VERSION 0.120.1356: audio integration and much more

Here comes the last large update before release of version 1.0, so we are almost there :-)

The current state of the software comes very close to my initial vision, where one piece was missing until now: audio integration. You can now attach an audio-file to your fractal. This audio file is played when playing an animation preview, can be used for motion-curve-modulation (fft) and is encoded into the video when using ffmpeg for encoding fractal animations. (So, motion-curve-modulation now also supports fft()-function. But you must pre-record it, see the new button in the motion-curve-editor)

Also, you can now place codeof custom variations in a separate folder (this folder can be changed in the application-settings). These variations then can be used like any other variation.

And, the main-editor now always starts with a simple random flame, which has nearly no cost to generate (i. e. the editor starts fast), but often looks very nice.

And, there is much more, see the full changelog:
VERSION 0.120.1356 (12.09.2025):
- flame-editor: added the option to attach an audio-file to a flame
- flame-editor: added options "audio_seek_frames" and "audio_volume" to affect the
attached audio-file
- flame-animation-preview: play also the audio file (if attached) when playing
an animation preview. In this case the frame-numbers of the animation are synced
to the audio file (and fps). This may lead to missing frames when realtime-playback
is not fast enough
- audio-library-window: removed the stop-button (SWAN-15)
- you can now place code for custom variations in a separate folder (this
folder can be changed in the application-settings).
These variations then can be used like any other variation. (But please
note that you should also share the code-files when sharing flames)
The code has the same format as in the custom-variation-glsl-editor.
The file-type must be *.txt.
Use the following file-prefixes "pre_", "post_", "prepost_"
to let the software know which type of variation it is. (Use none
of these prefixes for regular variations)
- main-editor: remember the filename when loading a recent flame, so that
no file-dialog pops up when you save the flame again
- motion-curve-window: added an option to record fft-data (from the audio-file
which is attached to the flame)
- motion-curve-editor: added a new modulation-function: fft(<frequency-band>)
which modulates a motion-curve using recorded fft-data
- flame-saver/loader: store/restore recorded fft-data together with the flame
- motion-curve-editor: show information about exisiting recorded fft-data
- implemented seeking the audio-stream for both the realtime-animation-preview
and the fft-recording
- added an "open in file system"-button to the flame-, audio- and gradient-library
- ffmpeg-wrapper: added support for also encoding the audio-file, when one is
attached to a flame
- ffmpeg-wrapper: also added support for seeking the audio-file, if there is a
seek-offset specified in the flame
- audio-library: automatically play next selected track, when playing and selecting
another track
- audio-library: added button to seek 10s forward when playing a track
- added an option (flame-attribute) for fft-smoothing
- application-settings: added a setting for the default fps
- motion-curve-editor: also play audio (and sync frame-position to audio) then an audio
file is attached to the current flame
- users manual: added a section about layers
- users manual: added a section post-symmetry (SWAN-21)
- main-editor: made the ratio guides more subtle
- fixed: sometimes the saved positions of a sub-window got lost (when saving the
window's setting when it was not visible)
- motion-curve-editor: show also the time-value of the selected position
- main-editor: moved the play-animation-preview-buttons to left to be closer to
the preview area
- main-editor: automatically start with a simple random flame (which is generated fast),
rather than generating and probing random flames. You may enable the automatic generation
of "true" random flames in the application-settings, though
- the max value of the animation frame slider is now synchronized with the frame count
of the flame (SWAN-95)
- main-editor: optimization: only draw camera secondary preview when params have changed
- main-editor: update the flame-attributes view (and sliders) when changing the current
animation frame by using the slider at the bottom (SWAN-18)
- main-editor: dragging the camera controls with the mouse now makes more subtle changes
- main-editor: added keyboard shortcuts for opening the animation-render-, the
motion-curve-editor and animation-preview
- main-editor: made the secondary preview more freely resizable
- main-editor: swapped th render-flame and the random-flame-generator buttons
- several minor layout improvements