Mandelbulber is an increasingly popular open source program by the Polish author, which allows for a virtual tour deep into three-dimensional fractals. According to its name, the program allows exploration of fractals such as Mandelbulb, and Mandelbox, BulbBox, JuliaBulb, Menger sponge, and the system of iterated transformations (IFS). Figures rendered by the program can be enlarged indefinitely in the preview window, just like two-dimensional fractals.

But because the figures have 3 dimensions, it is possible to see them from each side, and even "camera entry into their interior", which gives interesting effects especially when creating animations. The program also allows you to modify the ray tracking parameters, light intensity and add volumetric light effects. The material of the figure can be coloured using one of the random gradients, or you can create your own gradient based on graphics, and the material can be given a reflective, luminous appearance, define shadows and activate ambient occlusion on its surface.

You can apply fog and depth of field to the final cut of the renderer. When creating animations, it is also possible to define the speed at which the camera moves between keyframes and the number of frames between them. In order to get to know the details of the program's operation and the possibilities of the parameters, it is worth to look at the user's manual.

It is also worth having a look at the pictures and films created in this program. The author recommends the use of a machine with a multi-core processor, but this is not necessarily the case - on a weaker computer you will simply have to wait longer for the results. The program is installed in the user folder.

In order to move all files to the right place, run the install.bat script. After the script is finished, you can run mandelbulber.exe.