ahaha that sure brings back memories... good old bryce. i know what you mean about the estimate. the problem is, as you can see from the smaller render further up in this thread, that about 2/3s of the image are taken up by water and that's what's making the estimate go through the roof. i was discussing this with my sister just before actually, how there isn't a single graphics app i know of which can give you an accurate estimate, as paradoxical as that may sound. of course, with time and experience, you come to develop a 6th sense as to how long it'll take to render. with bryce for example, i knew that as soon as i added a volumetric light in the scene which casted a shadow, we were talking for hours of rendering. kinda makes you feel all cool and knowledgeable when you can do estimates like that ;) i'm estimating my render will finish sometime around noon tomorrow, so another 14 hours or so, even though it says 21. anyway, i'll stop stealing CPU resources from it by having the browser open and active and let it get back to work :)