I've been spending the last week becoming more acquainted with Kerkythea 2008 Echo. A free rendering app.
It's interface is simple enough to understand and it does have a lot of rendering power.
There are many different modes and settings that can make a render go from minutes to days, as I've experienced.
This is another render of the 1930's waffle iron that I exported from MoI during my 30-day Trial period.
The kitchen, including the tiles were created in MoI as well, but the VRay trial I was using would crash from SketchUp trying to process all that I threw into it.
Kerky to the rescue!
The scene was set up in SketchUp, imported to Kerky and a little post was done in Photoshop to add a little natural light spill glare.
There is a kitchen light made from and emissive material, along with GI sunlight and sky to add light through a window area.
The mode I used here seems a little fake in appearance. Some type of raytrace mode that supports caustics.
I prefer the Metropolis Light Transport mode (BiPT) for the most natural indoor look, but that render method was going to take months, to keep it from looking grainy.
This one is still on it's 50th hour of rendering, four times the resolution and has just begun the anti-aliasing phase.
I'm using a P4 dual core at 3 gHz (eww... thought I had more than 1 gig or ram!) with win XP.... slooooooow.
It was fun to work with and I even learned how to add Depth of Field. I'd now like to focus on rendering time efficiency.
Oh yes... when my ship comes in someday and I can finally afford MoI, I plan on kicking a little tail. ;-)
