!header Kaleidoscopic IFS Fractals !begin-text-block In 2010, as graphics cards were becoming commonplace, a user on FractalForums posted something that would quickly become famous. Called Kaleidoscopic IFS (iterated function system) fractals, they generalize the Sierpinski tetrahedron to the rest of the platonic solids and add rotation and scaling to create truly fascinating objects. As interesting as the fractals is the technique used to render them — raymarching, an seldom-seen algorithm that’s ideal for this purpose. It’s not hard to implement, makes detailed images, and runs fast enough to render in real time. If you find yourself interested in creating 3D fractals, researching raymarching is the place to start. Drag on the scene to look around. On a keyboard, use WASD to move, and on a touchscreen, hold with two fingers to move forward and three to move back. !wilson !end-text-block
!begin-dropdown polyhedron-selector tetrahedron Tetrahedron cube Cube octahedron Octahedron !end-dropdown !begin-text-boxes resolution 500 Resolution rotation-angle-x-1 0 $$\theta_x$$ rotation-angle-y-1 0 $$\theta_y$$ rotation-angle-z-1 0 $$\theta_z$$ rotation-angle-x-2 0 $$\phi_x$$ rotation-angle-y-2 0 $$\phi_y$$ rotation-angle-z-2 0 $$\phi_z$$ !end-text-boxes !begin-text-buttons randomize-parameters Randomize Parameters !end-text-buttons
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