Realistic train interior in 3ds max & mental ray

(Click image to enlarge)

Here comes a train interior I've been working on for a few hours/days in the past few days to participate in a contest.

The contest is about architecture (interiors or exteriors are both accepted). I choosed interior and modeled a semi luxury train interior. Render engine used was mental ray and 3ds max 2013 for modeling and texturing.

The walls are made of planes,I extruded lines to come out with the window's shape, keeping everything smooth but low in polygons.

After the basic room setup is done, I moved on to setting up the lighting and finding the perfect parameters for the train's interior.

I started to apply the base materials upon satisfaction with the lighting, note that the room seemed darker because of the ambient occlusion material I used earlier causing all the shadows around.
Then I imported some seats that I modeled using boxes with chamfered edges.

 I then rearranged the seats, changed the material to a less "plasticky" one, applied some wood materials and lamps, further on I started to extrude the ceiling, again using simple forms to reduce render time.

I then proceeded to add a plane with a landscape texture outside the windows, using self illumination. and Voila, most of the things are done, minor decors were added afterwards for the final image (Seen at the top of post)

3D interior renders

Ahhh, it's already 2013 and I still haven't posted much so I thought it was the ideal time of reviving the blog again. Here's some test renders made in 3DS max 2013 using mental ray or a living room scene. Unfortunately, they were very badly optimized and took a long rendering time.