Difficulties with Mandelbulber

[MarkJayBee]

Hi all,

I've recently begun exploring Mandelbulber. Having had only a couple of weeks
experience in producing fractal artwork, I'm still very much feeling my way, but
have managed to produce a few pieces using Apophysis, ChaosPro and Mandelbulb 3D.
I must point out that I am in no way a mathematician - so any complex
technical language will go waaaay over my simple, old fashioned painter's head!

My problem is fine control of image colour choice, and accuracy of navigation
around and through Tglad's Mandelbox in Mandelbulber, which I am finding very
hit or miss. The lack of any kind of help facility is really making my progress painfully slow.

Any advice from you old 'fract-hands' out there would gratefully received....  

[knighty]

Currently, choosing the good color is not obvious. Fortunately, since the 0.42 version, changing the coloring is much faster because it doesn't require to re-render the fractal. Maybe, buddhi will add a palette editor in the next releases.

To navigate more easily, You can use (very) low resolution, deactivate postprocessing features...etc in order to get the fastest rendering speed.

Hope this will help.

[MarkJayBee]

Hi knighty,

Thanks for the info. Looks like I'll just have to wait and see what Buddhi comes up with in the next
version. Meantime I suppose I'll have to keep fiddling around with the random colour settings until I
hit a combination I'm reasonably happy with!  A palette editor would be heaven - hope you get around
to reading this Buddhi?!

Why didn't I think about the scaling thing? Of course - the lower the resolution, the quicker the preview
will refresh - that'll help speed things up a bit. 
Still getting disoriented 'inside' that thing, mind you - it's like poking around in an infinite scrapyard - great
fun though!!

[MarkJayBee]

Wow! Buddhi must've been reading this, he has updated Mandelbulber to v 0.43,
and included new, and better, navigation tools! The camera can now be moved
independently, amongst many other improvements!
Just need a little more control over colour, and it'll be almost perfect!! 

[Buddhi]

Hi

I haven't read this posts before releasing version 0.43 Trifox sent to me suggestion about camera moving in all directions.
About palette editor I'm thinking about this. I'm sure that I will add some tools to edit colours, but believe me that building of GUI and interfacing it take lots of time. I have many things to improve. Now I'm focusing on improvement of light source effects. Position and colour of light will be adjustable and it will be possible to add more than one light source.
Please remember that this is my first really big application. I'm not professional programmer and have to learn a lot about Linux, GTK+, 3D graphics and fractals. Everything takes me much time.

Short history of Mandelbulber:

July 11, 2009

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=725

August 22, 2009

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=870

October 19, 2009

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1000

October 31, 2009

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1029

December 01, 2009

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1116

December 30, 2009

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1240

February 14, 2010

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1624

April 11, 2010

http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=2060

[MarkJayBee]

Hi Buddhi,

I was of course being a little flippant when I said 'Buddhi must have read this'!!
Brilliantly fortuitous coincidence though, or perhaps serendipity - if you believe
in such things! 

The application does what it should, and any improvements you choose to make
to future versions will be a bonus. The addition of multiple light sources would be
a very useful new feature - I've been trying to figure out how you achieve the
'backlighting' effect in some of your pieces, and assumed a very bright exterior
ambient light setting was the source.

I'll certainly be keeping my eyes and ears open for news of further developments
to what is an excellent piece of software. 

Appreciated the brief history too....

[MarkJayBee]

Oh dear, it's me - yet again. 
Sorry to say that after installing Mandelbulber 0.85 win32 this morning, it doesn't
want to run.
I've run 'install.bat' as per normal, but on starting mandelbuber.exe,
I immediately get 'mandelbulber.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close'.
Did notice that the '.mandelbulber' folder stays within the program folder now,
as opposed to being hidden in 'docs and settings'. Tried moving it there, but
no change alas.
Hope I'm just missing something obvious!
Any help or advice would be much appreciated....

[Buddhi]

Hmmmm...... I have just tested this program on four different computers and it works without any problems. For sure I have used exactly the same ZIP package which I uploaded into sourceforge.net. Of course I want to help you to run Mandelbulber on your computer. You have to make some tests for me.
- please delete .mandelbulber folder form "Documents and Settings\UserName\" folder (make backup first)
- run install.bat script and check if ".mandelbulber" folder exists in "Documents and Settings\UserName\" directory and all files inside are present
- run mandelbulber
- if program still doesn't work please run program from cmd.exe. First go to directory (cd) with mandelbulber.exe file and run program just by typing "mandelbulber.exe". Please copy messages (or make screenshoot) and send to me.

I need also some additional information about your computer and system:
- what CPU do you have (full name, for example: Intel Core 2 Quad 8200)
- what operating system are you using (XP, Vista, 32 or 64 bit?)

I hope we find some solution

[MarkJayBee]

Hi Buddhi, sorry about delay.
Thanks for your quick response and suggestions.
Tried all you suggested, but no joy I'm afraid.
As requested, find screenshot attached.

Basic spec:
Windows XP SP3
AMD Sempron 3000+
2.02GHz 1.00GB of RAM

[Buddhi]

It looks not so good. I have tested this program on machines only with Intel CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad, Intel Mobile). I have to find some PC with AMD. I will prepare for you program compiled without any optimalization flags. Maybe some instructions are not compatible with AMD CPUs (for example SSE2 instructions).
I saw your screenshoot but there is no the most important information. I have asked you to run the program from the console (commandline - cmd.exe) and make screenshoot (or text dump) with console output. Then I will know when program hangs (I will see the last message from program)

[cbuchner1]

Basic spec:
Windows XP SP3
AMD Sempron 3000+
2.02GHz 1.00GB of RAM

This AMD processor does not support SSE2. It's kind of antique.

[MarkJayBee]

Hi Buddhi,
I tried to run the program from the cmd.exe, but only got the same message as in screenshot,
with no further info.
It does look as if my 'antiquated' AMD processor is just not up to the task.
However, as I'm not particularly into animation or using sound in my pieces, this
is not such a big deal.
I'm just thinking of future versions where you will no doubt have incorporated a feature
which I would find useful. I will no longer be able use the program, and
alas, at present I'm not in a position to go out and upgrade my machine! 

Looks like I'll just be sticking with v0.80 for the foreseeable future then!
Really appreciate your efforts though Buddhi, thanks   

[Buddhi]

@MarkJayBee, please try version 0.90. It should work better on AMD processor. I have changed a little hardware profile in GCC compiler. Program was tested on my old laptop and works without any problems (version 0.85 hangs on all trigonometric formulas on this PC)

[MarkJayBee]

@Buddhi,
Excellent! 
Works absolutely fine now, can't thank you enough Buddhi!
Just have to get used to all the new features now! 

[Buddhi]

Are you sure whether it was rendered using Mandelbulber? I think it will be better when you put this post there: http://www.fractalforums.com/mandelbulb-3d/