protozoan

Another thing to consider: The Windows scheduler has been notoriously bad with Epycs. It's gotten better, but it's still a problem.

If you get the chance to do this non-invasively, I would suggest trying out a linux distro, just to see if it improves. It's not a silver bullet, but some configurations easily double their speed for certain tasks.

A very simplistic approach that may still be viable for your use case could be this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOmFatk7Mc8&t=1114s [www.youtube.com]

I used it for creature effects, such as a large lizard's skin and flesh rubbing against the ground and obstacles like a door frame. This worked surprisingly well, considering how simplified it is (compared to a full muscle/connective tissue etc rig)

As far as I know, you still need to use your "manual" method. I believe there is currently no way around storing the light pos and calculating the light direction vector manually.

At least I have not found any.