DarwinsMishap is correct.  When DS (or really any rendering program) gets stuck optimizing images, chances are that your computer is running out of memory (real or virtual) trying to read and compress them into the image.  You can either make the image maps smaller using Photoshop, PSP, Gimp, or other 2D software, or try just running lower res textures.  Otherwise...just let DS do its' thing and try to optimize the images.  Just give it some time to do its' thing ;)

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.