Level Set vs Surface Explorer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Level Set
Create and visualize complex flame dynamics simulations on your mobile device. Explore various simulation parameters, render animations, and analyze flame behavior with detailed charts. Share your creations easily via email or social media.
- Flame dynamics simulations
- Customizable simulation parameters
- Animation visualization
- Surface area charts
- Shareable snapshots and data
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Level Set allows you to perform computer simulations of flame dynamics on your iPhone or iPad. You can chose from a variety of simulation parameters, including flow complexity and strength, grid size and the method for surface rendering. You can visualize animations of the flame motion as well as charts of surface area versus time. You can also share flame surface snapshots and chart data via email, Air Drop and social media.
Surface Explorer
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Surface Explorer is a high-performance visualizer for intricate mathematical surfaces — 2D manifolds embedded in three- or four-dimensional space, and 3D slices of four-dimensional hypersurfaces — bringing abstract geometry to life with real-time GPU rendering. KEY FEATURES • Cross Section — slice four-dimensional hypersurfaces and watch their 3D sections change shape as you rotate them in 4D or slide the cutting plane along the fourth axis, even along a 4D camera path. • Ray Marching Engine — real-time rendering of implicit surfaces and signed-distance fields, with procedural displacement, transparency, adjustable shells, and a precise mode for high-degree equations. • Multi-Mesh Surfaces — build figures from several independent grids, each with its own color, transparency, texture and domain. • Geodesic Flow — explore intrinsic geometry on curved manifolds (S³, H²×R, SL(2,R) and more), integrating geodesics from initial conditions. • 4D Spatial Exploration — dedicated controls for hyperspatial rotation (Omega, Phi, Psi), projection, and 3D and 4D camera paths. • 4D Lighting Models — Directional, Observer, and Slice lighting designed for hyperspace. • Dynamic GLSL Scripting — write custom shaders for procedural textures and surface logic in the built-in editor. • Backgrounds — images and procedural effects, fixed on screen or wrapped around the scene as a sphere, cylinder or cube. • Audio-Visual Synthesis — synchronize geometric parameters with a mathematical sound synthesizer. • Video Recording — capture your explorations directly in the app and save them to your device. A library of ready-made presets ships with the app, from classic parametric surfaces to black-hole ergospheres, curved-space tori and slices of the 3-torus, together with a searchable built-in manual. Built with Qt and Metal for smooth, native performance on iPhone and iPad.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Surface Explorer at fortnightly against Level Set's every 4 months. Level Set's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Level Set ships an update every 4 months, Surface Explorer fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Level Set | Surface Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 506 MB | 62 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ralph Aldredge | GAETANO MOSCHETTI |
In-app purchases
Level Set
No in-app purchases
Surface Explorer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Level Set free?
Is Surface Explorer free?
Do Level Set or Surface Explorer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Level Set or Surface Explorer?
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