I can't be going insane here, no matter how many torches I place hostile mobs still seem to spawn! I'm going to look into it more and send back any pictures of my findings if I find any...
My render distance is 10 with all the fancy stuff (lighting max, full clouds, etc.) and my game runs just fine aside from some minor lag here and there...
Yes, please provide some screenshots - also make sure that there are no spots with a light level lower than 7, as in those spots mobs will spawn.