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Hi folks,
 
what a brilliant site I have stumbled upon! Some of the 'designs' are out of this world.
 
I have been amazed by fractals for many years - and being completely lost and disappointed with ChaosPro circa 2003,
it is only now that I have acquired the PC power and programs by which  to try and create them - especially videos in 3D.
So I'm a newbie++ but with years of admiration.
 
I came to this forum via Youtube Ultra Fractal videos but have since acquired mandelbulb3D and mandelbulber to try and see
what works best for me. (I also have MMFwip3D - which I have not yet tried - but assume is a plug-in for Ultra Fractal{?}).
 
Now I'm well hooked - but the programs can be so infuriating (as well as slow).
 
Creating the formulas is way over my head...yet. There is so much to learn and do...Steep learning curves are one thing but...
it seems, much of the documentation is not yet written, so it is all very much trial and error. This would be fine if the program
(in this case mandelbulb) was consistent - but it can be erratic and even the same files can load differently each time [!] Why?
It can be difficult to get back to a previous condition - and I save various changes as I go - but this does not always help.
 
I already have a wish list of improvements, loads of 'how-to' questions (and gripes) but I don't want to be screaming from my pram
too soon - so I'll keep it short for now.

I guess I have to go elsewhere to start asking questions.

cheers
Kam

Hi and welcome. With respect to use of the 3D fractal programs at the moment the interfaces probably still need some improvement (I think Jesse and Buddhi would both agree) but for 3D that takes an awful lot of work (hence the cost of programs like 3D Studio, Maya etc.) but as far as formulas are concerned unless you're particularly interested in creating your own or improving your own programming skills then I wouldn't worry too much about it and just use those that others have created.
Yes MMFWip3D is a "ufm" formula file for Ultra Fractal though you'll probably find using that even more awkward than Mandelbulber or Mandelbulb3D plus it's not going to be as fast - in both cases because UF itself wasn't really designed with 3D fractals in mind and is more generic than the custom 3D programs (which are hence better optimised).
One thing that will help you get a hang of formulas to use in Jesse and Buddhi's software is to become acquainted with 2D formulas that are effectively counterparts of the 3D ones you try - here I'd recommend using Ultra Fractal for investigation as that gives you access to escape-time IFS in 2D (and 3D) as well as more normal escape-time formulas and has formula mixing options similar to the 3D formula mixing.

The speed issue is why I recommended trying similar formulas in 2D to gain experience of the expected results because they will render considerably faster than any in 3D (unless using a GPU renderer for 3D), and for this you can use an unregistered copy of UF (or indeed just use ChaosPro since many UF formulas work in that too).

That absolutely should never happen!

I hate to attribute it to user error, but that sure sounds like the case here.  If you have *any* files that show this behaviour repeatably, Please post them here.  I am certain Jesse would want to see them so he can figure out what's going on.

As for originality, just look through the galleries here and elsewhere.  You'll see different takes on the same stuff, but nobody ever claims any of it is unoriginal  (unless you take the example formulas and post them with no attempt at alteration whatsoever!).  The key is originality in perspective, coloring, and the like.  There really are only a handful of actual formulas to work with and none of the 3Mandelbulb/box software has an actual formula editor anyhow - so that alone should prove the point   

Have fun, and just find stuffs you enjoy, explore it, and post your results.

Sockratease is absolutely right in saying not to worry about similiarities in works to others as long as it's not a 1:1 copy. Similiarities are are unavoidable in Fractals of any type. it's all in the numbers and nobody owns them.