[cgbeige]

30 minutes: SL 4 and benchmark 7.7 and that's at 1/4 resolution I need to render final on and an 8-core Nehalem Mac Pro



I have tried to pare some things down - the shaders are simple and the mxi emitter for the explosion is small and I'll comp a high res in later. It's a very long shot with low FOV and about 4-mil polygons so there is a lot in the frame but I've kept reflector cards white point down and there are no caustics/SSS.

I'm wondering if there are any other tips for speeding things up.

[cgbeige]

I think it might be the skybox environment light. do those typically slow things way down?

[Bubbaloo]

I'm going to guess you have instanced those trees. Right? Do they intersect? That would be the first thing I check.

[cgbeige]

ya, they are instances and they intersect. Does that really screw it up? The model itself is a stock tree that has a lot of intersecting planes for the leaves

[Bubbaloo]

Definitely! That is the problem. Do you have the RAM to render it without instancing?

[Bubbaloo]

ready2render.com has some great palms that are Maxwell ready that don't use clipped planes for leaves, if you want to try a different tree.

[cgbeige]

well it's a personal project so I don't have any cash for new trees. I'll uninstance them, cut all non-visible leaf planes and see if it speeds it up.