aRtBee,

It sounds (and looks) to me like you're using transparency and refraction on the same object. That's not how you do it, and it is why your render times are exploding.

You either use transparency because you don't need bending of the rays, or you use refraction because you do need bending of the rays. You don't use both, unless you have an object that needs multiple behaviors in the same material, one area for "nothing here" and another area for "glass here". (Example - at the theatre box office, there is a glass, with a circular hole cut out of the middle. You might use a mask and have refraction where the glass is, and transparency where the hole is. You could then make this prop from a simple Poser primitive.)

Here is an image where I use transparency + reflection on the first prop (green ball behind it), refraction + reflection on the second (red ball behind it.)

When you show experiments you should show the shader so we (I) can evaluate your words against what you did.

I will post my shaders next.

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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)