not bad, shadows are lacking and it looks grainy in HIRES

Thanks for your comment, but I disagree about the shadows. It's has a wide Area Light that makes the sword cast soft shadows (similar to a dusky ambient outside scene). The self shadowing of the objects should therefore be correct to.

The grain comes with Radiosity. Radiosity calculates realistic bouncing rays for shadows on the cost of grain. I have however used some options to reduce and don't think it's that appearing compared to other entries that uses Radiosity or similar.

Please post a reply if I misunderstood your comment and/or there's something that I actually can improve.