Capture Guide

Screenshots, posters, videos, and PNG sequences from Fracturing Fog.

Companion pages: User Index · Avalonia User Guide · Regions Guide

A friendly tour

There are four ways to save a picture out of Fracturing Fog. Pick the one that matches what you want to do with it, and the rest follows:

You want to…	Use this button	Format you get
Post a screenshot to social media	Image	One PNG, ~1-3 MB
Print a wall-sized poster, or send to a printer	Poster	One huge TIFF/PNG
Share a smooth zoom-in video	Video	One MP4 (or lossless)
Loop endlessly between favourite views	Video Slideshow	One long MP4

Tip

Before you capture, decide what should be in the picture. Should the grid be on? Should the watermark be on? Should the post-FX sliders (brightness / contrast / adaptive) be applied? All three flow into the saved file exactly as you see them on screen.

Worked example — "I just want a 4K screenshot of Seahorse Valley"

From the Region combo (toolbar), pick Seahorse Valley. The view jumps to the saved spot.
Optional: switch the Theme combo to Fire for a warmer look.
Optional: hide the Grid (toolbar toggle) so the image is clean.
Press M to open the Floating Menu, then click Image.
Pick a filename ending in .png, hit Save. You get a 1920×1080 PNG by default; if your window is bigger, you get the window's resolution.

Note

For a true 3840×2160 (4K) capture independent of your monitor, use Poster instead and dial in Width=3840, Height=2160, Tile=1024. The Poster path runs the calculator afresh per tile at full quality — what you save is exactly what the math produced, not what the screen sampled.

Worked example — "I want a 30-second zoom-in video into a deep region"

Pan, zoom, or apply a region until you are on the starting frame you want to see.
Switch on Lock Iterations in the Region Navigation panel if you have already tuned the iter count for the deep target. Otherwise the video may starve detail on the inner frames.
Open Floating Menu → Video.
Pick Region = Mini Mandelbrot (or whatever deep spot you want to dive into).
Duration 30 seconds, frame rate 30 fps, start zoom 0.5. Leave format on Media Foundation MP4 for a quick export, or pick FFV1 (lossless) for archival quality (needs ffmpeg.exe discoverable).
Click Render. Each frame is calculated end-to-end; the dialog shows tile-by-tile progress.

Warning

Lossless H.264 / FFV1 / H.264-HQ presets all require ffmpeg.exe. The app looks for it in the install folder, then Tools\, then your PATH. If it cannot find a working ffmpeg the render exits with a friendly error explaining what to do.

1. Screenshot (Image button)

The Image button in the Floating Menu saves the current view as a single still.

Behavior	Description
Format	PNG (default), TIFF, BMP — chosen by file extension
Resolution	Current panel resolution, OR full virtual desktop when Span is active
Post-FX	Live brightness / contrast / adaptive applied
Watermark	Embedded if the Watermark toggle is on. Contrast-aware text color.
Filename	Auto-generated: `FracturingFog_Theme_Region_x...y...z...i..._WxH.png`

The file dialog defaults to your Pictures folder; switch to any path before confirming.

2. Poster (multi-tile)

The Poster button renders a tiled composite at print resolution. Each tile is calculated separately at full quality; tiles stitch into one large image.

Dialog options

Field	Range	Default
Width × Height	up to 32768 × 32768	7680 × 4320 (8K)
Tile size	256 – 4096	1024
Format	.png / .tif / .tiff / .bmp	.png
Output	file path or folder	(current dir)
Apply post-FX	on / off	on
Include watermark	on / off	on

Workflow

Pan + zoom to your subject.
Open Poster.
Set output dimensions (e.g., 11520 × 8640 = 12K, 15360 × 8640 = 16K wide).
Pick a tile size — 1024 is the default; smaller tiles parallelise better but increase seam risk; larger tiles use more memory.
Browse to output path.
Click Render. Progress bar shows tile-of-total + ETA.

Cancel any time — the partial frame buffer is dropped.

Soft cap

A 64-megapixel ceiling applies by default to protect against accidental OOM (a 32k × 32k render holds ~10 GB resident). Override only if you have the RAM headroom.

Remote poster

Use the Client dialog instead of the local Poster button:

Pick a saved server connection.
Mode = image.
Width × Height = your poster dimensions.
Pick fractal / region / theme / quality.
Output: a local file path on YOUR machine.

For huge posters, set Return mode = saved-path. The server keeps the file on its disk and replies with the path; read it later over file share. Inline (default) streams bytes in 1 MB chunks over TLS — fine for a few-MB poster, slow for multi-GB.

3. Video Zoom (single shot)

The Video button animates a smooth zoom from the current view to the active region's coordinates.

Motion

Phase	Duration	Behavior
Pan	First 5 %	Pan to target center at current zoom
Zoom	Last 95 %	Log-zoom interpolation, center fixed

Both phases smoothstep-eased.

Frame rate

Calculation-bound, not wall-clock-bound. The loop advances by elapsed wall-clock time so the total duration is honored even if individual frames take longer than 1/fps to render. Drop quality + iter cap if you need consistent fps.

Live TAA tuning

While a video zoom is rendering, three extra sliders appear in the Floating Menu:

Slider	Range	Purpose
TAA Alpha	0 – 1	Temporal blend strength between successive frames
Fade Start	1e0 – 1e60 zoom	Where the deep-zoom artifact fade begins
Fade End	1e0 – 1e60 zoom	Where the fade reaches full strength

Use TAA Alpha around 0.3 – 0.6 for cinematic smoothing without ghost trails.

Per-region iter override

Regions may carry a stored iteration target. During the video leg, MaxIterations is raised to at least that value so the deep target doesn't render as all-in-set black just because the quality preset's iter formula produced a smaller number.

4. Video Slideshow (continuous loop)

A continuous mode: zoom in → pause → zoom out → next region → repeat.

Leg	Default	Configurable
Zoom in duration	30 s	Slideshow Settings
Pause at target	7 s	Slideshow Settings
Zoom out duration	30 s	Slideshow Settings
Inter-region gap	0 s	Slideshow Settings

Stops independently from the single-shot Video feature. Esc or the Slideshow button toggles off.

The Video button label flips to Stop while running.

4a. Record an Image Slideshow to Video

The image slideshow (Slideshow Settings → Type = Image) can now be captured. Tick Record Slideshow in the Slideshow Settings dialog and pick an encode preset. The engine streams every cross-fade interpolation frame into a PNG sequence under your temp folder while the slideshow runs.

When you Stop the slideshow you get a three-button prompt:

Button	Action
Convert	Runs ffmpeg with the chosen preset and saves a video file. Temp PNG folder is deleted on success.
Save Frames	Pick a destination folder; the PNG sequence is moved there for offline post-processing.
Cancel	Discards the temp PNG folder.

Encode presets:

Preset	Codec / container	Notes
HighQualityH264Mp4 (default)	libx264 -crf 18, yuv420p	Visually lossless, small, broad-compat
LosslessH264Mp4	libx264 -qp 0, yuv444p	Mathematically lossless
Ffv1Mkv	FFV1 v3 in Matroska	Archival / editing pipeline

The Convert path needs ffmpeg.exe — install it via the floating menu's FFmpeg Setup dialog first. Save Frames works without ffmpeg.

5. Recording Formats

Format	Container	Encoder	Needs ffmpeg?	Best for
None	—	—	No	Live playback only
MP4 (built-in)	.mp4	Media Foundation H.264	No	Quick exports, browser playback
Lossless H.264	.mp4	libx264 -qp 0, yuv444p, +faststart	Yes	Mathematical-lossless archive
Lossless FFV1	.mkv	FFV1 v3 in Matroska	Yes	Archival / editing pipeline
H.264 HQ	.mp4	libx264 -crf 18, yuv420p	Yes	Visually-lossless sharing
PNG sequence	folder	(sidecar)	No	Offline encoder pipelines

MP4 (built-in) and PNG sequence can record simultaneously with any video format — useful for keeping a high-quality intermediate while shipping a small MP4 for preview.

File-size order of magnitude

For a 60s 1080p 30fps clip:

Format	Approximate size
MP4 (built-in)	30 – 80 MB
H.264 HQ	80 – 200 MB
Lossless H.264	1 – 4 GB
Lossless FFV1	800 MB – 2.5 GB
PNG sequence	5 – 15 GB

A 4K 60s 60fps clip is ~16× a 1080p 30fps clip.

6. ffmpeg Discovery + Flags

ffmpeg.exe discovery order:

The app folder.
<install>\Tools\, <install>\Resources\.
PATH.

Missing ffmpeg with a lossless preset selected: exit code 3 (batch) or a clear error toast (UI).

Workflow when ffmpeg is engaged

Render every frame to disk as frame_NNNNNN.png (image2 demuxer compatible — starts at 000001).
Invoke ffmpeg on the sequence with the preset's argument set. ffmpeg progress feeds a second progress meter.

Preset arguments

Lossless H.264 (h264):

-i frame_%06d.png -c:v libx264 -qp 0 -preset veryslow -pix_fmt yuv444p
-movflags +faststart out.mp4

Lossless FFV1 (ffv1):

-i frame_%06d.png -c:v ffv1 -level 3 -coder 1 -context 1 -g 1 -slices 24
-slicecrc 1 -pix_fmt yuv422p out.mkv

H.264 HQ (h264hq):

-i frame_%06d.png -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -preset slow -pix_fmt yuv420p
-movflags +faststart out.mp4

Keep / discard PNG sidecar

By default --keep-frames is on with none and off with lossless presets (since frames are intermediates). Override:

FracturingFog.exe --batch --mode video … --lossless ffv1 --keep-frames
FracturingFog.exe --batch --mode video … --lossless none  --no-keep-frames

In the UI, Slideshow Settings → Video tab has a Keep frames checkbox.

7. Resolution Reference

Target	Pixels	Aspect	Notes
720p	1280 × 720	16:9	YouTube minimum
1080p (FHD)	1920 × 1080	16:9	Standard HD
2K	2048 × 1080	~17:9	DCI 2K
1440p (QHD)	2560 × 1440	16:9	1440p monitors
4K UHD	3840 × 2160	16:9	Consumer 4K
4K DCI	4096 × 2160	~17:9	Cinema 4K
5K	5120 × 2880	16:9	iMac 5K
8K UHD	7680 × 4320	16:9	8K TV
8K Cinema	8192 × 4320	~17:9
12K	11520 × 6480	16:9	High-end poster
16K	15360 × 8640	16:9	Approaching the 32k cap
32K	32768 × 18432	16:9	Server cap

Video mode rounds width/height down to the nearest even number (codec constraint).

Poster mode honors odd dimensions but rejects anything above 32768 × 32768 or 64 MP total (hard server cap).

8. Batch CLI

Headless render with full UI parity.

Image

FracturingFog.exe --batch --region ""Seahorse Valley"" --theme Fire ^
                  --width 3840 --height 2160 --out C:\out\seahorse.png

Video

FracturingFog.exe --batch --mode video --region ""Mini Mandelbrot"" ^
                  --theme Plasma --seconds 30 --fps 30 ^
                  --out C:\out\zoom.mp4

Lossless 60-second archival zoom

FracturingFog.exe --batch --mode video --region ""Seahorse Valley"" ^
                  --theme Fire --seconds 60 --fps 60 ^
                  --lossless ffv1 --keep-frames --out C:\out\

Reverse zoom-out from a saved user region

FracturingFog.exe --batch --mode video --region ""MyDeepPick"" ^
                  --theme Inferno --seconds 20 --reverse ^
                  --lossless h264hq --out C:\out\dive_out.mp4

Image slideshow → MP4 (headless)

Drives the same image-slideshow preset the interactive Slideshow Settings dialog edits, then encodes the captured PNG sequence with ffmpeg.

FracturingFog.exe --batch --slideshow ""Default"" ^
                  --seconds 90 --fps 30 ^
                  --width 1920 --height 1080 ^
                  --encode h264hq ^
                  --out C:\out\slideshow.mp4

Notes:

--slideshow NAME names a saved preset in %APPDATA%\FracturingFog\slideshow-configs.json. Omit to use the active preset.
--encode accepts h264hq (default), h264 (lossless), or ffv1.
v1 headless slideshow renders Mandelbrot regions only; non-Mandelbrot regions in the preset's filter set are skipped with a warning.
--keep-frames keeps the PNG sequence at its temp path after ffmpeg succeeds. Default behaviour deletes it.

Watermark (on by default)

Every batch render — image, video, and image/video slideshow — paints the watermark (region + theme name over the program label) into each frame by default. This matches what the interactive Save button does, so a poster you render headless looks the same as one you export from the app.

To render without the watermark, pass --watermark (or its clearer alias --no-watermark). The flag is a switch that turns the watermark off:

FracturingFog.exe --batch --region ""Seahorse Valley"" --theme Fire ^
                  --width 3840 --height 2160 ^
                  --no-watermark --out C:\out\seahorse-clean.png

Note

The flag reads backwards on purpose. Because the watermark is now the default, the only thing left for a flag to do is remove it — so both --watermark and --no-watermark mean "suppress the watermark". There is no flag to add one; it is already there.

Scene mode (--mode scene) is the exception: it carries its own watermark setting inside the saved scene, so this flag does not affect it.

Remote render

FracturingFog.exe --batch --remote ^
    --connection MyDeskstation ^
    --render Poster8K ^
    --out C:\out\poster.png

Prompts on stdin for the master password (no echo). Exit 0 on success.

Exit codes:

Code	Meaning
0	success
1	unhandled runtime error
2	bad command-line argument
3	--lossless selected but ffmpeg.exe not found
4	ffmpeg encode pass failed

9. Watermark

Toggle from the toolbar Watermark button.

Watermark composition:

Element	Default	Configurable
Region name	active region	yes (Slideshow Settings → Watermark)
Theme name	active theme	yes
Program label	""Fracturing Fog v0.6.2""	no
Position	bottom-right	yes (corner picker)
Opacity	80 %	yes (slider)
Color	auto (contrast-aware)	manual override available

The watermark is CPU-composited into the BGRA buffer before swap-chain upload, which is why it survives into screenshots, posters, and videos — the GPU never sees an unwatermarked frame when the toggle is on.

For non-watermarked exports, disable the toggle before triggering the capture.

Headless renders follow the same rule but the other way round: the watermark is on by default for every --batch mode, and you pass --no-watermark to drop it. See Watermark (on by default) under the Batch CLI section.

10. Tips

Match poster output dimensions to your printer's target DPI. A 24"" × 16"" print at 300 DPI = 7200 × 4800. At 600 DPI = 14400 × 9600 — approaching the 16K poster ceiling.

For long video zooms, pre-test with low-quality settings. Drop Quality to Draft + Iter to 256, set --seconds short, render to PNG-sequence. Confirms the motion + framing before committing to a multi-hour Ultra render.

ffmpeg's encode pass is single-threaded for libx264 -preset veryslow. Lossless H.264 takes much longer than the render itself for many regions. Use FFV1 instead — it's also lossless, files are smaller, encode is fast.

Browser-friendly MP4 requires yuv420p. The H.264 HQ preset uses yuv420p; Lossless H.264 uses yuv444p (NOT browser-friendly — re-encode to ship to YouTube).

Poster tile size affects memory but not seam quality. Tiles are calculated with consistent coordinate math so a 256-tile poster looks identical to a 4096-tile poster (just renders slower per tile and faster overall on multi-core).

Lock iterations before capture. A capture mid-iteration-promotion can produce subtly different shading frame-to-frame. Tick Lock Iterations + pin a high value before triggering Poster / Video.

Frame rate vs duration trade. Doubling fps = doubling frame count = doubling render + encode time, but only 4 % better motion smoothness at the human-perception level. 30 fps is usually fine; reserve 60 fps for high-motion zoom-outs.

Span mode for wallpaper-resolution screenshots. Click Span → click Image. The output covers the entire virtual desktop, which is usually 2× – 4× a single monitor.

Adaptive sweep on video. Start the Adaptive Sweep just before triggering Video — the sweep animates from 0 → 100 across the recording, giving a slow-build dramatic reveal.

Capture Guide

Capture Guide

A friendly tour

Worked example — "I just want a 4K screenshot of Seahorse Valley"

Worked example — "I want a 30-second zoom-in video into a deep region"

Table of Contents

1. Screenshot (Image button)

2. Poster (multi-tile)

Dialog options

Workflow

Soft cap

Remote poster

3. Video Zoom (single shot)

Motion

Frame rate

Live TAA tuning

Per-region iter override

4. Video Slideshow (continuous loop)

4a. Record an Image Slideshow to Video

5. Recording Formats

File-size order of magnitude

6. ffmpeg Discovery + Flags

Workflow when ffmpeg is engaged

Preset arguments

Keep / discard PNG sidecar

7. Resolution Reference

8. Batch CLI

Image

Video

Lossless 60-second archival zoom

Reverse zoom-out from a saved user region

Image slideshow → MP4 (headless)

Watermark (on by default)

Remote render

9. Watermark

10. Tips

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