1001Bit has a point to point tool in its collection. It does exactly what you are asking for. I'm not sure if it is in the free version but definitely in the paid version. A very useful tool.

Sounds good, I will try it tomorrow when back at work. Thanks

Maybe look at Rich's suggestion. It could turn out to be a cost effective solution.

Looks good, i like the contrast and detail. I've done a few of these areas myself, the first & last images are the best.

Thanks for the replies. I just did a reinstall, and I don't think I have anything abnormal. Just a couple dozen plugins.

I forgot to mention that in the original post. I actually tried a few things and that was one of them. I didn't time it, but it may have sped it up a little. Overall, I don't think it did what I was looking for.

I do have Kerkythea Echo Boost installed on my laptop and my desktop. I'm still learning, but i'm getting fairly adapt to using Kerkythea. I always pick 8 cores when rendering, although like I said, it renders great. Its just the setup process. Kerkythea seems to hang and take forever to navigate the model and make changes.

My desktop has an i7 2600 and Kerkythea runs very smooth on that.

Thanks, I'll check into it.

Getting there Dave. As they say, "the devil is in the details" and that is where the other 20% should be focused. Its the little things that add to a more photoreal render. Some obvious things are better grass, texture that are higher resolution and that don't tile as bad, more detail into the house itself, lower the beds to create an obvious bed edge, better reflection and transparency, bump maps and doing a bit of post work in photoshop.

Best of luck..you definitely have a good starting point.

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@unknownuser said:

Thanks for the input! I'm still a bit confused, why is kerkythea free, and what makes all other render programs worth what they sell for?

Kerkythea was born from enthusiasm and with active community it did grow in a point when entering into the commercial arena was only feasible option for further development. Even with a new born Thea Render, Kerkythea did stay free and is still been developed (but in slow cycles).

@unknownuser said:

Oh: don't choose a renderer over another because it does displacement. It's a nice feature and all, but it's terribly slow -in any app. And as Gai says, displaced grass doesn't look good.

Indeed! For grass I'd use instancing or/and post pro. I rarely seen good enough grass made with displacement (specially when comparing the added render time). Gravel, pavement, stone walls, water... those are good targets for displacement.

@pbacot said:

And can the same be said of Thea?

Like said before, Thea can import kerkythea xml (be it created by Twilight or Kerkythea). Material systems are different, although some similarities can be find. Thea does a KT material conversion with some heuristics, so little fine-tuning may be in need in case of complex materials. Exporting materials/models from Thea to Kerkythea is not possible.

Before jumping to test Thea, it's good to watch overview tutorials.