Public beta: Ultra Fractal for Apple Silicon Macs

Hi everyone,

The last year I've been hard at work to update Ultra Fractal to run natively on the new Apple Silicon Macs. That was not an easy task because the internal formula compiler outputs JIT-compiled native code so it needed to be partially rewritten specially for the new ARM processors. I'm very happy to announce that it's ready for a public beta test now! If you own an Apple Silicon Mac, please download and try this version, and let me know (here or via email) about any problems.

https://www.ultrafractal.com/download/uf606-arm-test-3.dmg

Thanks for testing!

Anyone? Would be great to have some feedback from Mac users with Apple Silicon Macs!

Oh, very cool! I'll definitely have a look! Thanks for the effort and for letting me know. 🤗

Hi Frederik, thank you so much for realizing this beta! I’m new to testing so please forgive. Currently rendering the same 4K animation on the trusty quad i7 2014 MacBook Pro and the new M1 Max MacBook Pro. Before this version, UF on Apple silicon has been unusable. While waiting on results, things are looking promising for the M1. I’ll include log files for each render when they finish. I just wanted to give love on this thread since it seems quiet. Not sure what metrics to test or how you would like to see findings so I’m open to feedback. Thanks again!

Here are the results from the test render:

M1 Max:

i7 quad core:

Frederik, you're the best!

The UPR for anyone interested:
/>Fractal203-01b {
fractal:
title="Fractal203-01b" width=2182 height=1492 layers=1 frames=900
resolution=224 credits="Kyle Elliott;11/5/2023" antialiasing=yes
layer:
caption="Background" opacity=100 transparent=yes
mapping:
center=0/0 magn=0.2 transforms=1
transform:
filename="ea.uxf" entry="Symmaton" p_symmaton_version=100 p_n=3
p_configu=I p_arg=0 p_nc=0/0 p_phm=no
formula:
maxiter=255 percheck=off filename="reb.ufm" entry="IkeNewtJul"
p_version=1.0 p_p1=0.5/0.5 p_p2=0.01/0.25 p_test=0.001
inside:
transfer=none
outside:
transfer=linear filename="sam.ucl" entry="ThinOrbitTraps" p_mode=Sum
p_shape=Circle p_a=1.0 p_b=1.0 p_c=0/0 p_rot=0.0 p_size=1.0
p_rat=1.0 p_fiter=0/1E20 p_f=1.0 p_pf=.2 p_power=.01 p_power3=1.0
gradient:
smooth=no rotation="-600@#0NN-201@#143840"
index="-1197@#0SS-798@#143840" color=2818048
index="-1190@#0SS-791@#143840" color=0
index="-1187@#0SS-788@#143840" color=4024950
index="-1166@#0SS-767@#143840" color=9437100
index="-1145@#0SS-746@#143840" color=3959414
index="-1142@#0SS-743@#143840" color=0
index="-1138@#0SS-739@#143840" color=3291206
index="-1115@#0SS-716@#143840" color=0
index="-1096@#0SS-697@#143840" color=2897837
index="-1092@#0SS-693@#143840" color=0
index="-1089@#0SS-690@#143840" color=2912118
index="-1067@#0SS-668@#143840" color=8777983
index="-1045@#0SS-646@#143840" color=2911606
index="-1042@#0SS-643@#143840" color=0
index="-1039@#0SS-640@#143840" color=2913865
index="-1017@#0SS-618@#143840" color=8781746
index="-995@#0SS-596@#143840" color=2913865
index="-992@#0SS-593@#143840" color=0 index="-989@#0SS-590@#143840"
color=4814380 index="-961@#0SS-562@#143840" color=0
index="-945@#0SS-546@#143840" color=0 index="-942@#0SS-543@#143840"
color=0 index="-940@#0SS-541@#143840" color=96
index="-917@#0SS-518@#143840" color=16771973
index="-895@#0SS-496@#143840" color=7760172
index="-892@#0SS-493@#143840" color=0 index="-889@#0SS-490@#143840"
color=7747628 index="-867@#0SS-468@#143840" color=16749701
index="-844@#0SS-445@#143840" color=7747116
index="-842@#0SS-443@#143840" color=0 index="-1240@#0SS-841@#143840"
color=0 index="-1239@#0SS-840@#143840" color=3670016
index="-1215@#0SS-816@#143840" color=0
opacity:
smooth=no index=0 opacity=255 index=39 opacity=255 index=63
opacity=255 index=97 opacity=255 index=124 opacity=255 index=157
opacity=246 index=179 opacity=255 index=200 opacity=255 index=228
opacity=255 index=335 opacity=255 index=343 opacity=255 index=372
opacity=255
}

Very impressive, thanks! If you just start using the Apple Silicon version regularly and let me know about any problems, that would be great!

Using the 6.06 version on my M1 Max MacBook Pro. When I attempt to zoom using the click and drag 'box', the program crashes. The crash appears to occur only when an image is involved. It does not appear to crash when the background is black.

Thank you for the native M1 support!

Stan

More information on the Apple Silicon M1 Max crash. Single point and click zoom operations seem to work, but when using the point/click/drag method to open a zoom box, Ultra Fractal crashes immediately.

Here is part of the crash report:

Translated Report (Full Report Below)

<removed for clarity>

Please excuse the emoticons... they were a result of the copy/paste from the crash report.

I've got multiple reports about this, it only happened on macOS 14. Luckily I've been able to fix this problem today. (See below for an even newer build.)

Yep, you fixed the issue... great work!

I'll keep testing tomorrow and through next week.

Stan

And here is yet another build with more fixes:
https://www.ultrafractal.com/download/uf606-arm-test-3.dmg

Thanks again for testing!

Working well so far... thank you!

Stan