Mandelbrot whirlwind

[Timeroot]

Okay, I finally learned how to write code for Ultra Fractal. You can find a pretty general group of formulas for the ones mentioned here under ahm.ufm.  Is it possible to make 3D fractals in Ultra Fractal?

[David Makin]

Yes

Here's my currently released wip 3D formula (old-style ufm type):

http://www.fractalgallery.co.uk/MMFwip3D.zip

If you'd prefer to use UF 5's class based coding then check out Ron Barnett's ray-tracer formulas in the "reb.*" formulas/library.

I will be releasing an update to my wip 3D formula either today or tomorrow.

I should add that you can do (escape-time) 3D IFS too - see mmf4.ufm:3D IFS

[Timeroot]

I'm sorry, I can't seem to get any of the 3D fractals to work. I tried the reb formulas and the mmf formulas, changing the color formulas appropriately. If it's 3D, I seem to always get either a blue, black, or transparent screen, with the exception of the reb "3D Fractal Raytrace". And I always let the image finish calcuating. ...help?

[David Makin]

I'm sorry, I can't seem to get any of the 3D fractals to work. I tried the reb formulas and the mmf formulas, changing the color formulas appropriately. If it's 3D, I seem to always get either a blue, black, or transparent screen, with the exception of the reb "3D Fractal Raytrace". And I always let the image finish calcuating. ...help?

For my formula that I posted the link to then you shouild use mmf4.ucl:3D colouring direct as the *inside* colouring.
I'm not sure about Ron's formulas, I haven't used them for a while.

[Timeroot]

Hmm, now it works. I hadn't even changed anything. ...were the "alien overlords" passing overheard before, disrupting my computer? Must've been. Hmph.

Anyway, I guess you can't create 3D fractals in UF very easily then? I guess that's one advantage ChaosPro has over UF: If you write out your formula in terms of quaternions, it can handle the 3D slicing and projection for you. Ah well. I tried looking through your WIP, but I could only make a toe of it. No head nor tail. 

[David Makin]

Hmm, now it works. I hadn't even changed anything. ...were the "alien overlords" passing overheard before, disrupting my computer? Must've been. Hmph.

Anyway, I guess you can't create 3D fractals in UF very easily then? I guess that's one advantage ChaosPro has over UF: If you write out your formula in terms of quaternions, it can handle the 3D slicing and projection for you. Ah well. I tried looking through your WIP, but I could only make a toe of it. No head nor tail.  

My formulas aren't known for their ease of reading (including by me) - I have a strong tendency to optimise rather than write for clarity - including what doesn't really need optimising - also I tend to omit comments

Basically the global: sets up all the variables that are fixed for the entire render such as the view transformation, the light source array data etc.
Then the int: section is where the ray-tracing takes place.
The loop: section simply sends the required data to the colouring that's required to render the fractal.

UF gives you your 2D coords on a rectangle as #pixel and I basically use this rectangle as an image plane which is at a user specified distance from the user specified target and at user specified angles - the viewpoint being a user specified distance further from the target through the centre of the image plane.
So in the init: section the #pixel value is transformed to give our direction vector for the ray through the current pixel then we simply ray-trace from where this ray crosses the user specified front clipping plane.
The ray-tracing loop actually operates in up to 6 different states - calculate at current step on ray, calculate at current step+delta and calculate (at one step position only but maybe at step and at step+delta) for each of the 4 adjacent rays (for getting the normal at the found solid).

I hope that helps