Analog-X64 I’ve been reading this thread with much interest and I find it just fascinating. Pursuing the link you provided has led me to further follow other links which the author provides (Twinbee). Although the article at its face seems devoid and sanitized of the mathematical complexities involved, and offers a synaptic overview of how it developed, it should come as no surprise that he didn’t just whip up a raytracer out of a hat. 

If you link here you’ll get a fuller appreciation for the development of the process. The link seems to be a who’s who of fractal geeks in collaboration trying to work out the intricacies of the mathematics involved in trying render their fractals in 3D.

These images are just downright awsome.