I'm thinking that it could actually be possible to "unroll" a mandelbulb so that it covers an entire world. I expect you currently have a way of checking [XYZ] coords, if they are in the set or not. If you map those coords into [ThetaPhi] coords and use those as block XZ coords, together with the radius being the Y block coord, it would map the sphere repeatedly onto the world plane. Since the radius is limited into a single interval, it fits well with MC's limit of Y height. The question is, what it would look like after such unrolling And another question is whether the client would even survive rendering it - it has problems rendering terrain that is too "difficult".
Sethbling was there before us...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Esx-jWPv4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr9pGGQ1WeE
Sethbling was there before us...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Esx-jWPv4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr9pGGQ1WeE