Take a close look at Exhibits A & B. A: Left side has Bump Mapping B: Right side has no Bump Mapping
Notice how subtle the light affects and plays over the reptile hide sofa bench cushion.
Granted, the custom texture I made is pretty elaborate and detailed in itself, but the Bump Map which is a greyscale duplicate of the texture adds that extra bit of surface mapping information for the lighting.
Side note: Renders at 640x480. High Quality settings Bump Mapped version took 8:54 render time No Bump Map version took 3:31 render time
The application had to calculate that much extra information for lighting in the scene.
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own"