May be this thing I am talking is already discussed someone or you ignored, but I like to see some comments about it. [:D]
I like to talk about an advanced material editor which is able to create different shader based object in the scene. I think more controllable in materials make the scene become realistic. Like different wood furniture's have different specular level and depth(For example a wooden chair(fully polished),wooden door(fully polished), wooden sculpt(roughly polished) and a wooden flooring(smooth polish) have different reflection level).
This is the idea in my mind.
Background settings.
A user needs to go this way.
try to express idea in flow-chart.
I apologizes for my mistakes English. [>:D<]
:: sample slot object I used .