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I am creating a 3D space sim. This game has actual scale distances (1 unit == 1 meter). I need to be able to generate "sections" of asteroids depending on where in the asteroid belt the ship is located. The problem is that with the HUGE volume of the asteroid belt it would be prohibitive to generate all the asteroids inside the system/belt. I was thinking of using a noise generator to calculate densities within the field (per location) and then use that density value to generate noise within a specifically sized volume. I would have to have 3x3x3 volumes calculated to keep the ship surrounded by asteroids. The densities will have to be "scaled" so that the inner areas are more dense and the outer ones are less dense (to the point that there are no asteroids)......

Tell me what you think. Do you have another way? A faster way?

I'm also going to be using DX11 instancing, so the number of asteroids rendered won't be too big an issue.....

You know, that's quite a challenge. It might depend on the needs of those asteroids. Have you tried imposters?

I tried DGDK Imposters (sold here at TGC site) to see if I could incorporate it to my project. It worked but I found some lacks for my needs, like that the imposters objects could not be shadered.

I use different regular meshes for MPL3D Solar System asteroids game, but that is because they are a few.
However, this allows me have total control over them, giving them higher detail and the feature of being divided into smaller asteroids when crashing between them or when they receive a laser impact.

For asteroid belts, I use meshes that contains several asteroid objects, so they can be placed and controlled all at the same time.

I think you are pointing right with the algorithm. Perhaps you could use some kind of hierarchy to not to render all asteroids at the same time.

[Edit: I didn't read the DX11 thing... maybe I've been too much disconnected ]

Haven't heard from you in a while. How is you simulation software coming?

I have the instancing part finished, so the next thing is to try the method I described above. Hope it works....