Originally posted by ben hobden hey donnie, just thought, not sure if i got back to you on this occlusion test. not had alot of spare time,and been trying to progress on my dragon scene with what time i have had.its getting to the point where ive spent so much time looking at it (my scene),its really starting to annoy me.,want to move on. but will try and keep this occlusion in mind. am thinking i need to work more on my lighting and rendering in whatever i do next. the enterprise is looking really cool.very professional Lighting and rendering are the DEVIL =) This Ent scene was a particular pain because the dock is supposed to be on the far side of the planet (so no sunlight). Arg...it took me awhile to get this combo of point lights and spotlights tuned just right. Global illumination also helps a lot, but adds to render time of complex meshes. A single render of this scene on my comp takes 40 minutes. Staring at something too long really wears you down. It's good to battle through, but sometimes it helps to take a break and search the internet for new techniques. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled through something, then learned a much better and faster way to do it. You know what they say...the sooner you start, the sooner you can start over =) Def try this occlusion. It give you really good real-time results, even if it does add to your rendering times. Still, I like seeing the final product before batch rendering an entire scene, which could take a week! Make sure you're rendering with mental ray, too. It's better than the maya renderer, no question. If you need any good techniques, let me know.