FrankT,
lol, wrong mate ;) (about the unbiasd engines)
Maxwell is a HELL of a lot faster now that it was before due to a newer PC and improvements in Maxwell (from pentium4 to a quad core 64 bit it's a hell of a diffference!!)

for model work, I get good images in an hour or two with Maxwell :) I do not pretend to be much use with it, I only do model renders for fun and it really helps me with model work to see problems or ways I can improve them. I do my real texturing in Vue, not Maxwell.

So, in years to come, I see no reason why more powerful CPUs, and perhaps GPU use as well, plus better software, won't make unbiased renders afaste rand the standard method :)

Now, this is only basic Maxwell textures, I'm too used ot Vue materials to want to mess with Maxwell's, and this isn't an art render, final textures are a hell of a lot better, but Vue can't do such photorealism so I want folk to compare them, pardon the big images!

Model render in Maxwell
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/rhino/2008/hammership44.jpg
Somewhat realistic-style render in Vue
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/sj/hammership/cloud_hammer1.jpg
Art render ( msot of my stuff is not meant to look realistic)
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/sj/hammership/hammership_depth.jpg

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!