Voxel based Mandelbulb in POV-Ray (JF002)

POV-Ray rendering of a 1024x1024x1024 voxel computation of the standard 8th power mandelbulb, as seen here: http://www.skytopia.com/project/fractal/mandelbulb.html

Rendered in 640x480, 24 FPS, using a combination of ray tracing (using two light sources) and radiosity.

Aesthetically, this doesn't really surpass existing videos. The fractal structure is not immediately apparent due to the relatively low voxel resolution. For me, this was more of an "I must climb it because it is there" idea. ;)

To see a way better, truly breathtaking mandelbulb rendering, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKUh4nkmQbc for the work of Iñigo Quílez. Also, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFr-cEEb8y0 where Cyril Crassin does this in real time (!) using CUDA.

This video is released under CC-BY-SA 3.0: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• povray
• voxel
• mandelbulb
• fractal

[d3tach3d]

I made one of those using the shovel in minecraft. ;)

[pathfinderTV1]

the future of gaming? I think so! The resolution will improve with time. Atom based solutions for 3d graphics is the future for unlimited detail. Polygons is not! :)

[bonkswa]

these are just blocks?

[Craft4D]

@pathfinderTV1 The thing about this is that when objects are clones of each-other you can get near countless numbers on the screen at a time. But if you get to many different objects it lags drastically. Currently you can't get anywhere near the quality of many games that are considered to have old graphics. For this to be the future of gaming a lot of work will have to be done. Look forward to it in 20 years, but by then poly count will likely be a irrelevant factor anyways.

[MegaAbolahab]

Wooow

[gunslingerspartan]

@pathfinderTV1 I'm on a game design course, and I, my tutors and my peers all disagree,(at least in our lifetime? can you imagine rendering 100+ of these, with proper skins and environment/monsters without being back to sqr 1 with roam-able 3d worlds, loading whenever a corner is tuned, I think edvntually it is going to be a blend of the two, smaller and smaller polygons but never single pixel polygons / voxels

[orlin258]

@pathfinderTV1 what about minecraft? it is the only voxel game i know and its laggish and render distance sucks, polygon rendering is much better, and detail is limited, so as detail of the work we lived in

[ERTLPFM]

@pathfinderTV1 Unlimited detail is not the future, Atomontage is

[Tannz0rz]

@Fuffzehn This, some people watch videos about "atom-based engines" and seem to believe it's something entirely different from what we have now. Those people mentioned also fail to understand what they're talking about.

[demonwx10]

This technology has existed ever since the 90's

[Fuffzehn]

@pathfinderTV1 And you don't know that Unlimited Detail is a fake.

[Seyhk]

@sorcyclone Already confirmed that's not scam.