Orbit Traps Overview
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also see:
Orbit Traps Direct (UF5) Orbit Traps Gradient (UF5) Trap Shape as Texture
Hi folks,
The Orbit Traps coloring formulas in UF5 are structured very differently from previous versions, and it's not always obvious how to reproduce some of the same "knobs" that were in the old versions.
Choosing which Iterations Trap Shapes should be applied to, for example, is now handled by a class. The default class (found under "Trap Iteration" in Orbit Traps (Gradient) in dmj5.ulb) has the same options as before, but you could also load the Random class into that slot and get repeatable random patterns.
Similarly, it may on the surface look like a lot of the options for manipulating trap shapes via tiling and such are missing. But they're not; you just use them in a different way. Tiling of trap shapes is really doing the same thing to a trap shape that a Transformation does to the entire layer. So rather than have a bunch of specialized slots for tiling and inversion and whatever, the orbit trap system actually lets you use ANY Transformation... and all the old tiling options are moved into the Trap Tiling Transformation.
In the same way, all the trap positioning stuff is really just another transformation, so it's written as the Trap Position transformation. And since you almost always need at least the Trap Position to go with your Trap Shape, there's a TrapShape Block class (already selected by default) which collects together a Transform, a Trap Shape, and a Transfer. If you need the Trap Position transform but you still want to use things like Trap Tiling, put a Transform Merge in the slot and load the Trap Position and Trap Tiling transforms into it.
Also, the old orbit traps formulas supported one, two, or three trap shapes, and the merge modes for two and three shapes were completely different. The new orbit traps formula appears to have only one Trap Shape slot (preloaded with a TrapShape Block), but this is deceptive. In fact, you can load a TrapShape Merge into that slot, which will let you put up to ten Trap Shapes in--and any of those could have another Trap Shape Merge.
This is not something that is going to be immediately apparent. With
UF4, each formula was more of a self-contained unit: it came with all
the parts needed to get the job done, but it was sealed and you
couldn't swap out the parts. UF5 allows (but does not require) formulas
written as a collection of much smaller parts. To make effective use of
this system requires building or refining a skill that was not as much
needed as before: the ability to fit the pieces together. It allows
more flexibility but it requires a bit of an investment in learning how
each of the small pieces work.
The key is that wherever you see a class parameter, that means you can load something new into that slot and get perhaps different behavior. You will need to explore to see what is possible. In some cases, we (the people who wrote the formulas) just haven't had enough time to write all the documentation and instructions yet. In some cases, we don't even know exactly what's possible yet. And people are writing new classes all the time.
Take, for example, Robert Bunney's formula library file. Robert was not on the beta team so he's had a short time to get used to UF5's object model. (I'm not picking on you, Robert, just observing.) And yet already we see things like "Deform Shape", which "wraps" another trap shape and applies some distortion to it. The same thing can be done by using a Trap Shape Block and putting a similar kind of deformation into the Transform slot, but his Deform Shape is actually convenient, as it wraps it all together in a simple package.
Similarly, his Shape Collection wraps up all the trap shapes known at the time of its writing into a single Trap Shape object, so you can flip through them with a drop-down list instead of using the class browser. This was not a "necessary" class but for quite a few people it is more convenient.
My point here is that the object model is very new, and often there is more than one way that things can be done. It is worth learning even though that requires some effort. The old formulas will continue to work the same way. But there are more good things to come, and more possibilities than we had before.
I've not been as present to answer questions lately as I had hoped.
There have been other things that have required my attention, and
fractal-related things have suffered as a result. I hope to be able to
return to formula-writing soon.
