Originally posted by ampathy
this much i know: fractals are not necessarily created with a recursive process (eg. mandelbrot)
I hate to disappoint you, but all fractals are created using a recursive process, and all are infinitely complex. Not sure where you learned that they weren\'t ?(
Ex: the Mandelbrot set is developed using the following equation:
z -> z^2 + c
So pick a complex number, square it, and add to that your original number. Then take this new number, square it, and add the original number (the same original number you used the first time), etc, etc. Hense, a recursive process.
And if you\'d like to know how you actually get the image that is associated with the Mandelbrot set, just take a complex number graph and put every single point into the above equation. If, after say 2000 iterations, you\'re still no farther away from the origin by 2 (in either the real or the imaginary axis) then that point is in the set, and you plot a black point. If it gets to be greater than 2 in less than 2000 iterations, then you can either plot a white point, or a colored point based on how many iterations have passed (makes a cool graphical pattern, kind of like this:
Note that this was a program that I wrote using C++/MFC in my spare time, nothing fancy

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