What is the Mandelbulb?

The Mandelbulb is a three-dimensional fractal built by generalising the Mandelbrot iteration into spherical coordinates. Each step raises the radius to the eighth power, multiplies both angles by eight, converts back to Cartesian coordinates and adds the starting point. The result is a lobed, organic-looking solid with infinite surface detail. It was described by Daniel White and Paul Nylander in 2009 after a long search for a convincing 3D Mandelbrot.

How is a 3D fractal rendered in a browser?

By raymarching with a distance estimator. For each pixel a ray is stepped forward, and at every step the estimator returns a safe distance to the nearest surface, so the ray can jump that far without overshooting. Vortexia runs up to 96 steps per pixel with an 8-iteration Mandelbulb estimator, entirely in a WebGL2 fragment shader on your GPU.

What resolution does it render at?

Up to 1080p, and it starts at 720p. The cost is measured rather than guessed: 3.25 ms per frame at 720p and 6.19 ms at 1080p on a real GPU, both well inside the 16.7 ms a 60 fps frame allows. 4K is four times the pixels of 1080p - roughly 25 ms, around 40 fps even on an idle machine - so the 3D engines stop at 1080p while the 2D engines go to 4K on Pro. It defaults to the Balanced setting (720p) because a streamer is also running a game and an encoder; switch to High for 1080p if your GPU has the room.

Does it really react to audio?

Yes, and not merely by pulsing. The 128-bin frequency spectrum is uploaded to the GPU each frame, and the mid band drives the Mandelbulb exponent between roughly 7 and 10. Because the exponent controls the geometry itself, melody visibly re-sculpts the solid rather than just brightening it. Bass shifts the camera elevation and treble affects colour.

The Mandelbulb is a paid engine, included with Plus at $4.99 a month. You can watch it running on this page for free without an account. The free tier includes three of the 2D engines at 720p with a small watermark.

How does it compare to Mandelbulb 3D or Mandelbulber?

Those are offline renderers and they win decisively on image quality, lighting and export. They do not run live in a browser and they do not react to sound. Vortexia is for the case where the fractal has to be moving, on a stream, right now, with no install. A different job, not a better renderer.

AUDIO-REACTIVE VISUAL · UPDATED 2026-08-14

Mandelbulb Visualizer

Name: Vortexia
Author: Vortexia

The 3D Mandelbulb, raymarched live and driven by your music

A real-time, audio-reactive Mandelbulb rendered in your browser on the GPU. No install. Measured at 3.25 ms per frame at 720p. Add it to OBS as one browser source, or watch the mid frequencies re-sculpt the solid as the music moves.

Open the dashboard · Watch it live · All presets · Pricing

What is Mandelbulb Visualizer?

Vortexia renders the Mandelbulb — the best-known three-dimensional analogue of the Mandelbrot set — live in your browser using WebGL2 raymarching, and drives its shape with your music in real time. The Mandelbulb raises a point to the eighth power in spherical coordinates and adds the original position back each iteration, producing a lobed, organic solid rather than a flat escape-time image. Vortexia marches a ray per pixel through a distance estimator every frame, so the camera orbits it continuously and the mid frequencies of your audio push the exponent up and down, visibly re-sculpting the surface as the music moves. Measured on a real GPU it costs 3.25 ms per frame at 720p and 6.19 ms at 1080p, roughly ten times the cost of the 2D engines, so it starts at 720p and goes to 1080p when you choose the High setting: an overlay that steals frames from your game is not worth having, so the trade is yours to make. Desktop tools such as Mandelbulb3D and Mandelbulber render the same mathematics at far higher quality, but offline and without audio reaction. Vortexia is the live, in-browser, sound-driven version. The 3D engines require a paid plan (Plus, $4.99/month); the free tier includes three of the 2D engines at 720p.

How to use Mandelbulb Visualizer

Watch it move. The canvas on this page is the real engine, not a video. Enable audio to let your music drive the shape.
Add it to OBS. With a Plus plan, open the dashboard, pick the Mandelbulb 3D preset, copy your viewer URL and paste it into an OBS Browser Source at 1280x720.
Layer it behind your scene. Place the source under your webcam and game capture so it becomes a living background, then go live.

Specs & output

Engine	Chaos Prime
Render Mode	mandelbulb
Iteration Depth	90
Default Zoom	1.00
Colour Shift	25°
Output (Free)	720p / 30fps + watermark
Output (Plus)	1080p / 60fps, no watermark
Output (Pro)	4K / 60fps, brand-kit logo overlay
Audio Source	Browser tab audio (FFT, real-time)
Last Updated	2026-08-14

Frequently asked questions

What is the Mandelbulb?: The Mandelbulb is a three-dimensional fractal built by generalising the Mandelbrot iteration into spherical coordinates. Each step raises the radius to the eighth power, multiplies both angles by eight, converts back to Cartesian coordinates and adds the starting point. The result is a lobed, organic-looking solid with infinite surface detail. It was described by Daniel White and Paul Nylander in 2009 after a long search for a convincing 3D Mandelbrot.
How is a 3D fractal rendered in a browser?: By raymarching with a distance estimator. For each pixel a ray is stepped forward, and at every step the estimator returns a safe distance to the nearest surface, so the ray can jump that far without overshooting. Vortexia runs up to 96 steps per pixel with an 8-iteration Mandelbulb estimator, entirely in a WebGL2 fragment shader on your GPU.
What resolution does it render at?: Up to 1080p, and it starts at 720p. The cost is measured rather than guessed: 3.25 ms per frame at 720p and 6.19 ms at 1080p on a real GPU, both well inside the 16.7 ms a 60 fps frame allows. 4K is four times the pixels of 1080p - roughly 25 ms, around 40 fps even on an idle machine - so the 3D engines stop at 1080p while the 2D engines go to 4K on Pro. It defaults to the Balanced setting (720p) because a streamer is also running a game and an encoder; switch to High for 1080p if your GPU has the room.
Does it really react to audio?: Yes, and not merely by pulsing. The 128-bin frequency spectrum is uploaded to the GPU each frame, and the mid band drives the Mandelbulb exponent between roughly 7 and 10. Because the exponent controls the geometry itself, melody visibly re-sculpts the solid rather than just brightening it. Bass shifts the camera elevation and treble affects colour.
Is it free?: The Mandelbulb is a paid engine, included with Plus at $4.99 a month. You can watch it running on this page for free without an account. The free tier includes three of the 2D engines at 720p with a small watermark.
How does it compare to Mandelbulb 3D or Mandelbulber?: Those are offline renderers and they win decisively on image quality, lighting and export. They do not run live in a browser and they do not react to sound. Vortexia is for the case where the fractal has to be moving, on a stream, right now, with no install. A different job, not a better renderer.

About the author

The Vortexia team — Makers of the Vortexia engine.

The Vortexia team builds a browser-based, GPU-accelerated audio-reactive visual engine used by streamers and DJs on Twitch, Kick, YouTube Live and TikTok Live.