A few general tips:
Render with 12 threads (min/max both set to 12) and a 2400MB subdiv cache. Make sure Raytrace Objects is enabled. Try not to go above detail 0.75; you will probably find 0.5-0.6 to be fine in many/most cases, especially at higher resolutions. Use antialiasing values between 4 and 8 for most scenes (8 with lots of plant objects). Use Raytrace Atmosphere (RTA) if your antialiasing is at 4 (if you don't have objects in your scene, you can keep AA low); if you do use Raytrace Atmosphere, don't increase atmosphere samples beyond 16 or cloud layer quality past 0.5; if clouds or atmosphere are noisy with RTA, increase AA, but try not to go above AA6 with RTA enabled. Use Global Illumination values for Relative Detail of between 1 and 3, and for Sample Quality of between 2 and 8. Generally good values are 2/4. Don't use GI Surface Details. Minimize the amount of reflective surfaces in your scene; if you do need reflective surfaces, consider only using specular and not raytraced reflections, this will be much, much faster. Avoid having really strong displacements, if possible (especially displacement that causes a lot of spikes and overlapping geometry). Don't add fine-scale detail unnecessarily; if you won't see it at the camera distance you will be using, don't add it just because it's realistic, consider the scales you are working at and the position of your camera(s) and build your scene to match.
- Oshyan
