Welcome to Fractal Forums

Hey guys!  I just recently started playing around with fractals and joined the forum yesterday.

Over the past week or so I've done a bunch of the mandelbrot / julia variations and other 2d fractals.  Now I'm trying my hand at 3d.

I wrote a script that generates a list of vertex points for the mandelbulb, generated a few million points, then looked up how to render point clouds on Google.  I found 3 or 4 apps that are made for 3d laser scans or CAD that have functions to turn a point cloud into a mesh, but none of them really worked (horribly jagged / weird 3d shapes.)  I think the problem is that the apps assume the data will be from a 3d scanner with only the outer surface of the object, whereas I have a cubic grid with binary points that fill in the object.

Maybe I need to rethink the way I'm rendering it?  Is it possible to only render the outer points of the shape?

Or, does anyone know of an app that will put a sphere at each of my points, such that if a cluster of points are near each other I get a nice round blobby thing?

Here's what the points look like:
(http://imgur.com/0cS33.jpg)

RAYMARCH from the outside towards the object using distance estimation. If you pick a large number of rays randomly intersecting a sphere of radius 2 around the origin, you should be able to get a point cloud similar to what a laser scanner would produce.

Greetings, and Welcome to this particular Forum !!!    :)

It appears you are off to a very good start, based upon what you have already posted.  There is always something new to learn, and this Forum has much to offer.  Good luck with it all.