Topologic

Topologic is an open source, free and platform-independent command-line software implemented in C++ using the OpenGL, WebGL and libxml2 libraries. It provides a simple software for rendering various regular 3D shapes and higher-dimensional geometric primitives.

Supports a wide variety of geometric primitives and output methods

Among the supported geometric primitives, we can mention simplices, spheres, and cubes. Also, among the supported fractals, we can mention fractal flames and basic affine IFSs (Iterated Function System).

In addition, Topologic supports several output methods, such as simple OpenGL 3.2 and SVGs. The libefgy library is used for performing most of the render tasks, as well as the actual calculations.

Comes with a GLUT front-end, a WebGL front-end and a command-line interface

The project features multiple interfaces, including GLUT and WebGL front-ends, as well as a command-line interface (CLI). Each of these interfaces must be compiled separately to use them, otherwise the only way to interact with the program is via a terminal emulator app.

The WebGL front-end is by far the most easy to use, providing users with a painless experience, as they won’t have to install anything. The web-based interface lets you run Topologic straight in your web browser.

Getting started with Topologic

Because Topologic cannot be found on the main software repositories of modern GNU/Linux operating systems, installing it is quite difficult. It requires third-party libraries like libefgy, which can be acquired and installed separately (details are provided on the project’s official website).

Basically, to install Topologic, you will have to download the latest version from either its GitHub page or through Softoware. Open a terminal emulator app, navigate to the location of the source files using the ‘cd’ command (e.g. cd /home/softoware/topologic-release-10), run the ‘make’ command to compile it, followed by the ‘sudo make install’ command to install it system wide.

What is new in this release:

• Frontends:
• There is now a Chrome app, based on the revamped WebGL frontend. The latter has been enhanced using jQuery Mobile, so it'll be a lot smoother and work fine on mobile devices. In particular, the WebGL frontend now works fine and looks pretty good on iOS 8 and recent versions of Android.
• The WebGL client has moved to https://dee.pe/r - because the old URL was waaaaaaay too long to remember.
• Chrome users can now download this frontend in the Chrome App store, at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hnfpoonnkobplgfaafpkbamebbccjegb.
• Models:
• This release includes a snapshot of what I'm trying to do with attractors. The attractors are randomly generated, but they show nice symmetries and a lot of the parameters have interesting effects.
• Fractal Flame Colouring:
• The fractal flame colouring algorithm is currently being revamped. If you use the OSX frontend, then the new algorithm is using maths much closer to the original, thanks to floating point textures in OpenGL 3.2+. Unfortunately this doesn't work too well on WebGL and OpenGL ES, so this isn't enabled in the other frontends. Regardless, the new colouring method is quite promising, a lot prettier, closer to the original paper and even faster to render - thanks to requiring fewer rendering passes.

What is new in version 9:

• Model factory has been integrated into libefgy:
• The model factory was previously part of Topologic, but has now been moved into libefgy. This means that whenever new models are added to libefgy, your favourite Topologic frontend is just a recompile away from drawing that new model.
• The available models and the available vector coordinate formats are queried with this factory whenever Topologic needs to know about them, so ./topologic --version and the listing in the OSX frontend will behave as expected.
• New model parameters in libefgy:
• libefgy-5 and 6 introduced new model parameters along with some new models; the new parameters are a minor radius for tori and klein bottles, and a model-dependant constant which is only used by the klein bottles.
• New models: torus and klein bottles. This is actually part of libefgy, but it still feels right to point out that these two new models are now available in all frontends.
• Variable base coordinate format:
• The new libefgy supports specifying the coordinate format that vectors are interpreted as before they're fed to a renderer; currently libefgy supports polar and cartesian coordinates for its vectors, more coordinate formats will probably be added to libefgy sometime soon. In case you're wondering what that looks like, have a look at the screenshots.