Triple Dragon Fractal (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#11

Post by Zecc » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 8:10 AM UTC

317070 wrote: post #9

anoneng wrote: post #5

That is some hubris for Paul to claim to have “created” this fractal in December 2020. Yes he coded up and rendered some nice images from this particular function. But this class of rational maps in complex dynamics has been studied by actual mathematicians for decades and there are many extremely similar visualizations. It’s a nice little exercise but there’s very minimal real original contribution that deserves att…

I reckon Paul only claims to have created the webpage titled 'Triple Dragon Fractal'.

I take it he claims to have created these particular pictures of the fractal, which is likely true. And yes, the webpage containing them as well.

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#12

Post by close04 » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 8:21 AM UTC

317070 wrote: post #9

anoneng wrote: post #5

That is some hubris for Paul to claim to have “created” this fractal in December 2020. Yes he coded up and rendered some nice images from this particular function. But this class of rational maps in complex dynamics has been studied by actual mathematicians for decades and there are many extremely similar visualizations. It’s a nice little exercise but there’s very minimal real original contribution that deserves att…

I reckon Paul only claims to have created the webpage titled 'Triple Dragon Fractal'.

The pages [1] have a mix of "Images/Graphics by", "Compiled/Written/Created/Contributed By", and "(Fractal) Attributed to" going back to 1990. So I think that attribution refers to the content and not just the page itself.

[1] https://paulbourke.net/fractals/

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#13

Post by flir » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 9:15 AM UTC

jdw64 wrote: post #6

Do they still make screensavers that collect these kinds of things these days? When I was a kid, I used to love just staring blankly at computer screensavers.

ElectricSheep (https://electricsheep.org/) is still around. Based on fractal flames (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_flame). Freaks out corporate firewalls though, because it looks a lot like a file sharing network.

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#14

Post by Sharlin » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 9:35 AM UTC

anoneng wrote: post #5

That is some hubris for Paul to claim to have “created” this fractal in December 2020. Yes he coded up and rendered some nice images from this particular function. But this class of rational maps in complex dynamics has been studied by actual mathematicians for decades and there are many extremely similar visualizations. It’s a nice little exercise but there’s very minimal real original contribution that deserves att…

I can't even fathom how you'd end up with such crazily uncharitable interpretation to think that "Created by Paul Bourke" refers to the fractal itself, rather than those specific images of the fractal.

Each and every of the fractal pages here has a similar attribution: https://paulbourke.net/fractals/

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#15

Post by iDon » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 12:10 PM UTC

anoneng wrote: post #5

That is some hubris for Paul to claim to have “created” this fractal in December 2020. Yes he coded up and rendered some nice images from this particular function. But this class of rational maps in complex dynamics has been studied by actual mathematicians for decades and there are many extremely similar visualizations. It’s a nice little exercise but there’s very minimal real original contribution that deserves att…

He retained the original name, from 2006 ...

https://au.pinterest.com/pin/triple-dragon--1742330793037990... fractaldomains.com Triple Dragon Triple dragon fractal. Equation: f(z) = z^3/(z^3 + 1) + c, c = 0.18 + 0.68 i

https://www.fractaldomains.com/2011/08/triple-dragon/

https://web.archive.org/web/20200000000000*/https://www.frac... https://web.archive.org/web/20200209172651/http://www.fracta...

Fractal Domains Exploring fractals with your Macintosh

Triple Dragon September 3, 2006 Click image to see full size

Julia set using square orbit trap. The formula used was f(z) = z^3/(z^3 + 1) + c, c = 0.18 + 0.68 i Downloads and extras “Triple Dragon” Parameter File

triple-dragon.zip : 1058 3-Sep-2006 20:06:36 Triple Dragon DMrsFra2...

---

Paul's image is a nice rendering of an attractive fractal.

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#16

Post by jdw64 » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 1:18 PM UTC

flir wrote: post #13

jdw64 wrote: post #6

Do they still make screensavers that collect these kinds of things these days? When I was a kid, I used to love just staring blankly at computer screensavers.

ElectricSheep ( https://electricsheep.org/ ) is still around. Based on fractal flames ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_flame ). Freaks out corporate firewalls though, because it looks a lot like a file sharing network.

thanks!

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#17

Post by IAmBroom » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 8:02 PM UTC

anoneng wrote: post #5

That is some hubris for Paul to claim to have “created” this fractal in December 2020. Yes he coded up and rendered some nice images from this particular function. But this class of rational maps in complex dynamics has been studied by actual mathematicians for decades and there are many extremely similar visualizations. It’s a nice little exercise but there’s very minimal real original contribution that deserves att…

Like that complete FRAUD, Leonardo da Vinci, who simply repainted a depiction of 12 apostles seated on one side of a dinner table, with their leader Jesus at the center.

He didn't even create the pigments - those were formed by natural Earth geology!

Re: Triple Dragon Fractal (2020)

#18

Post by Chu4eeno » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 9:06 AM UTC

jdw64 wrote: post #16

flir wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ElectricSheep ( https://electricsheep.org/ ) is still around. Based on fractal flames ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_flame ). Freaks out corporate firewalls though, because it looks a lot like a file sharing network.

thanks!

Fun fact, the frontier LLMs can (mostly) oneshot a realtime implementation of it (I got passable versions in both webgl and in c++ for a screensaver).

They struggle with the "evolution"/variation part, though, so you mostly get some fixed number of variants.