Impossible Render Glass bulbs

[Macros]

I have been tasked with doing some RnD of an array of lightbulbs within a decent render time but havent really been able to get anything that is manageable.

So I have removed some of the bulbs, turned the reflect and refract down to one and tried different methods of rendering but beginning to think I am on a fools errand, and now the render looks terrible.

The glass doesn't look anything like glass, and with all the 'cheats' Ive done It doesn't look like anything decent.

Any advice would be welcome.

So far my render sits at 8min a frame which is about what I need but looks terrible... and with some shortcuts.

bulb_RnD_v31.hip

[Macros]

Surely houdini can manage this... If not there is talk of going with a maya solution. Anyone given it a shot?

Surely I must be missing something.

[Mario Marengo]

Surely houdini can manage this... If not there is talk of going with a maya solution. Anyone given it a shot?

Took a quick look.

Changed a few things, but I can't get into details right now cause I gotta run -- hopefully it's self-explanatory.

This frame renders in 3:22 on my machine, but you can probably still shave off a few seconds.

bulb_RnD_v31_mgm.hip

[Macros]

Took a quick look.

Changed a few things, but I can't get into details right now cause I gotta run -- hopefully it's self-explanatory.

This frame renders in 3:22 on my machine, but you can probably still shave off a few seconds.

Thanks this is really awesome, a great base to work off. Think this might work although been doing some tests with vray which are great too. Will have to make some tweaks and see what the result is.