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Hi guys, newbie here, I've started messing around with Mandelbulb 3D a couple of days ago, all is gong great,
I have a few projects that I'm working on all saved on M3I that I can get back to at will with no problem
BUT now that I've got to a couple of images that I want to save and share..

No matter what format I save them in (BMP/PNG, JPEG, Z BUF, JPEG+parameters etc) nor where I save them (in the Mandelbulb program folder or in my pictures folder or on any other location on my computer).. It behaves as it is saved but when I go to the respective folder there's nothing there!

I can't find this question asked anywhere online and have no clue what's happening, how bizarre!
I've even tried different Mandelbulb versions but have the same problem with all (v1.8.9, v 1.7.9).

Guys would you please let me know whether you have any clue of what might be happening please?
many thanks in advance your help is MUCH appreciated!! :)

Hello and welcome to the forums   O0

I'm sorry, but I never heard of this issue before.

My only suggestion is possibly useless, but will make it anyway.

Try rebooting the computer.

I don't like it when techs suggest that to me, but it does fix a surprising number of issues.

Other ideas : try re-rendering the m3i.  If it is corrupt, this may fix it.  

Try moving the m3i to another computer, if you have access to one  (maybe a laptop or something).  Test it there and see what happens.

Finally, render the default bulb right when the program opens and save that image - just to see if image saving works at all.

I hope that helps and good luck with it!

Hi Sockratease, thank you so much for your reply, much appreciated.

As per your points:

- Rebooting - forgot to mention on my post that  had already done it a few times :)

- re-rendering - it's happening with every m3i regardless of formula etc

- I had already done that a few times but also nothing showing

The only thing I haven't got the chance to try yet:

- another computer - I thought about that but atm I'm using mb3d on my laptop waiting until I can have access to another computer to test that.


I would also mention that I've tried to make a movie and had the same issue actually that's how I found about the problem, I then went to try and save pics and nothing works.
Also I didn't mention not to complicate matters further but the only way I've managed to open a pic was on paint through mb3d while in the process of saving another pic as the pics appear on the folder that way (so they open in mb3d but not outside of the program or on other locations THATS MY ISSUE) I've tried to copy it from there to other locations so that I could have access to it but get an error saying that it isn't in the location ?!

Any other ideas guys? Again many thanks in advance can't wait to have this sorted  :'( I'm sure you guys know the feeling :D

ehm, are you sure that save-to path exists and hard drive is not full ?

Yep check all that already, have been almost 8 hours around this issue trying to look up for a solution and trying everything I can think of, don't know what else to try anymore!  :hmh:

To clarify: Mb3d acts as saving the pic and the only time I can see the saved pics in the respective folder is when I'm saving another one BUT apart from that, outsidee the program, when I go to the folder to open the pics the folder appears to be empty so the pics are no where to be seen I can post them here or send to anyone etc I can only seem them in mb3d.

Also now when I try and save on a location where others were previously saved, the others show as being there! but only through mb3d. Ex.: I have saved some to the desktop so when I try saving a new one to the same location it shows there are others there BUT I can only open then in mb3d. Once I leave the saving option on mb3d and go to the folder directly (this case the desktop for the sake of example but I've tried this in several other locations) they're not there!!
So question is how do I send them to an email or open with other programs external to mb3d so that I can actually do something with them besides looking at them on mb3d?

I've also already checked that the firewall wasn't blocking it for some reason, moved mb3d and changed the output folders accordingly just it case it was some problem with a particular location (some more than double checked that the destination folders are all correct), what else comes to mind guys? Thanks again!

I've also made sure that on the folders options I had it set to see hidden files just in case..

If they show as present in the save dialogue when trying to save another image, they are most certainly there!  It may sound strange, but maybe refresh the view in the destination folder after opening it?

This sounds more like an OS issue than an MB3D issue.  When you tried saving the image directly to your desktop it never appeared there, but does show through the save dialogue in MB3D?  Have you tried other software, like an image editor, to open the images?

Perhaps the file extension is somehow missing?  You may get results if you name the file with it's extension  (.png, etc) instead of trusting the software to do it - but that is a long shot   :hurt:

This is a very strange problem indeed!

I hope you can sort it out.  We'll try to help as best we can from here, but it may take having somebody in front of the computer to be certain.

Have you set the Initial Directories in MB3D?
Which operating system are you using? (Windows XP,7,8,8.1,10)
Are you using the standard Windows Explorer or another file explorer?
Have you tried saving the image file in the same folder as the .m3i file?

Also try right clicking on an image that is showing within the MB3D saving operation and use "Open with" option or "Send to" option as a test.

Hi guys, thank you so much for all your messages and help, I've tied everything and still have the same issue thought, whatever is going on seems like an OS problem and not related to mb3d thought. I have found a very long way of making it work (at times!!) which involves right clicking on the image on mb3d - open with windows live photo gallery - send it to onedrive - then from onedrive to my selg on onedrive (ha!) -downloading to my computer to a number of folders - and then if I'm lucky I get to upload it somewhere (when it shows, sometimes I need to repeat this process several times and need to do conversions of format in between as another step).
How crazy is this?! In any case I'm very happy that it works even if only at times :)
Looks like it could even be a virus but I've ran all the possible scans already and all seems well so who the hell knows whats going on? :p

Thanks again guys, wishing you happy and inspired creations on fractaland, I'm very excited to join this community and hope to start posting my work soon :)