March 13, 2026
Mirror feud, rotate the tea
The Mrs Fractal: Mirror, Rotate, Scale
Internet split: “it’s just mirrors” vs “mesmerizing art”
TLDR: A dev posted a mesmerizing “MRS fractal” that repeats mirror, rotate, and scale to make endless patterns. Commenters argue whether rotation adds anything (some say it’s all mirrors), others compare it to video feedback or displacement maps, while most just love the trippy visuals.
A new post by visual coder Nikos Papadopoulos drops the “MRS fractal” — a simple loop that flips, spins, and sizes points to make hypnotic patterns — and the crowd instantly turned the comment section into a math bar fight. The demo’s shader shows how you mirror, rotate, then scale on repeat. Result: infinite bathroom‑mirror vibes, but make it glam.
The loudest take? boxfire’s mic‑drop: “Mirror + Rotate is really just 3 different mirrors,” basically claiming the “spin” is just a fancy way to say more mirrors. Cue the geometry nerds nodding like they’ve seen this movie. Meanwhile, JKCalhoun wonders if this is just an “iterative displacement map” — in plain speak, pushing pixels around over and over — and sparks nostalgia by comparing it to pointing a camcorder at the TV, full Doctor Who opening‑credits energy. On the lighter side, googaar beams, “math visualizations… are sick,” while alkhemyst side‑eyes the name with a zinger about overlap with a “Mirror Reasoning Stack,” sending AI‑forum lurkers into giggles about “Mrs. Fractal” grading everyone’s homework.
So yes, the art is gorgeous, the math crowd is debating whether “rotate” deserves top billing, and the rest of the internet is here for the trippy loops and gifs. Want the code? Papadopoulos has it living its best life on Shadertoy.
Key Points
- •The MRS fractal is built from mirror, rotation, and scale operations applied iteratively.
- •The core formula is p_{n+1} = s · R(M(p_n)) − o, with s > 1 and o a constant offset.
- •The technique is presented as an alternative to Mandelbrot and Julia set-based fractal renderers.
- •A reference shader snippet demonstrates mirroring (abs), rotation (2×2 matrix), and scale decay per iteration.
- •Uniform controls include iteration count, zoom, rotation speed, mirror start value, and scale decay.