- 3/1/02: Server and protocol changes, all users need to upgrade to version 1.2.1a of µFrac as previous versions have become incompatible because of a server change (this should never happen again).

- 7/5/01 : version 1.2.1 of µFrac is out ! A Palm build to be used with MIDP for Palm OS has been added. Various enhancements, cosmetic changes and optimizations.

- 6/4/01 : µFrac was demoed at JavaOne at Motorola's booth.

- 5/6/01 : µFrac v1.2 released ! Major improvements, i85s and i50sx are now supported.

- 5/5/01 : Based on the feedback I received, I've been able to put down a short FAQ. Thanks you guys !

- 5/3/01 : µFrac has been reported to work on Motorola's GPRS-enabled Accompli 008 phone+PDA as shown on these screenshots. Many thanks to Bob Shukai for sharing this!

- 4/17/01 : µFrac v1.1 is out, you can now send by email a hi-res image of the fractal you are currently exploring. Also added this feature to the µFrac applet.

- 4/6/01 : Wrote a tiny applet that also uses µFrac fractal server to generate fractals.

- 3/5/01 : Server update. Added Sierpinski and Fractalia models. Optimized fractal core engine, rendering accurracy has been increased a lot. Corrected a server bug which occurred under certain (rare) client conditions.

- 2/29/01 : µFrac v1.0.1 released. Improved support for devices with pointing input capabilities (such as palms).

- 2/21/01 : µFrac has been reported to work on Motorola i85s phone (formerly iDEN i3000 or Condor), this is good news (thanks to Dominik Buszko) !

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µFrac (pronounce myü-frak) is a distributed fractal explorer for mobile devices (phones and PDAs). Current supported platform is the J2ME™ (Java™ 2 Platform, Micro Edition) plus MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile).

Some of the features you will find in µFrac :
- Interactive fractals with zooming and panning capabilities.
- Lots of models and skins to choose from, new ones are automatically updated and synchronized with your phone.
- Ability to bookmark your favorite fractal locations ('Spots') and to email hi-res images.
- Fractals are adapted to the device display capabilities (monochrome, grayscale or color).
- Very lightweight client that doesn't require a lot of processing power or memory, just about any J2ME/ MIDP compatible device should do it.

See µFrac in action : Sun MIDP simulator | Motorola i85s | Motorola Accompli 008 | Nokia 9210

µFrac uses a distributed architecture to deliver fractals to the device using the HTTP protocol. No heavy calculation is performed on the device, fractals are actually generated remotely by the µFrac fractal server.
Internally, the fractal server is able to load balance requests on different servers, additionnal machines can be added on-the-fly for more processing power.

What this means :
- Operations performed by the client device are minimal so that you won't have to wait for hours and drain your phone battery !
- The fractal generation engine is independent from the client and can be used by any platform supporting the HTTP protocol.

Click here to see a gallery of fractals generated by µFrac fractal server.
Click here to test the µFrac fractal server with the µFrac applet.

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Download µFrac 1.2.1a (30,845 bytes). µFrac can also be downloaded over-the-air at midletcentral.com.

You will need to have either :

•  A J2ME / MIDP compatible phone or PDA. So far, µFrac has been reported to work on Motorola i85s, i50sx, Accompli 008, Siemens SL45i, and Palm OS devices. Check out the FAQ for more information about the supported devices. If you have tested µFrac on a different device, please let me know how it worked.
•  A MIDP phone simulator. The 'readme.txt' file in the package contains instructions for Sun J2ME Wireless Toolkit's phone simulator and MIDP FCS 1.0.

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History

Terms

µFrac may be used freely for non-commercial use but it is *not* freeware. Please do not distribute it (but feel free to link this site!) without prior authorization from mufrac.com.

Feedback

Your questions, comments, suggestions and bug reports are more than welcome !
For anything else, feel free to drop me an email.
Thank you for your interest in µFrac !

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If you liked µFrac, you will also like:

• muCommander : a cross-platform file manager for any OS with Java support
• µTelnet : a lightweight telnet client for J2ME/MIDP devices
• kFire : a customizable fire effect for J2ME/MIDP devices

Find more about fractals :

• 'Fractal' on Everything for one definition of 'fractal'.
• Fractint homepage , a more traditionnal fractal generation program.

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