I finished the new 3D model code for Fracton and now I will have more time to post. I did lots of test models while working on the code and I will post some of the better ones. It usually takes me several days to generate a high resolution model and build the web page so I plan to post only about once or twice per week.

This fractal is called Octic_C. It is a z^8 mandelbrot that I used for some deep zooming experiments back when I was working on Fracton's arbitrary precision math for formulas. This fractal has very thin arms that are a challenge to turn into a 3D model. I was going to try to make this a "perfect" model that faithfully followed the fractal but it proved to be too complex for that to be practical. This model accurately follows the fractal iteration bands at the first few iterations but then the arms get too thin to follow. I could have increased the resolution, but the time to generate the model goes up tremendously at higher resolutions. Even with these settings, the model took 93 hours to generate on my old 2.0 GHz 2 core Power PC Mac Pro that I use for really long jobs. The 2D image draws in less than 1 second on the same computer so you can see the extra work that goes into making the model. The model has 1.2 million vertices and 1.8 million faces. The 3D image was rendered in Cheetah 3D. Here is a link to a web page with an image:

I will also list the PAR file here for people collecting them from the mail list:

Octic_C { ; Exported from Fracton.

reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=fracton.frm

formulaname=F_20120728_0913 passes=1 float=y

center-mag=0.2456830297488648/1.076407684405086/25\

4313154220.581/1/10/0

params=0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 maxiter=100 inside=0

colors=000zzzpzzezzWzzLzzBzz0zz0tt0mm0ff0__0TT0MM0\

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X7s_FtcNugVvkbwnjxrryvryv }

frm:F_20120728_0913 {