Torch lights and slow render
 

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6595/scene9xb6.jpg

here is my basic scene.

My problem is lighting (from the lanterns) and render speed.

When i add a point light to each lamp with a linear decay rate, and shadow casting, rendering takes AGES!!! in fact if i set up more then 3-4 lights in total the scene don't render but instead after 5 mins a popup sais maya has to exit

My comp isn't the prob, i recently formatted, nad i have 2 dual linked vide cards that are quite nice, also 2 gigs of ram and a dual core processor etc etc...

so what can i do to speed up my renders, or at least make them work??

and is there an alternative light form that will work? i have tried them all but i am only used to point light. Volume light seems to screw up when i make it biger and stuff....



lil help plz?? lol

poing lighting isn't good in bulk because each point light creates 6 different shadow maps... two for each axis, one in each direction. try spotlights with a high angle like 179...

depending on the complexity of your scene and other factors of your render (raytracing? mental ray? final gather? reflections/refractions?, etc) it may just be a tough thing to render... if you posted a pic i can't see it. stupid work-related thing.

also video cards only help in viewport while in maya and with hardware rendering. they don't help with software rendering OR mental ray. that's all pure processor/RAM.

Thats strange, I looked at the image and I read your pc's specs, it should be able to handle this no problem. Are you sure you didn't accidentally crank up some kinda setting somewhere in the render settings? I don't recall ever coming across that particular issue. Thing is, I don't see any shadows, and the lanterns don't seem to be contributing to the lighting at all.