Alain <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> In fact, a long cylinder, possibly flatened, would be a good aproximation in
> most closeup cases. The cone can be used to produce a kind of forced
> perspective, but then, you need to adjust the scaling of the asteroids to the
> radius of the cone at the asteroid location.
Ah yes, I get the idea. I'm too much of a physical purist! (So I won't even
mention the mean separation of asteroids in our own belt... :)

If you don't mind a slower render time, you could use an isosurface. Take a
pigment function like crackle, then vary the threshold (as a constant in
the function {} block) as 1/r or something similar, where r is the distance
from the cylinder/cone's axis.

For a sphere, you end up with something like this:
http://www.infradead.org/~wmp/gallery5/iso1.jpg

Of course, the threshold here goes from 0 -> 1, so cut it off to leave the
rocks spaced out at the centre.

Bill

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