Editing Iterated function system (section)

==Constructions==
[[File:Fractal fern explained.png|thumb|upright|[[Barnsley's fern]], an early IFS]]
[[File:Menger sponge (IFS).jpg|thumb|200px|[[Menger sponge]], a 3-Dimensional IFS.]]
[[File:Coupe d'arbre.png|thumb|IFS "tree" constructed with non-linear function Julia]]
[[File:HERBO avecTige.png|thumb|]]
Sometimes each function <math>f_i</math> is required to be a [[Linear transformation|linear]], or more generally an [[affine transformation|affine]], transformation, and hence represented by a [[matrix (mathematics)|matrix]]. However, IFSs may also be built from non-linear functions, including [[projective transformation]]s and [[Möbius transformation]]s. The [[Fractal flame]] is an example of an IFS with nonlinear functions.

The most common algorithm to compute IFS fractals is called the "[[chaos game]]". It consists of picking a random point in the plane, then iteratively applying one of the functions chosen at random from the function system to transform the point to get a next point. An alternative algorithm is to generate each possible sequence of functions up to a given maximum length, and then to plot the results of applying each of these sequences of functions to an initial point or shape.

Each of these algorithms provides a global construction which generates points distributed across the whole fractal. If a small area of the fractal is being drawn, many of these points will fall outside of the screen boundaries. This makes zooming into an IFS construction drawn in this manner impractical.

Although the theory of IFS requires each function to be contractive, in practice software that implements IFS only require that the whole system be contractive on average.<ref>{{cite web |last=Draves |first=Scott |author-link=Scott Draves |author2=Erik Reckase |date=July 2007 |url=http://flam3.com/flame.pdf |title=The Fractal Flame Algorithm |access-date=2008-07-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509073421/http://flam3.com/flame.pdf |archive-date=2008-05-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref>