SyFrack Studio

Fractal art, from the complex plane to monumental worlds.

Français · User guide · Build from source · Contributing

SyFrack is an experimental fractal creation studio and renderer written in Rust. Compose intricate 2D images, build recursive 3D forms, work with materials and light, then export a high-quality still with its editable scene.

A single typed creation graph combines geometry, patterns, GPU flame fields and natural simulations. 2D / 3D selects the projection of the same document, with one undo history, shared preview fields and a common export pipeline. See the unified graph workflow.

Choose your interface

The command bar offers Simple / Advanced at any time. Simple groups the essential artistic controls: Pattern, Colours and Framing in 2D; Volume, Material, Lights and Image in 3D. Advanced, the first-launch default, keeps direct access to the complete graph, Mosaic and the gallery.

Both interfaces edit the same document. Switching preserves your scene, graph selection and undo/redo history; your interface choice is saved locally. Simple's Tools menu opens Mosaic or the advanced graph when you need it.

What you can create

• 2D fractals: Julia, Mandelbrot, Burning Ship, Newton, Nova, Phoenix and fractal flames, with orbit colouring, editable palettes and fine filaments.
• 3D forms: Mandelbulb, Mandelbox, Menger structures, transforms, CSG, bounded recursive detail and independently placed copies.
• Materials and light: metallic and dielectric surfaces, procedural textures, concrete and puddles, area lights, neon tubes, projectors and HDRI environments.
• Atmosphere: fog, procedural sky and ocean, and experimental volumetric nebulae and fluid studies.
• Final images: 16-bit PNG, raw linear EXR and a RON scene snapshot; progressive rendering, checkpoints and pause/resume.
• English and French: switch instantly under View → Language. English is the first-launch default; your choice is saved locally.

The render window separates image format, quality and destination, shows the exact output filenames, and keeps launch/pause controls visible. Detailed sampling settings remain available under Custom settings. The completed preview includes the final tiles and optional PNG denoising.

Download for Windows

Open this repository's Releases page and download the SyFrack-v…-windows-x64.zip asset. Extract the entire ZIP into a writable folder, then launch syfrack-studio.exe. Studio, the CLI, scenes, graph library and HDRI assets are included. Rust and Python are not required to run it. Keep graphs/, scenes/ and assets/ beside the executables.

Windows x64 and a compatible Vulkan or Direct3D 12 GPU/driver are required for Studio. The executables are unsigned experimental builds. SHA256SUMS.txt provides the archive checksum; it is not a code signature. The optional OIDN runtime is not bundled. See Publishing for release automation.

Start from source

Windows x64 is the primary tested platform. You need the Rust toolchain pinned in rust-toolchain.toml, the MSVC C++ build tools and a compatible GPU/driver. Studio uses Vulkan or Direct3D 12; the CLI additionally tries OpenGL as a fallback. Other platforms have not been validated for this release; there is no Metal backend selection.

From the repository root:

cargo build --release --locked --workspace --bins
cargo run --release --locked -p syfrack-cli -- probe
cargo run --release --locked -p syfrack-app --bin syfrack-studio

Or build with powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/build.ps1. Keep graphs/, scenes/ and assets/ alongside a portable installation. Python 3 is optional for the localization audit and packaging tools.

Render from the command line

cargo run --release --locked -p syfrack-cli -- render scenes/mandelbulb.ron --out renders/my-first-render --width 1280 --height 720 --samples 64 --bounces 4 --steps 512 --denoise

Start at a modest resolution. Higher sample counts reduce noise; more bounces increase indirect light and render time. The advanced controls expose tracing steps, geometry tolerance, tile limits and batch sizes.

See the user guide for 2D, 3D, lighting and resume examples.

Experimental status

This is an experimental 0.2.0 source tree. See the changelog for changes since the initial public preparation. The renderer is under active development. GPU compatibility, performance and image convergence depend on the scene and hardware. Volume transport and indirect-light guiding are experimental; some effects use approximations. This is not a claim of unbiased or spectral light transport.

Scene files are the portable creative source. Render checkpoints also depend on the engine/shader version: keep the matching executable when archiving a long render. Optional denoising changes the PNG, while the raw EXR stays available.

The showcase images are native mathematical renders. They are examples of the engine's output, not performance guarantees for another machine.

Explore the source

Component	Purpose
syfrack-app	Studio interface, document editing, preview and gallery
syfrack-core	Scene model, graph, validation and CPU fractal evaluation
syfrack-render	wgpu rendering, shaders, sampling and checkpoints
syfrack-color	Colour development and image export
syfrack-cli	Headless rendering and scene/graph tools
syfrack-i18n	Compiled English/French catalog and language preference

Read Architecture and Localization to extend the software.

License and assets

SyFrack source is licensed under MIT. Bundled HDRI panoramas retain their CC0 provenance; see Third-party notices. The optional Open Image Denoise runtime is downloaded separately and is not included in this source tree.