Welcome to Fractal Forums

Hi Folks,

I am on a journey to provide a way to automate Mandelbulb 3D.
My vision is  to have a framework in .net that can manipulate Mandelbulb 3D formulas, position, rotation and julia values.
This part of the journey has started.

In addition to that, I dream of a application that can use this framework to help find interesting fractals.
It will be a long journey. However, one that I am keen to at least try.

Here is a short preview of the framework running ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7pwVGuQTQ4

 Nice work!!

I have completed the development and testing of the Mandelbulb3D automation classes.
These allow a .net application to read/write/click on Mandelbulb3D window elements (e.g. FormulaWindow.setFormulaName("foo"); MainWindow.calculate3Dclick();).

Next I need to document the classes and create a demo program ... after that - I'll publish the demo and DLLs for the community to use as they see fit.

As a taster of things to come - here is a video of the classes being invoked by an 'automated testing' class.
https://youtu.be/K81VFDwkz9w

Finally finished the Mandelbulb3D Automation Demo.
Both the Demo program (with source) and the MandelBulb3DClasses.dll automation class is ready for people  to use as they see fit.

If I have set the permissions correctly, the Demo application, source and associated documentation should be available here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0U6XnYnZ2i7Qzg2UXpMYWVpNFU?usp=sharing
Edit: 20170421; removed access to link. This will be shared on request to anyone that wants it.

(http://orig14.deviantart.net/1f0c/f/2017/018/b/8/mandelbulb3d_automation_demo_by_1bryan1-davu9cs.png)

And before any one asks - that 'bing' sound that you'll hear is a side effect of sending formula names into formula slots.
You get the same when you do the same manually ... sorry - cannot do anything about it.

Does thé programme works on XP please ?

I have no idea.
It should be x86 compatible.
Try it and see.

Hi Bryan,
Nice idea!
However, when I started the app, after a few rendering steps, it popped up a FileSaveAs dialog for a second, then a msgbox appeared saying Automation failed: Main window not responding. After clicking OK, the app closed, and there was only one new image in the output dir, without param file.
I have Win 10 and mb3d 1.9.1.
Thanks!
Steve

Sorry. I have been away from the forum (and fractal generation) for a while.
Life. Cannot walk away from it as much as you want to.

I have made a few improvements in the tool (for my own use as the only feedback is yours!).
If you are still interested, I'll publish this to see if it  helps.

I'm interested!!! ;D

OK then   :D
Give me a while to dust it off and give it a spin.

Once done - a PM will be sent your way with  a private link to the new improved version.
I'll also personally support you to get this off the ground on your PC (I've recently rebuilt mine so hopefully have a better idea of what might be missing).

OK, then send the link to me, too, pls!

both you (reinhix2) and micshac now have access :)

reinhix2 : I have sent you another link to MandelBulb3DRobot_20170413.1 which hopefully fixes your issue.
I sent you a PM also ... however, I cannot see it in my outbox.

Saving PMs in the outbox is not a default setting on the forum software.  You need to either check the option to save a copy in your outbox underneath the PM editing box before you send it, or set it to save every pm in your outbox in your forum profile settings.

If you did either of those, then I can only apologize and blame it on all the forum glitches that have been arising lately.  We are making good progress on the next iteration of FractalForums and hope to give us all a much nicer home once it is ready   O0

Hope that helps!

Thanks Sockratease. You are correct - I didn't tick that option.

It works!
Thank you for the development and your kind help.
The only problem I got that my machine went to sleep after 30 minutes. I am sure that was why the robot stopped and turned to pink. But it generated more than 200 pairs of files. So I'll change the windows sleep settings.
But the robot is perfect.

Works fine!!!

Many thanks :flowers:


 ;D

Great. I am glad to hear that.  :D

interested as well, may i please have link to download?

I have sent you a PM: titled "MandelBulb3DRobot_20170421.1"
It contains a link to the most recent version (MandelBulb3DRobot_20170421.1)

wanted to update you on my experimenting with the robot--this thing is awesome! It greatly expedites my creative process by helping to discover novel combinations of formulae. Normally, I waste time trying to "force" something out of the same set of formulae without playing around with the lesser-used ones. I have been letting the bot run over night or while I am away at work, and then later pick out the params that catch my eye to explore further. Already have come across some very cool starting points. I see serious potential for your automation app--thanks for sharing and for your hard work.

You are welcome :)

I also the robot overnight, then use the image thumbnails to pick out 'interesting' candidates for exploring.
I also run it on a free VM on my laptop - as this lets the robot run uninterrupted while I do other stuff.

Handy hint if you haven't set it up yet - associate m3p to the mandelbulb3d exe. Then you just double click the m3p file with  the same name as the thumbnail to open it in mandelbulb3d.

Wow, I often dreamed of creating  such a program, great work!!

can I also get access Please?

Gerson & Gonz0, I have sent you both the link.
Enjoy :)

Can I get a look at this also?
Thanks

Will give it a try on the Mac with WINE

Sent you a PM with the link.
Mac with WINE could be interesting - WINE would have to do a really good job of emulating windows as the robot uses the Windows API to automate Mandelbulb3D

If there is a larger interest I could implement it as regular feature inside MB3D (as MB3D works fine on WINE).

WOW that would be great.
If it does get enough interest - implementing this as a web service is quite flexible.
i.e. having MB3D act as a simple server an accepting parameters / actions in the form of XML requests.

While this is probably a good idea, it sounds like too much effort. This formula-changing-code probably does not work without the UI.
I'm working on a new release, and had to add some stuff in the existing code, again it was ***censored***

All I can offer is to create a window inside MB3D which does the same as you do with your external tool,
but can adress the form-properties (there are no real properties, but many fields with meaningful names like Edit21, lol) in a more direct manner.
If you are interested, please send me a spec or your code so that I can hack it in for the next release, I think many people will like such a feature (and some will hate it, lol)

Cheers!

Sorry, my bad for not being clear.

What I meant is to have the MB3D application as it is (windows and all), and have MB3D also have a XML HttpListener running that responds to XML as if user had done the same in a window.
So
would set X mid in the main window to 1.2 (and the user could see this change in the main window > position > X mid field).

and
would save the formulas in a m3i file (just as if the user clicked the save > m3i > enter filename into save as dialog > press enter) but without the dialog.

The basis of my MB3D automation framework was to allow people to program their own way of interacting with the MB3D windows (as different people have different ways to explore the fractal objects).
i.e. not embedding the process exploring fractals automatically into MB3D

Phase 1 was to provide an interface to operate the MB3D windows (which is challenging due to the nature of the windows and controls). This would be better handled by a XML interface.

Phase 2 (which people will really love or have fire-and-pitchfork hate of) is to create a scripting language that allow less technical people to create an AI that explores fractals.
A basic AI could do the following things - skips of images that are have no object showing; or shows too much interior color; or too few colors and then orientates the view to center the object and zooms in so it fills 90% of the window.
A more advance AI would also zoom into objects, find and and navigate into holes (and it is that bit that needs a more stable and informative interface than using windows API) ... all while pushing out images and m3p files so that people could manually explore as well.

What I did not understood yet is the external nature of your project.
It seems that there is already a foundation inside MB3D for what you want to achieve:
1. for MutaGen I have created a facade which encapsulates the model of formulas (it is not complete yet, but can easily extended).
2. for the JIT-Compiler I have included a full-fledged Delphi-Compiler, this can be used by scripting, too. My idea those days was to script against the facade.

Cheers!

Hi Folks,

With thargor6's very patient help, I have managed to get the Mandelbulb3D source to load and compile in the free version of Delphi 10.2.
I have now implemented a TCP Command interface to Mandelbulb3D (I call it Mandelbulb3D.TC)
This means any program connecting via address 127.0.0.1 port 9000 can send commands to Mandelbulb3D.TC to cause it to perform actions as it there is a user doing the action.

I have adjusted my Mandelbulb3D robot to send TCP commands.
This means it talks directly to Mandelbulb3D.TC via TCP, it is a lot faster as it no longer needs to use windows hooks.
Mandelbulb3D and the robot can now run in the background while generating the 600 or so images per hour.e.

The implemented actions are:
(http://pre01.deviantart.net/b1ca/th/pre/i/2017/165/1/d/mandelbulb3d_robot_commands_by_1bryan1-dbcr947.png)

If you would like to use the new & improved robot with Mandelbulb3D.TC - please reply to this topic, or PM me.
(This is so I can gauge interest, anyone can have the source by asking!).

There is also a test program (testInput.exe + source testInput.au3) if you want to look into creating your own robot using Mandelbulb3D.TC. I have a set of helper C# classes that give easy access to Mandelbulb3D.TC if that is of interest. PM me if you would like these.

Note: Not being a Delphi developer - I had to degrade Mandelbulb3D back to it's vanilla flavor as I could not work out the special controls and feature that were not stock features of Delphi 10.2.
A bit later, I'll also pass the Mandelbulb3D.TC source to thargor6 so that he can fold it into his next version of Mandelbulb3D if that is what he wants to do.

The Original Post (http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?topic=25069.msg98517#msg98517) will be changed to reflect the new interface.

I'm very impressed, being 2 years, more or less active Mandelbulb3D user!

I really enjoy the look, feel and use of Mandelbulb3D.
Just wish it was faster at rendering ... there are trillions of interesting fractals in those formula ... and such a short life to find them.

I am still looking for ways to explore faster / better through automation.

FYI: I have added in an extra interface command to allow multiple MB3D sessions at once (i.e. each MB3D can be asked to listen to a different port and be automated separately).