Mandelbrot Metal News

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Mandelbrot Metal 1.2.2 adds four new 768-step Ultra-Wide palettes: Abstract [UW], Bookstore [UW], Cambria [UW], and Jupiter [UW]. Each delivers smoother gradients and richer detail for deep-zoom renders. Update now to explore the new looks.

Finding the perfect palette just got a whole lot easier in our fractal exploration app, Mandelbrot Metal. 

Version 1.2 introduces Smart Filtering to the Palette Library Picker, allowing you to quickly narrow your view by All, Ultra-Wide, or Custom. It’s now much faster to jump to exactly what you need — especially as your collection grows within the community portal.

This update also includes several UI refinements and fixes for gradient imports from photos.

Explore the update in Mandelbrot Metal → Palettes and enjoy a smoother, more organized workflow.

Mandelbrot Metal v1.1.3 introduces four new Ultra-Wide 768-step palettes, further enhancing the creative spectrum for users of this fractal exploration app: 

Lake [UW] – soft gradients of blues and earth tones evoking still water at mid-day.

Marquis [UW] – luminous tones of blues, reds, oranges, tans, and greens with refined contrast.

Pedal Board [UW] – bold color bands inspired by guitar pedals arranged on a pedal board.

Spectrum [UW] – a vivid, continuous sweep through the full visible range.

With these additions, Mandelbrot Metal now offers 136 curated palettes, including 36 Ultra-Wide [UW] options — each providing unparalleled smoothness, depth, and precision for your fractal creations. 

Explore them all in Version 1.1.3 through our community portal — available now on the App Store.

A first look at the upcoming Mandelbrot Metal Community Portal is now live — a new platform where users can share, explore, and exchange fractal bookmarks and color palettes through our fractal exploration app. 

Users of Mandelbrot Metal version 1.1+ can now download some of our favorite bookmarks and palettes directly from the preview page and import them into the app to explore, customize, and share their own variations.

The community portal will soon expand to include user uploads, searchable galleries, and curated collections from top contributors — creating a vibrant space for creativity and collaboration.

Community Portal Roadmap:

• Phase 1 (Preview): Public showcase of shared examples and downloadable favorites

• Phase 2: User uploads, search, and filtering by tags, depth, and author

• Phase 3: Full in-app sharing integration and personalized collections

This is the next step in Mandelbrot Metal’s mission to blend art, math, and community — empowering users to explore infinity together.

👉 Visit the preview and follow the roadmap for updates.

Mandelbrot Metal, the leading fractal exploration app developed by Michael Stebel, today announces a significant update with built-in sharing support for bookmarks and palettes. This enhancement allows users to easily export, import, and exchange their fractal creations across devices and with others.

With this update, users can export individual or all bookmarks and palettes through AirDrop, Mail, Messages, or Files. The shared files include comprehensive rendering parameters (coordinates, zoom, precision, palette, etc.) to help reproduce the exact view.

All exports are fully compatible across iPhone and iPad, and the import process is streamlined within the "Manage Bookmarks / Manage Palettes" interface.

Looking ahead, the Mandelbrot Metal team plans to launch a community portal where users can browse, upload, and download others’ bookmarks and palettes, creating a global gallery of fractal art.

This sharing update not only enhances Mandelbrot Metal’s functionality as a personal explorer but also positions it as a social and collaborative canvas for fractal enthusiasts.

A third-party code review has been published on this community portal. Here are the conclusions in the report:

Conclusion

This is exemplary scientific computing code that successfully bridges numerical analysis, GPU optimization, and UX design. The multi-precision strategy is textbook-correct, the progressive refinement system is production-ready, and the attention to edge cases demonstrates mature engineering. With minor optimizations around shader specialization and lighting, this renderer could serve as a strong reference implementation for a fractal exploration app, particularly in the context of interactive Mandelbrot Metal rendering.

Recommended for: Academic publication, technical blog series, or inclusion in graphics programming coursework.

Key Differentiators:

- Hybrid CPU/GPU precision cascade (rare in real-time renderers)

- Perturbation theory with Taylor acceleration on GPU

- Production-quality tile-based progressive rendering

- Thoughtful UX engineering (SSAA hysteresis, auto-iterations)

Review Date: October 14, 2025

Reviewer Context: Production graphics engineering background, numerical methods expertise

Mandelbrot Metal, the high-performance fractal exploration app from independent developer Michael Stebel, made its debut today on the App Store, quickly climbing into the Top 30 in the Graphics & Design category. 

Combining Apple’s Metal GPU framework with a deeply optimized SwiftUI interface, Mandelbrot Metal provides users with real-time exploration of the infinite Mandelbrot set, showcasing stunning color, precision, and depth. 

The app’s strong early ranking on the community portal highlights the growing demand for immersive creative and scientific visualization tools on iPhone and iPad.

Mandelbrot Metal is officially live on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, offering an immersive fractal exploration app. Dive into the Mandelbrot set in real time with Metal-accelerated rendering, ultra-deep zooming, and over 125 curated color palettes — including the new Ultra-Wide 768-step gradients for unmatched smoothness. 

Version 1.0 features GPU-accelerated precision, bookmark saving, photo-based palette import, and the innovative 3D Look mode that simulates lighting and surface depth across the fractal’s landscape. 

Experience the full graphics and compute power of Apple Silicon in this community portal and explore infinity with real-time speed and clarity.

We re-engineered Deep Mode Rendering within our fractal exploration app to leverage all available cores on Apple Silicon. By executing tiles in parallel across multiple cores, Deep Mode now renders in real time—tile-by-tile—instead of waiting for the full image to complete. The result? Up to 15× faster performance and over 90% shorter wait times when exploring ultra-deep zooms in our community portal. Every core now contributes simultaneously, so even the highest magnification Mandelbrot Metal fractal renders dramatically faster while still updating smoothly on screen.

Although this was on our roadmap for next year, we decided that it was too cool a feature not to try to get into the first release of our fractal exploration app. The 3D Look mode adds depth and realism with surface shading that brings fractals to life — revealing contours, highlights, and texture, making it an exciting addition to our community portal and showcasing features like Mandelbrot Metal.

Four more Ultra-Wide 768-step palettes have been added to the community portal's palette library. These new additions include Dresses [UW], Guitar Player [UW], Hurst Pool [UW], and Sea Shells [UW]. This expansion brings the total number of built-in curated palettes to 126, enhancing your experience with our fractal exploration app. To view the complete list of palettes, including the popular Mandelbrot Metal, visit the palettes page.

Mandelbrot Metal, now approved by Apple, is available for pre-order on the community portal. The official release of this exciting fractal exploration app is set for October 13, 2025.

Mandelbrot Metal, a leading fractal exploration app, now features over 120 palettes. Among these are more than 20 Ultra-Wide palettes, which utilize 768 color steps for ultra-smooth gradients. These Ultra-Wide palettes are marked with “[UW]” on our community portal.

The beta test for our fractal exploration app has been going well. Thank you for your feedback — it’s helping us refine performance and polish the UI across iPhone and iPad, enhancing our community portal and the Mandelbrot Metal experience.

The external beta test for the fractal exploration app is now underway. If you'd like to participate and explore the Mandelbrot Metal features, please visit the community portal and sign up for the beta test.

The Mandelbrot Pro White Paper is now available on our community portal, offering insights into the fractal exploration app and the innovative Mandelbrot Metal.

We added the first 60 palettes to the palette library, including Hypernova, Acid Dream, Miami Lights, and many more colorful gradients. These will enhance your experience in our fractal exploration app. More palettes will be added before release, contributing to the vibrant community portal where users can explore creations like Mandelbrot Metal.

Internal testing has begun for the first version of the fractal exploration app, which will serve as a key feature of the community portal, including access to Mandelbrot Metal.

Mandelbrot Metal has begun development, including a community portal for users. Additionally, a white paper is being crafted, and a website is being built to support the upcoming fractal exploration app.