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gannjondal — Basic Intro Mb3D Formula Editor and JIT Compiler
#m3d #mb3d #mandelbulb3d #v190
Published: 2016-01-07 21:24:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 8485; Favourites: 53; Downloads: 512
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Description
To all Mandelbulb3D friends.Most probably you have heard that has announced a X-mas gift.
Since the original programmer Jesse had stopped the development there was a larger gap in development of our favorite tool - until Andreas alias thargor6 decided to step in as main developer, and until Jesse decided to move the program to open source.
Now, after several months of work Andreas has uploaded the ready made binaries of Mandelbulb3D v190 to the download page on Fractal Forums - at December-24th.
Again - Andreas & Team - Thank you very much for your work. I think it will bring really fresh life into the MB3D community.
The version step sounds small, and yes, you can work with MB3D v190 as you have worked before.
But besides the introduction of GUI theming there are a number of new major features which are listed at download page on Fractal Forums , or at Andreas' homepage entry .
I want to provide a basic tutorial of one of those new features - the just-in-time formula compiler, and the related formula editor.
It does NOT talk about triplex maths, or about theory of dynamic systems. No fear
The tutorial just describes my first experiences using those new features. It provides steps, and screenshots which should allow you to create an own formula.
Note on performance:
Please note that formulas written for the JIT compile *are* slower than the original hand made machine code formulas from Jesse, Luca, M.Benesi etc.
But I have tested them on a medium sized PC (which had a i5-4440). At least simple formulas like that I have used in the tutorial are not much slower than usual.
As of now I have seen two things which can be MUCH slower: Choosing DEAO as Ambient shadow, and calculating inside renders.
Please tell if you should have any difficulties to download / read the tutorial, or if you have any questions about the content!
I have uploaded a pdf, but the original is a odf (as used by Open/Libre Office etc). Therefore I can try to transform its into another format if needed.
Also: Please feel free to share your own experiences.
If you are interested in more background on MB3D, or even the theory behind you may start at the forum's MB3D program child board , or its mandelbulb theory child board .
Further related pages:
- JIT Formula Pack and Samples 1 - Basics - First part of a resource with JIT formulas, and parameters
- JIT Formula Pack and Samples 2 (of 2) - Second part of a resource with JIT formulas, and parameters
Have fun, and create many unusal pictures
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Update note [2015-02-23] : A bit more on reformatting. That will be the final version for now
Update note [2015-01-09] : Have restructured the document so that it does better show the actual workflow. I hope that it makes the usage easier.
Update note [2015-01-08] : I have uploaded a slightly changed version of the pdf. No major changes; have mainly corrected errors, and reformatted the document.
Related content
Comments: 74
Hello All, would like to get some help please with programming, this fractal: (z^pi)-(z/z^pi)+...(z^pi)-(z/z^pi)+... i was trying this software: Mandelbulb 3D but i could not do it because i do not know programming, Thank You
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When I use the JIT formulas in M3D they are a bit slower to compute in the Main View. But that's alright.
But when I use them in the Navigator, they are incredibly slow. No intuitive interaction at all anymore.
Did anybody else notice this?
Seems they are not neatly implemented in the Navigator yet?
Great Job though. Thanks!
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Thank you +Danke for your kind comment, Adrian
Regarding the performance in the performance:
Usually (for me) the performance is ok in the navigator for the most JIT formulas as well.
Two pitfalls however:
- If using JITs: The longer a M3D instance is actively used the longer it needs until the calculation starts.
This effect is specifically strong if you are using the navigator window heavily - and if you are using a CPU with many cores/threads.
It seams to be related to a memory leak.
--> It is to be recommended to restart the MB3D instance from time to time if using JITs
- For some JIT formulas everything is slow if MB3D thinks that the background needs to be calculated.
--> If it's slow: Try to reduce the 'Far plane' in the navigator (e.g. to values of 10 or less - experimenting is needed), respective the 'Z end' in the 'Position' section of the main window.
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Ooooooo
This brings up opportunities for people sharing formulas and playing around and all that nice stuff.
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Thank you very much!
I hope it will become useful in any way
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Wish I had run into this sooner!
Great job! Well done, G!
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Oops. I thought you had seen it before.
You are of course very welcome
By the way: You also may check this journal for more references (not just to my work).
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Thank you so much. These resources will be very useful. I scanned the list already and like what I see.
I am sure that I will make a good fauxpas soon. This is development. I have a strange ability to find bugs and break things.
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Oh, errors can help to find some insight - or to create something new
You are very welcome!
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In the olden days we said:
"If it is a bad run, then it was a test." 
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I wondered what jit compiling was.
This should make very interesting reading!
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You are right, the term 'JIT' (just in time) is maybe a bit developer speach.
I see that also me did not explain quite well in the headlines what it means.
On the other end - Your have much experience in UF.
And with this feature you can exactly do what could do in UF all the time - writing your own formulas.
The current feature has by far not as many possibilities as in UF, but it's at least a begin.
Thus - if you are interested, just read. I hope it's written understandable enough...
And of course - Thank you for your kind comment
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You credit me with more knowledge than I have
The last time I tried programming was back in the 80's when everything was written in basic lol!
But thank you for this anyway
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Oh, I darkly remember those times
I guess UF 'programming' is not more difficult than good old Basic. No patterns, objects...
You're welcome!
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Well, I know nothing about writing formulas and programming but...I'll try something. At least this will make me understand this software a little more.
Thank you!!
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I guess there is no real need to understand of programming, or higher mathematics to use this feature (although it may help to get something completely new).
Well, maybe it would help if one does not fall into daze if there's some 'x=a+b' on the screen
Just try it. And if you don't like it - there are already enough formulas around!
And of course: Thank you!
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I'm already trying...hope to get something!!
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is it posssible to make difs transforme formulas ?
like apollo2D DIF
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Hi Eric.
The only thing I have read is that you need to add DEOption = 20 to the 'Options' section of the formula editor (respective .DEOption at the begin of the .m3f file).
This will move the formula entry to the 'dIFS' tabs of the 'Formulas' window.
However, I'm quite sure that this is not enough. - And I have no idea whether this possibility is already implemented in the current version.
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thx for your interet but
DEOPTION=20 can't be complie (error)
I don't know hpw to make difs fractal or difs transforms !!!
I don't that the solution is as esay as that is must be much much hatdest !!!!!!!!
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Thank you for your kind comment.
I'm curious about any result which may come up
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It tells me to check in the "Ini-dir" formula missing.
"JITtestingFormula formula is missing! (Check Ini-dir for formulas)"
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Hmm, I'm not the programmer; therefore I don't know under which circumstances this error is thrown.
Also I never received the error.
Probably it would be indeed most useful to start to check the formula directory under Prefs->Ini Dirs on whether you can write at this directory etc.
If that should be ok - a restart of the program is always a good idea.
If all that should not help i guess you need to check with the community or/and the developer(s)
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I'll try that. Hopefully it'll work.
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Thank you!! I have been enjoying the new version much better than the previous.
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You are welcome, Bronwyn, and thank you for your comment
Yeah, the new version is a great new toy
But you are right, the new features give us more options to explore...
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Thanks for this tutorial, this is really well explained! I found your remark regarding to use of pointers funny, oh yes, this is really ancient, but this was the reason to hide this code behind a preprocessor
Cheers!
Andreas
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Seams that you have read the tut thoroughly - that you have found just that loosening up
Your explanation sounds like a clever solution in designing such an editor. -
People with more interest in programming can work with a plain text editor, and people with more interest in maths (or just in mutating around existing formulas) can use the editor.
I'm curious how far this feature (and the others) will be actually adopted by the community.
I'm glad to hear that you found it readable, and did not claim that I write stupid nonsense
Danke dir, Andreas!
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You are most welcome, Barbara
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using your'e Tutorial it is just a screen shot for now I Made My Very first JIT formula MB3D v1.90
but I done it thanks so Much.
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Thank you wery much for your mention!
I see I can learn from you how to make really short (but nevertheless helpful) tutorials! -- I always write too much text
And yes, I'm curious about your first pictures
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well I sat up all night playing with it I figured I would just fail
at this a dn at least I could say I tried it once
I played with the formula some this morning but I add a couple
of other formulas with it and I crashed the thing but will try and work with it
again I think I was just tired from being up all night
But yes a simple Tutorials to follow if I can follow it it is very good
I am not very good at things like this but I think many can learn a lot from this works of your'es
it is Amazing and I will try and play with it some more in awhile so I can see what I can find and maybe try one
on my own soon I am still kinda confused of them x,y,z, and just where and when to use them
I will re- read the Tut to figure out again I am not that smart when it comes to codes but want to keep trying
this has been so exciting and can't wait to do some more.
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So far I see you have solved your issue meanwhile.
I wish you much luck in further creation of formulas, and finally pictures
Further on I have mainly replied to your recent note.
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Oh, I haven't done much!
But you are right, the new feature(s) give us really many more possibilities!
Thank you for your kind comment
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Mutator and custom formulas! Yes!yes!yes!
This is a very promising playground!
Downloaded it right away and got it running on a Mavericks Mac using Wine
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Yeah, that's really a great and promising feature!
I don't know how long I have waited for such a quite simple possibility to create custom formulas without the need to code opencl, glsl, or machine code
But don't forget your own great 3D objects - things like this cannot be done with MB3D & Co. yet
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Thank you!
Actually MB3D already handles some of the basic shapes as DIF formulas (Gyroid, Knot)
Let's see what's next
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Yeah, I know.
I'm mainly addicted by the possibilities of big 3D programs to vary the surface, and the lightning.
I know there is a possibility to cross the borders between M3D and the adult 3D surface to a certain extent; maybe I will check that path one day
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Btw, I'm currently working exactly on that, but nothing to say more, yet
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