Hiya
Welcome to the 12th edition of Meet The Fractal Community!
In few words, Meet The Fractal Community is interview with someone of our beloved fractal community. But, from now and for a few editions, we will meet our wizards, the awesome people that do all the coding that allows us to make our pixels
Today let's have a closer look to Xyrus-02
First of all , please introduce yourself to the community.
Hey there guys. What's up? I'm George, 26 from Germany. Appearantly I'm the guy who you are talking to when it comes to Apophysis (or the 7X fork)
I'm doing this and that but mostly I'm programming or fractaling. I like breathing, food, a good movie, some gaming, bike tours and playing soccer here and there. That about me 
And, of course, tell us about Apo7x.
Apophysis 7X. Well. It's been becoming sort of a dinosaur but a lot of you guys are still using it which is pretty damn awesome
I don't know but whenever I was going for something else, I landed back there the other day. The only reason why I ever started the 7X fork is because the development on the main branch was sort of dead but I wanted to add some things I needed. And now we have 15 major releases with a few nifty things like more variations, thumbnail previews, direct coloring (which was elaborating on JoelFaber's and Lu-Kout's prototypes) and a bunch of more things. I would have never expected that it would go this far.What is its standout feature or quality?
I would say it's the collection of tiny bits and chaps on the surface. I was never really going to make it (much) faster or add ultra-exciting new rendering techniques into Apophysis 7X. The goal was to prettify the surface and add some shortcuts and handy bits to improve the experience and the workflow of the software. For that, there are other projects like Chaotica and whatnot. So in my opinion, the overall surface improvements are the standout feature. Oh! And - of course - Apophysis 7X is the only Apophysis which works with 64 bit-processors while retaining the plugin support
What are the future plans for Apo7x?
Really, I'm not even sure there are major future plans for Apophysis 7X. As I said before, we are dealing with a dinosaur here. The code base is incredibly old and the renderer is not exactly what you would call a good point to start with
I'm still looking that I can straighten up some bugs and problems people find and make it a better experience for fractalists to work with. Currently I'm boosting the preview rendering so that it can make use of multithreading like the production renderer. But you won't get like a real-time renderering, GPU support and whatnot There are other things in the oven for that You have any other projects you are willing to show to the community?
Well, maybe not exactly show them - it's a tad bit early for that. But I do have something you guys are gonna be really really excited about. It's in a really ripe state already and I'm going to elaborate on that soon. Have a few catchy phrases: studio-level, artist-oriented fractal flame editor, native multi-threading, nifty UI.
Do you create any fractal art yourself?
Absolutely. I'm into this like all of you
And I have a ridiculously huge gallery on dA Why did you start working on fractal software?
I started working on fractal software as a programmer in 2009 (allthough I started programming in 1998) but as an artist in 2006. I ran out of ideas after 3 years of making fractal art so kinda had to make more room for more ideas by changing the tools
And, last but not least, could you pick a few works from our fractal community to illustrate this interview?
Absolutely!
("Un soffio caldo" by my all-time favorite fractal artist lindelokse)
("Melt the Ice" by Zueuk - if I am the father of Apophysis 7X, he is the grandfather)
("Mandelocular - 42" by ChaoticAtmospheres - his gallery is a definete jaw opener)
("Mandelbulb Spine" by dspwhite - Mandelbulb guy. Do I need to say more?)
("Silverized" by Kaeltyk - if you don't know Kaeltyk, you don't know fractals)
Where to learn it
Lets see what users say about Apo
What i like on apo 7x? simple ui, variability of possible results and at last (but not at least) nice and open-hearted DA community!
what i dislike? some unimportant minor bugs, plugin mess (i still use 15b version), TX5 dark blue triangle
what i would like to find in the in the future apo reincarnations? better or different plugin management, use of layers, gpu renderer
apo is usually deep night adventure for me when only my display shines into the dark - maybe that is the reason i do not use too bright and sharp gradients? anyway, i love patterns and prefer no black parts, no overlappings, not too much of blur. with a little of luck it results in something like this
I’ve been using Apophysis 7x for almost two years and never got tired of it. First of all, it’s free and has a lot of tutorials and resources available, so if you want to try fractals for the first time I’d say to go with it. It lets you create both 2D and 3D fractals: Apophysis fractals in three dimensions are my favourite, since they can look so realistic!
One of the aspects I like the most is the editor window: it’s as if I have more control on the final outcome (it’s more psychological than actual, but I love that feeling anyway!). I prefer this choice way more than the formula editor!
Instead, I have a love-hate relationship with Xaos. I find Xaos a really fascinating and powerful tool, but I still have problems in learning it (maybe it’s just me). If it were possible, I’d make it more simple. Also, I’d strengthen the curves part (introduced with Apo 7x.15C), just to minimize final changes to colours (even if I really don’t mind doing a little bit of post-work). I wouldn’t change anything else. Apophysis 7x might have other flaws (that actually don’t bother me, or never created serious problems), but it brought me into the world of fractals and still remains my favourite program!
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