Render times depend on a multitude of factors in your image. There is unfortunately no magical parameter to do the trick. It all depends on your picture. The short answer is : render using 'user' mode and disable any effect you are not using. Anything blurred (blurred shadows, depth of field, etc) will add to your render time. If you are on a short deadline, effects like depth of field can be much better recreated with photoshop using the Z-depth map created by Vue (don't forget to save that map when you are done rendering). Pay attention to the 'bump' values of materials, especially when they are distant. If you don't need to see the bumps, just disable them. Disable any reflection or refraction in materials such as metals or glass if they are distant. Use reflection maps instead of raytraced reflections if possible. Avoid volumetric materials and metablobs if they are not necessary. They can be slow. If you have Vue Infinite, and you are using objects made of multiple parts (boolean primitives for example), use Bake to Polygons to simplify them. Break up your scene in several layers to help the renderer figure out better 'what is where'. Leave your machine alone during render. Kill any application that can be using memory - browsers, email, etc... And if all this doesn't help, add more machines to your render and use rendercows. Again, if you need to render a still image with cows, you will need to get Vue Infinite.

• agiel - www.linfa.net