Mandelcraft

MandelCraft is not a game but a program for creative people who prefer to create and explore new things, rather than just run and shoot at everything that moves. The program was developed to explore a little-studied area of ​​mathematics—three-dimensional fractals. There are no rules for them, and the theory is undeveloped. Currently, creating such worlds is more a combination of art and luck.

Although 3D fractals are a very complex area of ​​mathematics, with MandelCraft you don't need mathematical knowledge or programming skills. You can create your own mathematical worlds (no less real than our physical world) simply by constructing their structure from pre-built blocks. It's like DNA: a relatively simple structure contains the recipe for building a very complex organism, and small changes to the DNA lead to completely different results. Likewise, small changes to block parameters or the addition of a new cube transform the fractal beyond recognition.

After creating a fractal world, you can navigate it at 30 frames per second—a speed completely unachievable using traditional methods for calculating fractals of such complexity. You can take photos and save your favorite images in high resolution. The PRO version also lets you animate fractals and record videos of your travels. Since MandelCraft is an open-source project, you can see the entire fractal generation process from the inside and even add your own features.

I don't think any other game puts as much strain on your graphics card as MandelCraft, so it's also a great tool for testing your hardware's capabilities. Just keep an eye on your GPU temperature!

Warning: Since fractal generation is entirely GPU-based and places a higher load on the graphics card than any other game, Nvidia drivers mistake its work for cryptocurrency mining, and enablie LHR mode. This results in a performance drop of approximately 3-4 times on cards that support LHR, such as the 3080 TI.