Anayo, Intel, RedJay, LaSphere, Skyler, StompinTom: Thx a lot, mates. Much appreciated.
TCrazy: Thanks man. I noticed that too regarding the shadows. I’m not sure if it’s as it should be, or if there’s really a GI problem. I will look into it when I do more renders. And yes, you’re right, the buildings outside are from an older Indigo project, just tweaked for Vray.
Hauser: Thanks. I haven’t used Yafray in a few years so I can’t say. As for BI, any comparison would be unfair since BI doesn’t do GI.
Animal: Thanks man. Really glad you like them. Yes, the night ones were real nightmares to do. Lots of trial and error. And they are indeed not very realistic since the outside is much lighter in the image than it really should be (unless the last one has some very strong moonlight). I console myself by thinking of the time when I was doing photography and would use tons of tricks to make the images look nicer and less realistic.
Basse: Thanks. Characters would be the next step. I’m not quite there yet
Meta-Androcto: Thanks for the kind words man.
NeonStarlight: Cheers. Yes, it’s quite tricky to balance light and shadow in the sunlit images. Such images would be hard to take as photos since the outside would always end up being washed out or the inside too dark. Someone with a better command of Vray’s setting would probably be able to achieve a better balance, though.
As for render times, about 30 min each for the sunlit images at a resolution of 1600x1200 (slightly downsampled here). The night images took a bit longer, maybe 45 minutes, due to HDR illumination. As always, the more foliage you have, the longer the render time, especially here since I was using translucent material for the leaves (in the sunlit images only).