This one, for example, took more than 50 hours to complete. The only difference between it and the older version in my gallery (that required a single afternoon to complete) was that I've added a skin texture that includes body hair on the male figure. It's not just this image, though. EVERY render I've created since the SR3 came out has taken a really long time.

Are you rendering in "own process"? I think that's one of the things that are reset whenever an update is applied.

What version number of Poser are you running exactly? ?
To the best of my knowledge SR3 is not out yet.

The last iteration for PP2014 update is 2.2.

My mistake! I have the 2.2 update . . .

What is "own process?" Where do I find that setting?

Also, comparing my render settings side by side, I noticed that I'd bumped Indirect Light Quality from 7 to 90, and Pixel Samples from 6 to 3. Why did I do that? I don't really know . . .

So . . . Now I'm re-rendering a scene that took three days to do. Thus far, it's taken an hour to complete the IDL step and it's just started subsurface scattering. I don't mind a three hour render. Three days is another matter, entirely.

Four hours later, we're halfway through the final render pass . . .  It's still slower than I remember it being.

Edit: General Preferences - Render Tab will have the checkbox for render as separate process.

OK, that is better.

Can you post a screengrab of your render settings?

Rendering in "own process" can be found in the General preferences tab.

Goto top row and select :
Edit
General Preferences
Render Tab
Check Separate Process in the checkbox (right under number of Threads)
Click OK
Restart Poser.

Oeps, X posted. :-)

Uncheck Light Emitter on your hair objects. That will speed up render time.

And check out BagginsBill's posts for optimal render settings, especially regarding IDL. 

And what is your MSR? Keep it at or above 0.2.

And, the "separate processes" check box IS checked. I have 8 threads running.

OK, 2 things to speed up rendering:

IC is set at 95, That is overkill. Set it to 32. Go to 50 if required (rarely) => See below

Pixel Samples at 6. That is way overkill. Use 3 for normal, and 4-5 as max. => See below

MSR. set at 0.21? That is a strange number. Set at 0.2 or 0.5. => See below

I use :
RB at 1
IC at 0 (zero) Leave the checkbox checked ON, but pull the slider all the way to the left.
IDLQ at 7 is OK.
Pixel samples at 3 for normal and 4-5 for hi quality. (Going higher brings nothing more.)
MSR set at 1 (one) for draft, 0.5 for normal, and 0.2 (rarely) for hi quality

Bucket size depends on what is in the scene but mostly stays at 32.
Min Displ bounds go up to 0.001

In the Options window all is exactly as I set it here too.
On one condition : That you set crease angle on all "soft" groups to 180° (The free Scenefixer script can do that automatically for you.)

"Separate process" works best on 32 bit machines that are low on RAM.

For performance machines that have lots of RAM, you can leave the renderer internal. (Remove the checkbox)

Happy Posering.

AH, and OK, remove "light emitter"checkmark for the hairs in their properties palette.

I also see that you render with IDL ON, That is GOOD.

Do you have an IBL light in your scene? With AO ? That would be NO Good .

Choose.
It is one, or the other.

Render with IBL+AO? ? ? ? Or ? ? Render with IDL, but then without IBL+AO.

Use a single Infinite light for the sun, and render inside BB's free sphere to create the IDL.

Rendering with IDL + an IBL light + AO, and you are going for extra long render times. They have a nasty habbit to fight internally. LOL; No LOL actually. LOL.

With a machine with a CPU with 8 threads?
For any render taking more then one hr to finish, it is time to search where the problem is.

Mostly the culpit is the combination of IDL +IBL+AO. The obvious and most realistic solution is to drop the IBL+AO light.

All my "outside" renders are done inside the BB sphere and with one single Infinite light playing "sun".
There is only one sun out there. All other lights have to go.

Happy Posering.

Excellent advice!  Thank you!

Here's a link to the image that gave me so much trouble:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2477692

And, by the way, I haven't used IBL+ AO in many years. I render with BB's environment sphere and I DO use an IBL light, but no AO included.

Ok, thank for the link;

From what I see in that picture?
The shadows go in different directions on the different figures.
And some shadows get washed away.

=> Too many lights?

Again, when you see render times swing out the door?
And render settings are optimised?
Check the lights.

Happy Posering, Tony

In the linked image, there is light coming from three directions because they're in a polyhedronal house with a big skylight in the center. It's early morning, so daylight is coming in from the right-hand side of the image, as well as from above, with interior lights in the back. I set it up that way deliberately.

I had this problem and unchecked the separate process button. For some reason that turned on the separate processes. Can't explain why.

Worth a try...

After making all these adjustments, I've reduced my render times to 3 hours, which is WAY better than 3 or 4 days!

Thank you, all!

:)