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Technical white paper

The Tech in the App

A rigorous look at the rendering architecture, numerical model, color pipeline, and validation behind Mandelbrot Metal 3.

Version 3 is hereMandelbrot Metal 3 is available for iPhone and iPad. Explore free with the Infinity Engine and all 156 built-in palettes; choose Pro for expanded creative tools and output. Requires iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later.

Technical snapshot: September 24, 2026. Revision 19 documents the inspected Version 3.0.1 build 591 source and separates implemented behavior from historical tests and future plans. See the current detailed roadmap for the 3.1–3.6 plan and a possible native Mac direction.

Read the technical white paper

Revision 19 · 38 pages · Version 3.0.1 build 591 · September 24, 2026

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01

Read the complete architecture

Revision 19 connects the product to its implementation: complex dynamics, precise viewport mapping, double-double references, Float/quad-single perturbation, recovery, smooth coloring, two-pass relief, supersampling, progressive presentation, and complete PNG export.

Worked examples distinguish representable scale from resolved detail. The memory discussion explains why tiled export still needs full-image storage. This revision also clarifies on-device rendering, the distinction between previews and completed images, and the limits of the public precision path.

02

Understand color and saved work

The palette chapters distinguish source stops, 256/1,024-texel lookup textures, Exact import, Exact LUT, and the color-management boundary. State chapters cover the 56 included starter bookmarks, preservation of saved work during upgrades, Free personal-bookmark limits, portable JSON sharing, custom-palette transfer, history, localized help, and verified Legacy Pro restoration.

03

Know what the evidence establishes

The paper separates the September 24 build 591 source inspection from earlier test results: 114 tests in 14 suites, followed by 127 tests in 15 suites on each of the iPhone and iPad simulators on September 17. Physical-device benchmarks remain attributed to build 548 and its measured scenes. These historical results are not new measurements of build 591 or evidence of its App Store availability.

The public Version 3 navigation boundary remains 10²⁵ points per complex-plane unit. The paper explains the roles and limits of fixed-capacity coordinate storage, CPU reference arithmetic, and GPU pixel evaluation, and provides an implementation map and platform references.