entered before, your entries are still in.
I'm not sure if bumps should help at all, as threads stay so long in the recently active threads box anyway nowadays. I will put it in my status and signature later and see if it has a big impact. Maybe I should also change the title.
I will load this up tonight and try to gather a few good entries. Might take into tomorrow. But I am interested and will be joining
This looks interesting, was it made as a school/work project? I've worked a little bit with flow visualization, and the images are kinda reminiscent of some of the patterns found there. Given the generous time frame I'll try to take a look at it and hopefully find something cool!
Originally it was a school project, yes. But it has developed far beyond what we handed in for the assignment, and even then we got a more than perfect grade on it. (10.3/10, somehow. Then again, for that course I also got an 11.3/10 for a Reversi implementation, so I guess it could've been better ) And it will probably be developed further in the future. I have quite a list of ideas to implement still. But I wanted other people to use it, as there are probably a lot of issues with the program that I'm not seeing. So that's part of the reason why I made this contest. Unfortunately it hasn't been received very well so far. But one of the two entrants I did have initially did make me realise the regional issues with regard to saving and loading! That's something that I probably wouldn't ever have figured out if nobody used my program (I'm Dutch myself, but I have all my devices set to English because it's easier to look things up on the internet or share screenshots when I have issues), and yet it makes it a lot better now that it's fixed.
Interesting program. Will send a few in.. had fun playing with the images for sure. Of course did spend some time trying to see if other images could be loaded cuz im stubborn. Lol
I reported the OP with Please add to the title " (requires no artistic or technical skills)". Maybe more people will look into it then. :P.
For the next version I implemented functionality to save pictures in any dimensions you want, including non-square ones! So you will be able to easily turn something you find now into a wallpaper for your phone or pc with that.
Come on, guys and gals! You ought to have time now that there's a break from school/uni/college, right? I will do some extra advertising in my signature and status, but I won't nag people individually about it much until I get close to the required 10 * 3 entries, probably. Edit: I thought it was a bit unfair if people, reading only the OP, didn't realise they had to enter before the end of the year, or that the contest might be cancelled. So I added the following to the top of the post. Temporary edit: If I get 10 participants before the end of 2019 this contest will go through. Otherwise I will very likely cancel it because of lack of interest. So little entrants does mean that there is a higher chance for you to win!
