I've been using Vue 8 infinite since it came out, but suddenly my render times have skyrocketed and I can't seemt to figure out why.  As usual, the renders are fine until they reach the foreground ecosystem (i.e, grasses, etc.).  For the most part I don't think I've changed the ecosystems much so I doubt it's because of new plants being used.  I mean, we're talking about grasses so they shouldn't be too difficult.  As for atmospheres, I've tried rendering the same scene with newer atmospheres I've started using more recently as well as older ones, and still the renders are ridiculous.  And what makes this most frustrating is that I usually use User settings for the final render, and this slowness is occurring when I use Ultra.  Should I uninstall and reinstall?  Will that help?....for the most part I've gone back to Vue 7. 

P.S.  I know I need a better computer for Vue, but I used to render at high settings just fine (took a long time, but I could handle it) so I don't see why this happened.

Have you selected Global Radiosity as your lighting model in Spectral Atmospheres as your default?  That will royally jack up render times

Yes, but I always use GR lighting....I've been using high settings for a long time, and am not surprised when I do a final render at User settings that takes two days....but my latest attempts render so slow that after 2 days its only at 72%, and when I let it render for 4 or 5 more hours it doesn't change....and these last attempts are using Ultra, so I can't even imagine what it would be like if I changed it to User settings.....thanks for the reply, though!....I think the ultimate thing is to get a new computer once I have the money.....

How much memory do you have?  What is the polygon count of your scene?  How complex are your materials?

Forgot one thing: have you tried rendering one of the included sample files with lots of plants and such?  See if they render differntly than you have been getting.

Well, I have 3 meg of RAM....but the polygon count of the scene I'm having problems with is nowhere near what I usually do....it's really a simple scene....I've rendered much more complex scenes without these kinds of problems.....as for the textures, I doubt they're a problem.....the vegetation is what's causing the long render time (as always happens) but the textures are the same.....

And for some reason I didn't get the sample scenes when I downloaded it....either that or they're somewhere I can't find.....

Grass ecosystems are render time killers. Just to be sure this is a new problem, did you try re-rendering an older scene (provided you rememebr the original render time)?

Yeah, that's my next thought.....I dont remember any render times but I think it'll be obvious if the problem is there....sadly, I'm a big fan of lush, intricate grasslands....for the time being I might try expanding to more dry landscapes, with lots of rocky outcrops....

Something's definately wrong....now Vue 7 is acting up....I'm so fed up with this....Vue has always been really buggy, but at least after all the bugs I could render a picture the way I wanted it....

Wierd...Do you have any other 3D rendering software? If so, is there a slowdown there too?

No, just Vue....I've been playing around, using older scenes and finding that they seem to render normally....then I loaded the ecos Im using now and it slowed....so I guess it's that....but I dont see why....they're compossed of simple plants, most of which I've used many times before in other ecos....now I'm recreating these ecos and seeing if they still go slowly....none of this makes much sense to me.....it's as if Vue just up and changes every so often....

Just FYI you can download the extra content CD ISO or at least the content itself if you log into your account on the main e-onsoftware site. There will be a link under your registered products section. The zip file is about 1.1GB. The sample scenes are handy for setting up defaults, etc, and learning about scene setup, lighting use, etc. It's amazing how complex some of the scenes look, but are made so simply, you would never know it until you look at how they are set up and how the render settings are tweaked.

Render killers for me are procedural terrains.  They creeped into a few of my scenes by accident.  Switching back to standard terrains improved the render speed greatly.