Mandelbulber v2 - 2.08

[Buddhi]

Thank you buddhi. Another bug:
Materials do not form a grid on mac, they are all in a line, so you have to scroll all the way to the right. Attached image shows the problem.

And is it possible to smoothly interpolate materials in 2.08 (keyframe animation), without all of the hassle of changing each individual property?

Actually materials are displayed in one line, not a grid. This is not a bug but something to improve. Because of some another problem under OSX they are displayed without names (I hope to fix this).

About interpolation, there is not possible to interpolate between different materials. It is difficult to implement (but should be possible). But you can interpolate each parameter of material.

[Starmute]

Actually materials are displayed in one line, not a grid. This is not a bug but something to improve. Because of some another problem under OSX they are displayed without names (I hope to fix this).

About interpolation, there is not possible to interpolate between different materials. It is difficult to implement (but should be possible). But you can interpolate each parameter of material.

How about having multiple materials, with a weight value for each one (like is done with hybrids)? That might make it easier to implement.

[Snicker02]

@Buddhi and everyone else... Speaking of Facebook did you know there is a Mandelbubler group? https://www.facebook.com/groups/mandelbulber/

[paigan0]

@Buddhi and everyone else... Speaking of Facebook did you know there is a Mandelbubler group? https://www.facebook.com/groups/mandelbulber/

Facebook Mandelbulber group! Now I can bug people on Facebook with my fractals and 3d fractal animation music videos that actually care! 

[joe]

zebastian, I had forgotten about the program settings. Major upgrade. zbuffer export was one of the main reasons I was going to learn M3D... was 

Buddhi I'm happy to hear the virtual projector is possible, music videos and art manipulation will open right up. New functions like this will make mandelbulber sing. It would be a powerful feature if video could be used for background and texture mapping media, by synchronising the video frame by frame with the keyframe animation output. It could be done now, but I would have to generate a settings file for each frame... I don't like spreadsheets that much.

Here is the transparency issue:

Code:

# Mandelbulber settings file
# version 2.08
# only modified parameters
[main_parameters]
ambient_occlusion_quality 7;
aux_light_colour_1 ff00 ff00 ff00;
aux_light_enabled_1 true;
aux_light_intensity_1 2.2;
aux_light_position_1 3 1.5 -0.5;
aux_light_visibility 0.8;
aux_light_visibility_size 0.02;
basic_fog_color 7100 7400 7c00;
basic_fog_visibility 0.213796;
boolean_operators true;
brightness 1.04;
camera 0.124452008690805 -1.747837355273807 -0.09362542846960924;
camera_distance_to_target 1.101191401481629;
camera_rotation -3.311552952528574 9.218191784577634 4.682382376725372;
camera_top 0.07227293318983721 -0.1641088583643975 0.9837910884605895;
constant_DE_threshold true;
DE_factor 0.645654;
delta_DE_function 0;
detail_level 5;
file_background C:\Users\Joe\Desktop\textures\PaperMill_A_8k.jpg;
flight_last_to_render 0;
fog_color_1 ff00 ff00 7f00;
fog_color_2 ff00 0000 0000;
fog_color_3 aa00 0000 ff00;
formula_2 73;
formula_3 73;
formula_material_id_2 2;
formula_material_id_3 3;
formula_position_2 0 5 0;
formula_position_3 0 5 0;
formula_rotation_2 75 0 0;
formula_rotation_3 60 0 0;
formula_scale_1 0.5;
fov 0.7;
gamma 0.89;
glow_enabled false;
image_height 720;
image_width 1280;
iteration_fog_color_1 3b00 ff00 0000;
iteration_fog_color_2 0000 ff00 ff00;
iteration_fog_color_3 ff00 ff00 0000;
iteration_fog_opacity 27542.3;
iteration_fog_opacity_trim 1;
julia_c_1 0 0.2 0.1;
julia_mode_1 true;
keyframe_last_to_render 0;
main_light_enable false;
main_light_intensity 0.3;
mat1_fresnel_reflectance true;
mat1_shading 0;
mat1_specular 0;
mat1_specular_width 0.511;
mat1_transparency_of_surface 1;
mat1_use_colors_from_palette false;
mat2_coloring_palette_size 20;
mat2_coloring_random_seed 1655;
mat2_coloring_speed 10;
mat2_is_defined true;
mat2_surface_color_palette 7b00ff 3200ff 011cff 0069ff 00b6ff 00fefc 00ffb3 01fe67 00fe1a 30ff00 78ff00 c5fe01 ffec01 ff9f00 fe5200 ff0600 ff0048 ff0197 ff00e4 ca01ff;
mat3_coloring_palette_size 6;
mat3_coloring_random_seed 3118;
mat3_is_defined true;
mat3_luminosity 0.2;
mat3_surface_color_palette 009403 44159c 00d9b7 4d558b 60a93c 85771e;
penetrating_lights false;
raytraced_reflections true;
target 0.1872411885153338 -0.6626823771907135 0.08277948964640756;
textured_background true;
volumetric_fog_colour_1_distance 0.0134896;
volumetric_fog_colour_2_distance 0.0269153;
volumetric_fog_distance_factor 0.0269153;
[fractal_1]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
power 3;
[fractal_2]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
[fractal_3]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
[fractal_4]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
[fractal_5]
[fractal_6]
[fractal_7]
[fractal_8]
[fractal_9]

Notice the grey area on the right of the globe. Almost any amount of fine detail results in this, is it to do with reflections depth?
By the way, I do want to request a much higher limit for reflections depth, 100 would be a start, 1000 good. Possible?

I just had a thought, it would be nice to include primitives in boolean mode. This would also solve my request for spherical limits. Simple functions are awesome because they can be well understood.
Cheers

[Buddhi]

Buddhi I'm happy to hear the virtual projector is possible, music videos and art manipulation will open right up. New functions like this will make mandelbulber sing. It would be a powerful feature if video could be used for background and texture mapping media, by synchronising the video frame by frame with the keyframe animation output. It could be done now, but I would have to generate a settings file for each frame... I don't like spreadsheets that much.

Here is the transparency issue:
<Quoted Image Removed>

Notice the grey area on the right of the globe. Almost any amount of fine detail results in this, is it to do with reflections depth?
By the way, I do want to request a much higher limit for reflections depth, 100 would be a start, 1000 good. Possible?

I just had a thought, it would be nice to include primitives in boolean mode. This would also solve my request for spherical limits. Simple functions are awesome because they can be well understood.
Cheers

About your issue with transparency it was easy to solve. You forgot to set reflectance of material. Glass has to refract the light (transparency) and also reflect the light. Without reflectance there was visible inner surface which you set to light grey (it's just surface color).
To the program there is attached example glass material (use Load material option) where you can see how it can be defined.

I had also changed maxiter (limit of maximum number of iterations). It was 250, now is 25. It enough to provide good quality and speeds up raymarching inside transparent object where there is always needed to calculate maximum number of iterations (like inside Mandelbrot Set)

Try these settings:

Code:

# Mandelbulber settings file
# version 2.08
# only modified parameters
[main_parameters]
ambient_occlusion_quality 7;
aux_light_colour_1 ff00 ff00 ff00;
aux_light_enabled_1 true;
aux_light_intensity_1 2,2;
aux_light_position_1 3 1,5 -0,5;
aux_light_visibility 0,8;
aux_light_visibility_size 0,02;
basic_fog_color 7100 7400 7c00;
basic_fog_visibility 0,213796;
boolean_operators true;
brightness 1,04;
camera 0,124452008690805 -1,747837355273807 -0,09362542846960924;
camera_distance_to_target 1,101191401481629;
camera_rotation -3,311552952528574 9,218191784577634 4,682382376725372;
camera_top 0,07227293318983721 -0,1641088583643975 0,9837910884605895;
constant_DE_threshold true;
DE_factor 0,645654;
delta_DE_function 0;
detail_level 5;
file_background /home/krzysztof/dane/3D/Tekstury/Backgrounds/Spherical/PaperMill_A_8k.jpg;
flight_last_to_render 0;
fog_color_1 ff00 ff00 7f00;
fog_color_2 ff00 0000 0000;
fog_color_3 aa00 0000 ff00;
formula_2 73;
formula_3 73;
formula_material_id_2 2;
formula_material_id_3 3;
formula_position_2 0 5 0;
formula_position_3 0 5 0;
formula_rotation_2 75 0 0;
formula_rotation_3 60 0 0;
formula_scale_1 0,5;
fov 0,7;
gamma 0,89;
glow_enabled false;
image_height 720;
image_width 1280;
iteration_fog_color_1 3b00 ff00 0000;
iteration_fog_color_2 0000 ff00 ff00;
iteration_fog_color_3 ff00 ff00 0000;
iteration_fog_opacity 27542,3;
iteration_fog_opacity_trim 1;
julia_c_1 0 0,2 0,1;
julia_mode_1 true;
keyframe_last_to_render 0;
main_light_enable false;
main_light_intensity 0,3;
mat1_fresnel_reflectance true;
mat1_reflectance 1;
mat1_specular 10;
mat1_specular_width 0,263;
mat1_transparency_of_surface 1;
mat1_use_colors_from_palette false;
mat2_coloring_palette_size 20;
mat2_coloring_random_seed 1655;
mat2_coloring_speed 10;
mat2_is_defined true;
mat2_surface_color_palette 7b00ff 3200ff 011cff 0069ff 00b6ff 00fefc 00ffb3 01fe67 00fe1a 30ff00 78ff00 c5fe01 ffec01 ff9f00 fe5200 ff0600 ff0048 ff0197 ff00e4 ca01ff;
mat3_coloring_palette_size 6;
mat3_coloring_random_seed 3118;
mat3_is_defined true;
mat3_luminosity 0,2;
mat3_surface_color_palette 009403 44159c 00d9b7 4d558b 60a93c 85771e;
N 25;
penetrating_lights false;
raytraced_reflections true;
target 0,1872411885153338 -0,6626823771907135 0,08277948964640756;
textured_background true;
volumetric_fog_colour_1_distance 0,0134896;
volumetric_fog_colour_2_distance 0,0269153;
volumetric_fog_distance_factor 0,0269153;
[fractal_1]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
power 3;
[fractal_2]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
[fractal_3]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
[fractal_4]
IFS_rotation_enabled true;
[fractal_5]
[fractal_6]
[fractal_7]
[fractal_8]
[fractal_9]

About animated backgrounds and textures I have this in my mind. I need to look for some easy solutions to implement it. I think it should be enough to be able to use sequences of JPG or PNG files (it's easy to export any mpeg/avi animation to sequence of jpg frames)

About your request to increase maximum allowable reflections depth. I do not agree here, because it's not reasonable (and horribly slow for rendering) to use higher number than 10. It will only produce heavy noise and could lead to big numeric errors (even generation of Not-A-Number). If you give me any example where it could be used, I will change my mind.

About booleans for primitives I also though about that. It would be possible to implement it but there will be needed to develop some nice UI for it. Mayby in v2.10.
Instead of that I can easily implement spherical limits.

[Buddhi]

@Buddhi and everyone else... Speaking of Facebook did you know there is a Mandelbubler group? https://www.facebook.com/groups/mandelbulber/

Wow! It's great to see that there is such a group on Facebook.

[Starmute]

Another bug, it is not possible to zoom to any percentage that isn't 25, 50, 100, etc. 75% does not work.

Buddhi, have you considered making it possible to use multiple materials with different weight for each one? That would make it much easier to interpolate materials.

[Buddhi]

Another bug, it is not possible to zoom to any percentage that isn't 25, 50, 100, etc. 75% does not work.

Buddhi, have you considered making it possible to use multiple materials with different weight for each one? That would make it much easier to interpolate materials.

About zooming of image, I have never implemented another zoom values than those predefined. I though that they would be enough especially when when you have option "Fit to window". But if you think that it's beneficial to have another zooms, I can add it to our TODO list.

About multiple materials I have already considered it. It would be good to have possibility to assign several materials as a layers which will use alpha channel of textures to control overlapping. Then weight (opacity) option would be used for interpolation. But it's quite a lot programming work, so it won't be soon.

[zebastian]

@Snicker02 sorry for my late reply.

There was a issue in the voxel export which caused the folder name to be concated, when there was no trailing folder separator:
so folder name "my/great/location" saved all files to:
my/great/locationlayer_00000.png
my/great/locationlayer_00001.png
...
which is actually in folder "my/great" and has "locationlayer_00001.png" as file name.
My bad.

I changed it, so in new version the folder gets parsed correctly no matter if specified with trailing separator or not.
The program will also check if folder exists and give a warning if not.
For the time being you should be fine to type the missing trailing folder separator by hand into the textbox.
Here is the fix:
https://github.com/buddhi1980/mandelbulber2/commit/6496e838fc9edb38ac4450d48cd0df28d3eb630b

Cheers!

[Starmute]

Buddhi, would you be able to add another digit to the box folding of kaleidoscopic IFS? It seems to me that this would be better with 3 decimal places than with 2.

[mclarekin]

@starmute.  Have updated UI, ( commit 1865902) and thanks.   There is  other places that need extra decimals that you might notice as well, probably mainly pre V2.05.  These days I generally lazily use a default of 6 decimals, and promise myself that one day I will come back and shorten if necessary.

Keep the feedback coming.   

[Starmute]

@starmute.  Have updated UI, ( commit 1865902) and thanks.   There is  other places that need extra decimals that you might notice as well, probably mainly pre V2.05.  These days I generally lazily use a default of 6 decimals, and promise myself that one day I will come back and shorten if necessary.

Keep the feedback coming.   

Why are the decimals limited in the first place? I recall in 1.xx that they were unlimited. Is it a limitation of the Qt interface?

Also, have you considered adding a means of sending crash reports? It might be very useful in the long run.

[mclarekin]

I can only assume Buddhi was trying to keep the UI's small, as it is not an issue in QT.  A lot of what I have coded has 6 decimals because I don't really know when a parameter might become "decimal place critical" under hybrid conditions. I have sometimes had to  tweak  the sixth decimal place. For the same reason you will find that even though a slider may only go thru 0 to 10  (an assumed normal operating range) my newer  spinboxes will allow , maybe -99 to 99 to be entered.
I remember a parameter where all the major change happened between 0 and 10, but if I zoomed really deep I would still see a noticable change between 98 and 99.
All of the sliders and spinboxes should probably be checked, when time and inclination allows. But iin the meantime if you find any that needs changing, we can make sure they get updated before the next release.
 
BTW.  I have never had time to properly test most of the new formulas, I have little idea of what they are capable of doing or what the optimum normal working range is for parameters, I get easily sidetracked onto the next tempting formula in the pile, (and it is still an ever increasing pile .)

Also, have you considered adding a means of sending crash reports? It might be very useful in the long run

This is for Buddhi or Zebastain to answer.

[Starmute]

After further testing it seems that the box folding of IFS needs even more than 3 digits. 5 decimal places seems like the right number.
Also, is it possible to allow negative placement distance of lights? I often want to do this but am limited by the software.