did i get it working? nope. i was trying to shove the optical fx on the main gun on the center ship (the fog works! but optical fx doesn't)
i figure i can just try add it later in photoshop..

i somehow doubt that the scene is too heavy... at least i wouldn't think so...

running vista 64,
4gb ram
ati radeon 4870(?) i can't remember but it's close to the latest ati radeon from last year...
also the latest drivers for it seems to make it impossible to use the rotate tool... i should go back to the older ones... a start up crash because of it is more bearable (perhaps) than not being able to use the rotate tool...

the scene is under 200,000 polys with a few 2k and 1k maps (maybe even under 100,000 polys... will need to check), and surely that's not much...