steve’sideas - sorry to take so long to reply - in the tests i’ve run, HDRI can take significantly longer to render; i suspect it has a lot to do with the subtle quality of the light it can provide; i used them when we needed a moody look, otherwise the vray sun/sky map is preferred for its speed
on another note - here’s a new clip:
title says it all. we’ve got that array of toruses just behind a transparent box w/ high glossy refraction going. render times are through the roof as a result.
would be great to get some input if anyone has some serious experience dealing with object lights. 9 hrs/frame seems nuts, but as far as i can tell it’s not the glossy refractions that are killing us so much as the need for powerful object lights to give an accurate portrait of the room when the exterior signage is on.
thoughts anyone?