But my timing tests have shown that if none of your shaders contain a reflect, refract, or AO node and you are not using ray-traced shadows, Poser takes no additional time to render with ray-tracing enabled.

In other words, you're not telling Poser to do raytracing when enabling it, you're saying it has your permission to use it if called for by a shader or a light. The way you tell Poser to do raytracing is by using one of those nodes or by using a ray-traced shadow on a light.

If you aren't using ray-tracing features, it really doesn't matter whether or not you enable ray-tracing.

However, I frequently have those elements in my scene but am not ready to do a final render. For example, I may be adjusting light strengths, and I don't need to take the extra time for ray-tracing in a test render when all I care about is general lighting. In that case, I do a lot more than turn off ray-tracing.

You should use the "Save Preset" feature of the render settings dialog. Make one you like for final and have ray-tracing turned on there. It won't waste time if you don't need ray-tracing. Make another called "SUPERFAST" or something. But remember, this setting also means CRAPPYRESULTS.

Here are my FireFly SUPERFAST Manual Settings:

• All checkboxes turned off.
• Min shading rate: 5.0
• Pixel samples: 1
• Max texture size: 1024
• Max bucket size: 64
• Min displacement bounds: 0
• Post filter size: 1

At these settings, I can see what my lights are doing just fine. The above render was made in 3 seconds.

 

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)