Mandelbulber - Open Source program for rendering high quality Mandelbulbs

[cbuchner1]

negative values from 0..-2 produce black result ;(

Hmm, your problems might be resulting from using the settings files of the previous 0.30 release with the new 0.42 version. On Windows, don't forget to run INSTALL.BAT from the new 0.42 folder once more (acknowledge the overwrite with y for yes each time, or with a for all)

[Buddhi]

If image is completely black, please check location of the camera. Maybe it is inside fractal. You should try with high values of Close-up (zoom), for example 20. Camera will be far from fractal.

[cKleinhuis]

i slowly get a hand at the program , but where is the camera move navigation ? left/right would be cool to have! and up/down
this program generates amazing images, but i am clearly lost navigating

what happens when i click ?

on option to move directly to the surface point clicked, and zooming would be cool, how is it working now ?

[stardust4ever]

I'm really surprised. Thank you. Please send it to me. I will prepare package and put in on SourceForge.

I have successfully compiled it for windows with a little modification in the code. I had to add the exp10() function, I gess it's equivalent to pow(10,x). Am i right? (I gess the answer is yes because I haven't noticed odd things while testing.)
What should I do to make it available to people who are waiting for it? 

Thanks Knightly! You are the best chilli chilli chilli

I've been my poor laptop's 2Ghz Core Duo processor all weekend with Mandelbulber v0.30
So I'll have to wait until its done rendering so I can close program before I run the *.BAT file 
I can't wait till I go back home to do some serious rendering on my big Phenom II x4 quad mobo - speed limit 3.2Ghz O.C. @3.6

[Buddhi]

Hi

I have good news. I'm finishing writting user guide for my program. I will include it to the next release of Mandelbulber (it will be in few days).

i slowly get a hand at the program , but where is the camera move navigation ? left/right would be cool to have! and up/down
this program generates amazing images, but i am clearly lost navigating

what happens when i click ?

on option to move directly to the surface point clicked, and zooming would be cool, how is it working now ?

Navigation in 3D unfortunatelly is much more complicated. You have several was to set-up camera:
1. Use some 2D fractal program and find interesting coordinates (very good for cose-up of areas near z=0)
2. Zoom (colse-up camera) by clicking on image. Each mouse click moves camera 5 times closer to the selected point
3. Use 3D navigator. First use "Init 3D navigator" or put some starting camera position (far from fractal), rotation and very low Close-up value (1e-8). Next move camera using arrows, "Forward" and "Backward" buttons.
Of course it is possible to mix all methods.

I'm still thinking about some improvements for 3D navigation. I'm open for some new ideas from you.

I cant wait for some interesting images from you rendered on my program.

[makc]

I'm still thinking about some improvements for 3D navigation. I'm open for some new ideas from you.

what about industry standard wasd+mouse+arrows navigation? with low iteration count rendering while navigation is active.

[Buddhi]

I have just released version 0.43 of Mandelbulber program for Linux

Download binary and source:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mandelbulber/

New features:

- added possibility to move camera up, down, left and right in 3D navigator
- zooming by mouse click can be disabled
- changed default camera position in "Init 3D navigator" function
- changed coloring algorithm for Mandelbox (Tglad's) formula. Now color in not depended on number of iterations and distance.
- added spherical folding mode which modify all fractal formulas
- modified shading formula
- Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) is rendered using multiple CPU cores

Please remember about running install script before first program run

[cKleinhuis]

great, thank you very much, going and testing it

[cbuchner1]

GPU (CUDA) accelerating all of Mandelbulber is a bit more than I can chew right now.

So I have begun working on a real time DOF post effect with CUDA first. I am basing this on the recursiveGaussian filter sample from the CUDA SDK, which implements a constant time (with respect to blur width) gaussian filter.  I split up the image into distinct layers (somewhere between 10 to 30 layers) each with different blur factor. In am composing the layers back together using alpha blending. This should look very similar to what Buddhi's CPU based DOF code is currently doing.

Oh, zbuffer values for background pixels are a little on the extreme side, something like 1E20. Was this intended?

Christian

[Buddhi]

GPU (CUDA) accelerating all of Mandelbulber is a bit more than I can chew right now.
So I have begun working on a real time DOF post effect with CUDA first. I am basing this on the

DOF effect is one of the fastest parts of program. Rendering of DOF effect takes only from 1% to 5% total time of rendering image. I'm wondring also about quality of this effect when it will be divided to only 30 layers. Now blur radiur is in range between 1 to 100 with unlimited resolution. Smooth value of blur radius is very important neer places which are in focus.

Oh, zbuffer values for background pixels are a little on the extreme side, something like 1E20. Was this intended?

Yes, it was intended because there is almost unlimited view distance. My program scales depth value to normalised range. When object has size equals to close-up value and is located at depth = 0 then its size on screen will equals to image width.
Size_of_object_on_screen = size_of_object / (1.0 + normalised_depth*perspective_factor)
It means that when there is very deep close-up, the nearest objects are in range of depth between around -1 and 1 but objects which are very far have very high depth value.
This solution has many advantages. It's is very easy to adjust intensity of every effect and scale value of distance threshold using this normalised depth values especially during rendering of deep close-up animations.
I know that this is strange solution, because in OpenGL every value is in range <-1.0,1.0> but for me this is the best.

[cbuchner1]

DOF effect is one of the fastest parts of program. Rendering of DOF effect takes only from 1% to 5% total time of rendering image.

Yes and no. ;-) When you render simple things like a Menger Sponge and add some extreme Depth of Fields with lots of very blurred pixels near the camera, this ratio can easily be reversed.

Smooth value of blur radius is very important near places which are in focus.

I intend to apply some logarithmic scale to the size of the blur bins. That should take care of that. I am more worried about whether simple (but fast) Gaussian filter creates the "correct" optical effect.

[Buddhi]

Knighty has just prepared Windows port for Mandelbulber 0.43. You can download it from:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mandelbulber/

Please remember about use install.bat script before first launch of program.

[Buddhi]

I wrote with beeper52's help user guide for Mandelbulber. If somebody has problems with using Mandelbulber it should be helpful. It can be downloaded from SourceForge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mandelbulber/files/Mandelbulber%20user%20guide.pdf/download

[Buddhi]

I have just released version 0.50 of Mandelbulber program for Linux

Download binary and source:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mandelbulber/

New features:

- added "Light sources" tab in GUI
- main light is configurable (colour, angle)
- added random auxiliary light sources
- added 4 configurable light sources
- improved environment mapping reflection. Now is calculated real reflection vector.
- improved specular highlight effect

Please remember about running install script before first program run

example images: http://www.fractalforums.com/mandelbulber/adjustable-light-sources-new-function-in-mandelbulber/

P.S. Is somebody able to make Windows port for this version?

[knighty]

P.S. Is somebody able to make Windows port for this version?

I'll try to do something.