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Author Topic: Some Mandelbulber Questions  (Read 2995 times)
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mephisto69
Guest
« on: May 12, 2010, 06:49:27 PM »

First of all, I'd like to say that I love Mandelbulber, and the User guide was VERY helpful, but there are a few things that really weren't covered, or that I have questions about, and I'd really like to be able to use this program better.

1) How does the Coloring Random Seed option work?  I think most people know that coloring fractals can be one of the most important and time consuming part of constructing a fractal (not including rendering time, of course...)  But I just can't figure out this function - is it simply a matter of randomly trying out numbers until you find something usable, or is there actually some type of logic that it follows?  Will there ever be an option to use a more visual option, perhaps using gradient palettes, in the future of Mandelbulber?

2) Why was the program written to save every single full and partial render to my hard drive?  When I am ready to render to disk, I would much rather exercise my option to use this function, not the software's.  It is a little annoying to clean out my Images folder of 30 - 50 useless images every time I use the program.  Also, any plans to include an export to bitmap image in any future updates?

3)  I'm really having a hard time with the Depth Of Field function...  I see some of these awesome renders here and on DA, but I just can't seem to figure this one out, either.  It would be nice if there was a mouse click option to choose which part of the image you want in focus, and have the program calculate from there.  Any tips on how to use the DoF option better?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
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Buddhi
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« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2010, 11:12:20 PM »

Hi

I will try to answer your questions

1) Random seed is only a initial value for random number generator. I want to make some palette (gradient) editor but I need much time for this. Please be patient. Now only way is to render image and next try with some seed values and every time click "Apply changes" (it will update image with new colours). You can also change "Color speed". Smaller values give smother colours.

2) I decided to save every image because program is still not enough stable. In next version I will add some switch to disable auto-saving. I have also plan to add other image formats like PNG or TIFF but I have to learn how to use proper libraries (of course multi-platform).

3) It is good idea to make possibility to indicate focus distance by mouse click. I will try to add this in one of next versions. Now there is only manual focus. You have to use this like in real camera. First render image in low resolution and change "focus" value in high steps (from low values to high) and when you observe some changes of overall sharpness, try to feel in which direction you have to change it.

I will try to do continuous improvement of my program. Your suggestions are very important for me. But please be patient because I don't have to much free time (work, family, sport,  etc...)
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mephisto69
Guest
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2010, 11:57:20 PM »

Hi

I will try to answer your questions

1) Random seed is only a initial value for random number generator. I want to make some palette (gradient) editor but I need much time for this. Please be patient. Now only way is to render image and next try with some seed values and every time click "Apply changes" (it will update image with new colours). You can also change "Color speed". Smaller values give smother colours.

2) I decided to save every image because program is still not enough stable. In next version I will add some switch to disable auto-saving. I have also plan to add other image formats like PNG or TIFF but I have to learn how to use proper libraries (of course multi-platform).

3) It is good idea to make possibility to indicate focus distance by mouse click. I will try to add this in one of next versions. Now there is only manual focus. You have to use this like in real camera. First render image in low resolution and change "focus" value in high steps (from low values to high) and when you observe some changes of overall sharpness, try to feel in which direction you have to change it.

I will try to do continuous improvement of my program. Your suggestions are very important for me. But please be patient because I don't have to much free time (work, family, sport,  etc...)


No problem Buddhi - thanks for the reply.  I love your program, I'd just like it to be a little more user friendly!  ; )

1)  Okay, I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong with this or not - thanks for the clarification.  I have experimented with the random numbers and with the color speed, I just wasn't sure if there was any logical order to the choices (other than color speed, which I am familiar with from other programs...)

2)  Oh, okay - I was wondering why it saved after every render...  Other image formats would be nice in the future - I look forward to seeing them.

3)  There's a trade-off here between rendering low quality for speed or high quality for clarity.  Even at 800 x 800, a render with a high DoF can take a few minutes on my dual core.  I do think that being able to click on the image to define the focal length for maximum clarity at the place chosen would be a huge step, then all you would have to do is adjust the blur radius.  I don't know how hard that would be to program or how effective it would be, but I think that it could be a cool feature, and one that I haven't seen yet in a 3D fractal program.

I have only been playing with Mandelbulber for a few weeks now, and I know that in a few more months (and LOTS of trial-and-error) I will have a more intuitive grasp of the program, so take all of my comments and suggestions as coming from a newbie...lol..  Thanks, Buddhi!
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jwm-art
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« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2010, 02:59:05 PM »

I use the fog settings to work out a value for the depth of field focus setting. Disable DOF and enable fog with a low visibility (ie 2.0). Then adjust the 'front' so that the fog is visible and the subject you want to focus on is barely peaking out of the fog. Now disable fog and enable depth of field and set the focus to the same value as the fog's front setting.
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