Slightly earlier than planned, I have released the first beta of version 3.1 of Mandelbrot Explorer.

The reason for the accelerated release is that version 3.0 contained a bug that means it will not run on 64-bit (or x64) operating systems. If you try to run 3.0 on a 64-bit system, you get the following error:

An error has occurred from which Mandelbrot Explorer will not be able to recover. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007000B)

3.1 Beta 1 fixes this bug.

The Beta also allows you to preview a couple of exciting new features that are in development.

1. Random Colour Schemes: 3.1 will allow you to ask Mandelbrot Explorer to pick a colour scheme at random for you. There is a new built-in colour scheme, accessible from the toolbar, that allows you to instantly apply a random scheme. Alternatively, you can apply a random scheme manually, over a specific range of Dwell values if required, and then you can constrain the portion of colour space that these random colours may come from. You can perform that constraint in RGB or HSL colour-space.
2. Despeckling and Smoothing: These are two new algorithms that you can apply to a fractal you draw. Despeckling is designed for high-magnifications, and removes the speckly appearance you get due to the chaotic nature of a fractal. Smoothing averages out the Dwell values over the vicinity of a point so that excessive detail is smoothed out, and colours transition smoothly. Full documentation of these features will be added in due course.

Remember that new features in pre-release versions are subject to change or even removal, and that configuration files saved, if they make use of these features, may not be compatible with the final released version.