Jura - It does sound  like Octane would be a bit difficult for your scenes. Possibly Octane2 might be more usable for you when it's released. You might look into Thea Render too. You would need to export your scenes to .obj, then import and set up the mats/shaders in Thea. But it would be less expensive than 3DS and Vray.

Good luck!

__________________________________________________________

My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......