Oh well in that case - go for Cinema4D+AdvancedRender module. As I've said elsewhere in this forum, so far I've found nothing I can't do with it's renderer. Caustics is just the tip of the iceberg in that one! Really, try the demo and forget Maya, you really don't need to spend that sort of money to get a first class renderer. A lot of people are fooled into thinking that the various renderers are more superior to others than they actually are. Full marks gotta go to the marketers, because in most cases, the major differences between them is the way they give control "over" the renderer, and not what the renderer is "actually" capable of. Trust me on this ;-) So keep the girlfriend, and let C4D do the rest 8-)

The wait can be horrific, but the outcome can be worse - pumeco 2006