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DESCRIPTION
Gaston provides interactive, stereoscopic real-time 3D rendering of 4D quaternion Julia set fractals. Show off the awesome speed of your Mac with this totally useless toy! Any rendered image can be exported to make for a nice desktop background. Gaston can also be used as a benchmark for floating-point/AltiVec/SSE performance.
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WHAT'S NEW
Version 1.2.2:
  • Compatible with Snow Leopard
  • Custom document icons
  • Performance measurement in GFLOPS
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

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SCREENSHOT

Developer:Leo Fink
Downloads:7,486
  - Version d/l:767
Multimedia & Design:Author Tools
License:Free
Date:05 Oct 2009
Platform:PPC/Intel
RATING
*****

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    Gaston User Reviews (12 posts)Write A Review
    sort: smiles | time
    Jul 18 2007

    ENRICO NENCINI  Just what id says: totally useless, but very nice and fun. And free. It can produce nice desktop backrounds :)  
    (Version 1.2)

    praisebury
    0
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    Mar 8 2007

    HOBY  We need more toys like this..  
    (Version 1.0.1b)

    praisebury
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    Aug 22 2006
    ****½

    AETNARIA  Funky!

    You start with a ball of clay. Then you twist it like taffy, play with the colors, lighting, viewpoint... just mess around with the sliders.

    I'm not sure what this is useful for (thus the Value rating - it is free though!). But it certainly is different.  
    (Version 1.0.1b)

    praisebury
    0
    [ Reply ]
    Jan 17 2004

    ANONYMOUS  Does not work. Quits on launch. OS X 10.2.3

    (Perhaps you are using Development build instead of Deployment build? Or you forgot a framework?)  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0
    [ 3 Replies - Reply ]
    Replies:
    Jan 18 2004

    LEO  I'd really like to solve this one. What is the exakt version number in the About Gaston window? Should be 1.0.1b (the original 1.0.1 crashed on G3s). What is your Mac model?

    And, most important, could you launch the Console-App (in /Applications/Utilities/Console) and tell me the error log (if there is one) right after the error has occurred?

    Thanks for your help.  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0
    Jan 19 2004

    PASCAL  you might check your version of stuffit expander. i believe the initial 8.0 version had problems with setting wrong permissions on expanded apps that would cause them to fail on launch. i think the latest version is 8.0.2/  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0
    Apr 26 2005

    AL  I am having the same problem. I tried the console, but there was nothing. I can see movement in the dock, but no data in the console.

    I am using 10.3.9 on a Dual G4/450 with 640 RAM.   
    (Version 1.0.1b)

    praisebury
    0

    Jan 17 2004

    ANONYMOUS  This is totally cool! I'm not sure how useful it is but it's a blast to watch and play with. It's kinda like taffy only you don't have to wash your hands afterwards. Virtual Taffy!  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0
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    Jan 17 2004
    *****

    PASCAL  Neato! You can make cool animations by stepping through the values for ?.

    Example:

    http://www.pascal.com/misc/gaston-01.gif

    (This was made by exporting 16 images from Gaston and animating them with Adobe ImageReady.)  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0
    [ 1 Reply - Reply ]
    Replies:
    Jan 17 2004

    PASCAL  oops, the question mark in my comment is supposed to be theta. The Zero with the line through it, the last parameter slider in Gaston. (At least, I think that's a theta.)  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0

    Jan 17 2004

    LEO  It works now. There was a problem on non-AltiVec systems. Sorry for the inconvenience.  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0
    [ 1 Reply - Reply ]
    Replies:
    Jan 17 2004

    OHWELL  thanks again... no problem, glad you fixed it so fast!  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0

    Jan 17 2004

    OHWELL  version 1.0.1 quits as it is launching, generates an error window.

    iBook @ 900MHz / 640 MB RAM / OS X 10.2.3  
    (Version 1.0.1)

    praisebury
    0
    [ 1 Reply - Reply ]
    Replies:
    Jan 17 2004

    LEO  Yes, I can reproduce the error on G3 systems. It works fine on G4s. I'm working on it.  
    (Version 1.0.1)

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    Aug 18 2003
    *****

    XWIZ  Excellent little program. I have a wishlist too, of course: I'd love to be able to set the thing spinning on it's own like you used to be able to do with Apple's 3D Graphing Calculator. And I'd like a 'High Quality Render' button as well. And a snap-to-zero on the sliders would be great. :)  
    (Version 0.93)

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    Aug 17 2003
    ****½

    JOHANNES REXX  This tool is fun for creating fascinating 3D rendering of abstract shapes. The improved interface feedback is welcome.

    Don't set the background color to zero.

    It's easy to want more from Gaston. It already seems to be able to use both CPUs of my DP800. But I want more speed. I want to save my paramters in names sets, and recall them from a simple pallate that shows me a thumbnail of what it looks like. I sound like a child, I want I want I want ...

    Good job Leo - for supporting the Mac, for a wonderful gift, and you have my portrait!

    - Johannes Rexx  
    (Version 0.93)

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    View all 12 posts >>