fract-ol

An interactive fractal visualizer built in C using MiniLibX — part of the 42 Madrid curriculum.

Renders three different fractals in real time, with mouse zoom and keyboard navigation.

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Project Structure

fract-ol/
├── src/
│   ├── main.c       # Entry point and fractal selection
│   ├── init.c       # Window and image initialization
│   ├── render.c     # Fractal rendering loop
│   ├── draw.c       # Pixel drawing and color mapping
│   └── events.c     # Mouse and keyboard event handling
├── utils/
│   └── utils.c      # Math and helper functions
├── lib/
│   ├── libft/       # Custom C library
│   └── minilibx/    # 42's graphical library
├── makefile
└── README.md

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Fractals

Mandelbrot

The classic fractal. Each point on the complex plane is iterated through z = z² + c to determine if it escapes to infinity.

./fractol mandelbrot

Julia

A variation of Mandelbrot where c is fixed and the starting point varies. Different c values produce wildly different shapes.

./fractol julia <real> <imaginary>

# Examples
./fractol julia -0.7 0.27
./fractol julia 0.355 0.355
./fractol julia -0.4 0.6

Burning Ship

A variation that uses absolute values in the iteration, producing a fractal that resembles a burning ship from above.

./fractol burningship

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Controls

Input	Action
Scroll up	Zoom in
Scroll down	Zoom out
W / ↑	Move up
S / ↓	Move down
A / ←	Move left
D / →	Move right
ESC	Close the window

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Usage

Requirements

• Linux with X11
• MiniLibX dependencies: libX11, libXext

Compilation

make        # compile
make clean  # remove object files
make fclean # remove object files and binary
make re     # full rebuild

Running

./fractol mandelbrot
./fractol julia -0.7 0.27
./fractol burningship

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What I Learned

• Graphics programming with MiniLibX (X11)
• Complex number math and fractal iteration
• Pixel-level image rendering
• Mouse and keyboard event handling
• Zoom and coordinate mapping (screen → complex plane)
• Integrating external libraries in C

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Author

Aitor Alonso Jusdado — 42 Madrid — LinkedIn