Welcome to Fractal Forums

Basically I work in the area of generative art. I use the GPU for realtime rendering and very rarely use fractals, they struck me as pretty boring. But two weeks ago I found information about mandelbox... Wow!  I think it is a very interesting approach... So I applied this algorithm in my existing engine and .. look at the result:

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/mandelbox_shadows2.jpg)

The speed is not too impressive - about 7fps on 1920x1080 GTX480 but I'm waiting for a new generation of videocards.

www.sanbasestudio.com

7 fps is slow ?  :o

Yes, I want to have 30fps :)

This is demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z18omLWzChE

This looks promising, keep us posted on any new developments :)

Depends on the context, but for smooth animation in realtime around 25fps is a generally accepted minimum, though a lot of games in the past used to get away with as low as 10fps and IMHO anything less than that is not "realtime" but just "interactive" :)

Several images:

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1547.jpg)
Space Yard.

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1551.jpg)
Seems a lot of construction here :)

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1550.jpg)
I don't know what it is. Just nice.

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1555.jpg)
It's kind of cave...

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1553.jpg)
Ropes or vines.

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1549.jpg)
It looks like a bark

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1545.jpg)
And the latest one: something in the style of Monet

All these screenshots were taken within one hour. I used the same formula with different parameters (I change them manually).
Speed: 12fps on 1920x1080 (GTX480)

Very nice images - I like the final one in particular.

(http://jeffrey-davis.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/holy-carp.jpg)

These are beautiful!!!

Excellent work ! Any chance of releasing the binary ? (or even the source ;)

I have an awful lot of catching up to do with respect to 3D hardware, I'm working on it though.
At the moment I'm just trying a combined diamond-square/perlin noise algorithm in the hope that once I've got it fast enough simply rendering in 2D to a texture I can then use an adapted form of DE to give a realtime 3D landscape renderer without any polygons at all, though if that's asking a little too much I could easily convert to using a multi-resolution mesh method instead ;)
Am still working on the design for the initial format of a UF-like GPU program - I'm deliberately sticking to a format that will work on iPad/iPhone (and other mobile devices if anyone wants to convert from iOS) as well as OSX (and Win7/Linux if anyone wants to convert).

I would be happy to get 12 of those frames per minute on my GPU. And I second the call for at least releasing a section of the pixel shader - like maybe the occlusion and lighting?? Great stuff anyways.

Unfortunatelly it requires VERY powerfull system...
take a look: http://www.sanbasestudio.com/system.html

I can show the formula (first image):

vec4 sphere(vec4 z)
{
   float r2 = dot(z.xyz,z.xyz);
   if(r2<2.0)
      z*=(1.0/r2);
   else   z*=0.5;

   return z;

}
vec3 box(vec3 z)
{
   return clamp(z, -1.0, 1.0) * 2.0 - z;
}

float DE0(vec3 pos)
{
   vec3 z=pos-from;
   float r=dot(pos-from,pos-from)*pow(length(z),2.0);
   return (1.0-smoothstep(0.0,0.01,r))*0.01;
}

float DE2(vec3 pos)
{

   vec4 scale = -20*0.272321;
     vec4 p = vec4(pos,1.0), p0 = p;  
   vec4 c=vec4(param[31].w,param[32].w,param[33].w,0.5)-0.5; // param = 0..1

     for (float i=0;i<10; i++)
   {
      p.xyz=box(p.xyz);
      p=sphere(p);
      p=p*scale+c;
     }

   return length(p.xyz)/p.w;
}

float DE(vec3 pos)
{

   float d0=DE0(pos);   
   float d2=DE2(pos);

   return max(d0,d2);
}

 
Record:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSjWB21PJfs


Concerning:

Take a look at some of my works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkTJL7PZdNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-zxQ7tFncU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7LE7W3n5BI

Well I have a new MacPro with dual 2.66GHz 6-core Westmeres and an ATI Radeon HD 5870 :)
CPU (Ultra Fractal) benchmarks here:

http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark%20results.htm

However I'm hoping to get at least "interactive" speeds (say 5 to 10 fps) for my 3D fractal shader 2 rendering on the iPad and iPhone - not including all the bells and whistles with respect to lighting of course ;)

OK, I'm new to shader code but so far I've found nothing to indicate that the OpenCL compilers do auto-inlining - am I missing something ?

I think the code is GLSL (given the 'vec3' type). GLSL compilers will do agressive inlining and loop unrolling, so there is no need to do this manually. It is possible to get the GPU assembly using Nvidia’s Cg SDK, if you want to check the compiler output. I am guessing OpenCL will perform the same kind of optimizations.

Thanks, given that info I will be doing a test shader fragment to check if inlining is done automatically on the devices I'm interested in (and to what extent) - to be honest I never even trust the documentation with respect to this sort of thing because it's often out of date or even completely wrong - in the past that even goes for documentation from Intel, and for many others it's nothing unusual ;)

Yes, it's GLSL.
You can find doc here: http://www.opengl.org/documentation/glsl/

It's stereo demo:
   http://www.sanbasestudio.com/demo/stereo.html

If your eyes are not so widely apart, try this version:
   http://www.sanbasestudio.com/demo/stereo1.html

try uploading to youtube, its player allows for lots of stereoscopic playback options. Including nvidia shutter setups these days.

Which format I should use for this? I mean L-R, R-L or anaglyph? I used L-R schema but in this case I can't make distance between centers of images > 2.5"

I use over-under to retain max horizontal resolution but you can upload full-rez side-by-side.

Anaglyph is hard to pull apart and has compromised the color information, so you have to upload a clean left and right frame composite.

With the yt3d tags you can then specify which portion of the frame is left and which is right.
Look for examples of those tags as used by some of the 3d vids for inspiration.

A couple of images:

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1567.jpg)

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/x1569.jpg)

A couple of stereoscopic images:

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/jpg/stereo.jpg)

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/jpg/stereo2.jpg)


... and youtube demo (3D, side-by-side):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arloc-N1Whs

Hi,

I have also written some realtime rendering code; have a look at the other thread behind this link (http://www.fractalforums.com/movies-showcase-%28rate-my-movie%29/realtime-mandelbox-t9134/)... (sorry to hijack your thread :)

 - ld

I just published two of my 3D fractal works in stereoscopic (side-by-side) format.  If you have 3D TV - these videos are able to showcase the true potential of your TV!
Take a look: http://www.sanbasestudio.com/3d.htm

very cool, nice and serene. Good music to match.

The 3d isn't popping out as much. What field of view are you rendering? Looks large, given the spherical looking near plane clipping.

How do you render left & right? Simple side-step or asymmetric frustum?

I find 3d effects are best when rendering approximately the field of view of the display device. And trace rays for left & right eye through the pixels of the projection plane / screen. That results in slightly different directions for same pixels in left & right eye, hence the asymmetric.

Nice texturing / coloring. Care to share your approach?

hiya, just for reference, there is also stream rendering  examples on subblue fractal website, boxplorer cl binaries, and mandelbulber 1.11. speed just depends on iteration depth according to subblue, you cant get the highest quality boxes in 30fps mode yet.

I use this approach:
// vertex shader
void main(void)
{
   gl_Position = ftransform();
   gl_TexCoord[0] = gl_MultiTexCoord0;

   coord=gl_TexCoord[0].xy;
   coord.y-=(eye-0.5)*0.08;  // parallax far
   from.z+=(eye-0.5)*0.012 // parallax near
   vec3 Dir = normalize(Target-Eye);
   vec3 up = Up-dot(Dir,Up)*Dir;
   up = normalize(up);
   vec3 Right = normalize( cross(Dir,up));
   dir = (coord.x*Right + coord.y*up )+Dir;
}

// fragment shader
void main()
{
   gl_FragData[0].xyz= trace(from,dir);
}

Also a couple of pictures:

(http://sanbase.org/tmp/f1.jpg)

(http://sanbase.org/tmp/f2.jpg)

It is mandelbox, scale=1.5 c=0.1

     for (i=0;i<12;i++)
   {
      p.xyz=boxFold(p.xyz);
      p/=max(dot(p.xyz,p.xyz),0.5);
      p*=scale;
      p.xyz+=c;
      if(i==2)
         p.xyz+=p.zxy;
     }

Hi Alexl,

Last week I downloaded your two side-by-side movies, and played them on a computer with a 3D monitor (a Samsung Syncmaster 3D w. shutter glasses). The 3D perception was really good - so for me your frustum setup works fine.

I've made a true 3DBD (MVC format). It's here: http://www.sanbase.org

I continue to develop this technology. A couple of samples:

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/ex1600.jpg)

(http://www.sanbasestudio.com/art/img/ex1589.jpg)

The second one is a screenshot from: http://www.sanbase.org (stereoscopic movie)

Great images, and kudos for creating an entire 3D bluray production.

Your movies look texture-mapped. Do you project 2D textures onto the fractals?

I've tried this myself, using the following approach:
Basically, to avoid the texture looking stretched in some directions, I choose the projection based on the surface normal. This works, but the resulting texture will be blended together of several textures.

Here is an example:
(http://blog.hvidtfeldts.net/media/texture.png)

Here the same image with a grid texture:
(http://blog.hvidtfeldts.net/media/texture2.png)

But the method works best when the surface hasn't got rapidly varying surface normals.

How do you project onto 3D?

I use the same approach:

vec4 surface_3D(float zoom, vec3 pos, vec3 norm)
{
   vec4 surf1=surface(zoom*pos.yx); // left/right
   vec4 surf2=surface(zoom*pos.yz); // vert
   vec4 surf3=surface(zoom*pos.xz); // top

   vec3 blend_weights = abs(norm.zxy);
   blend_weights /= (blend_weights.x + blend_weights.y + blend_weights.z );

   return  (surf1*blend_weights.x + surf2*blend_weights.y + surf3*blend_weights.z);

}

It is a fake, of course but ... it works. :)

I used also:
    vec3 blend_weights = abs(norm.zxy);
    blend_weights = smoothstep(0.5,1.0,blend_weights);   
    blend_weights /= (blend_weights.x + blend_weights.y + blend_weights.z );

Sometimes it looks better but it depends on picture.

I use exactly the same normalization, just with an added power function to control the transition:
I've also found this: http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_ch01.html where a slightly differnt blending function is used.

Yeah, they use:
blend_weights = (blend_weights - 0.2) * 7;   
blend_weights = max(blend_weights, 0);     

I tested nvidia algorithm but I do not see significant difference.

Video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNIzC7QipLE

One more video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snTL81mewz8

http://player.vimeo.com/video/53626373

Hardware:
(http://sanbase.org/tmp/comp71.jpg)

CPU: i7 3770
GPU: GTX680.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______

Greetings and Salutations Master, ALEXI Its been a million hours or more, you've been busy!

THERE you go again, taking us along for another one of your great fractal time cruises in fractal mind scape alternate, Time, away from out of our comfort zone, of knowns time, to unknown spatial time!

Long live the total time, every second spliced by your mind to our kind,  you do so pleasure our eyes with this journey, which proves to us, you're a Time Raider Pirate Traveler, full of intriguing visions! You definite got this viewers attention, great job! Glad to see your work! We really appreciate it and don't mind telling you so! What we see here is : We appear to be in a Fractal Jungle, a forest in breeding, there are distance spires, lines, cables, electrical lines, that are alive and hanging resembling spiders and circles, portals belonging to mind scape's too scary for us to follow! Again love your background skies so real!
Thanks for sharing this mentsl taxi ride, into one of your minds super creations! Really cool! Enjoyed the trip! Yes, the music is perfect! It more than tells the story. It says it all, within its beauty lies dark tantalizing touches of danger, good, we are dare devils anyway, unafraid, Thanks again!






.

Nice videos, peaceful.  Jealous of the hardware too! 

Screenshot:

(http://sanbase.org/jpg/000250.2.jpg)

I just placed an order for the Blu Ray. Surprisingly your order page sent me right to Paypal.

I am situated in Germany. The shipping address stored in PayPal states "Deutschland" as country, I hope this is translated to "Germany" automatically when PayPal sends you the recipient Information. Otherwise Canadian post might get confused.

Your shipping rate seems relatively low. Let me know if I need to send additional funds in order to have this shipped internationally.

At this price, the 3D Blu Ray seems a steal.

The disc has been sent to your address today :)
I hope you have a 3D TV.
P.S. As far as see, you live in an apartment building, but your address do not include the number of the apartment.

Ehrm please discus private details in private!
No need for appartment num here ;)

Right, the recipient's name genereally identifies the apartment here. Which occasionally confuses the post man if two building residents have similar sounding names. ;)

I am looking forward to this disc. I own a 3D monitor and intend to buy a 3D TV soon.

Christian

This content has been optimized for 55" screen. If you have 40" -70" - it's OK, but I think that your monitor is 27" or something like that. The thing is that the objects can be located quite close to the viewer (half of the distance to the screen). In case of big TV screen that's fine, but if you use a monitor, it may be too close to your eyes.

One more screenshot (new stuff):
(http://www.sanbase.org/jpg/x1612.jpg)


... and video (see screenshot 3 posts above):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-itQwiAqo9M

"Our World is a Crazy Fractal"
Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn9_JGPA9j0

The programming figured here is different from the mandelflying program isn't it?

nice work. the entire thing looks ray traced. that's all i can reveal for the moment :)