Modest first test, one good secret to improve rendering time

Hi all & congratulations Skatter team for a promising software!
I’m an architect mainly doing illustrated feasibility studies / schematic design for individual and collective housing.
As such, I hardly need the incredible level of detail offered for plants and environments, but it’s tempting to “wow” the client, so I’ve decided to give it a try.
I expected much longer render times and was not disappointed, so my first struggle was to find ways to keep the rendering time down to a reasonable length, or else…
By the way, I’m on Windows 7, SketchUp Pro 2017 and Twilight.
After three days of trials and reading the manual, I’ve came up with this:

7 minutes with Twilight L+

Then I tried a close-up, with nothing else changed:

24 minutes: big surprise, but it must be the render engine…

Anyway, “the secret” I would like to share here with all beginners like me is this: before rendering, take out all the shininess and reflections of the grass leaves! (Before I did that, my PC had to be crashed voluntarily to stop a never ending render…).
There is hope, I’ll be back with more, promise!

PS: getting into the forum was a pain too, it took several days!

Keep skattering,
daromark

It makes sense the closeup took longer. It fills the image more compared to the other shot. Also with closeup noise etc is more evident or noticeable.

Indeed simpler materials will improve render times as reflection, roughness or metals and shiny objects take more time to clear. It doesn tv improve the image quality though.

I use thea render so I can help you with the engine although the core is from thea I believe.