"That's a reality for all of us. Strand hair grief multiplies geometrically with distance from the camera as you push in!"

That's definitely true, although if I hadn't used raytraced shadows on the one light for added detail, it would have been less than 3 min for the image in post #40. The length of the hair also plays a role it seems. The longer the strands, the more shadows it needs to calculate, resulting in longer render time. Length can be almost as computationally intensive as density, at least in 3dsmax. So the shorter the hair, and farther away from the camera it is, the faster it will render.

I'd be interested in seeing nemirc render a close-up using Maya's hair system to see if the same holds true for it. I'm thinking it would. Message edited on: 02/07/2006 07:13

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.