Quote - So, I won't bother

Me either. I didn't know where to go with that one. I think you always need shadows, and the best shadows are ray-traced shadows, so I think you always need ray-tracing.

Imaging this scene without either.

As for number of bounces, you need one for every surface you want to go through. That means if you have a water plane like this one but no "other side", you only need 1 bounce.

If you have something like a glass sphere, you need two - one to go in, and one to come out the other side.

If you have a wine glass with inner and outer surfaces, and you want to see all the way through the glass, you need 4.

Here's another myth I'd like to bust but I can't seem to do it. There is a belief, backed by no evidence, that increasing bounces when you have no reflective or refractive surfaces will increase your render time. It does not. The bounce limit doesn't mean that you will bounce, it means you can't bounce more than a specified number of times. If your scene requires no bouncing at all, then the limit is not relevent.

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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)