Aha - your min shading rate is way too aggressive. I'll explain later when to set it that low, but .07 is going to really slow you down.

Set it to 3 and see what happens. That's not a good setting for a final render, but it is good for a test render.

Then set it to 1 and see what happens.

There are occasional good reasons to go below 1, but such things should be handled with thought and care, not as a matter of course, and certainly not for test renders when you're trying to learn lighting.

hborre, what you said about things outside the scene being rendered as well is not correct. They do contribute to other calculations, such as shadows, and reflections, but the actual rendering of those objects does not happen.

In any case, that's not the issue here.

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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)