I've been sitting here drawing up a list of topics I want to cover for next week and will start with a few tools to help with rendering optimization.

Some of the specifics I'll touch on are:

Max Quadtree Depth

Raytrace Maximum Depth

Raytrace Attenuation

The first two topics are simple adjustments that don't significantly impact the look of your scene, but Raytrace Attenuation not only affects performance, but also has some adjustments that can enhance the the look of your scene.