Hello fellow Blender artists, I am making a series of nature scenes with Cycles in 2.73a with sand, dirt, trees and other various plants, and animals, and thanks to some helpful members and a few tutorials I am doing pretty good. The issue I have run into is the sheer number of particle systems (and number of particles in each system) in each scene is most likely going to be more than my GTX 760 4GB can manage memory-wise, and may even require more than the 16GB of my computer. I am still experimenting with modifying a hair system to simulate spruce needles vs making spruce needles out of a cube for a particle system, but either way seems to use about the same amount of memory. I have been looking for ways to help with this and have found articles recommending to use instancing and/or baking, but I have very little experience with either.
Advise, and if possible simple instructions, please.