Rendering Point Particles With Software

[jcarruthers]

I have my particles all set up now - all different colours using rgbPP etc

However I need to render them in software (mainly because hardware takes 4 times loner) - I've read I need to use particleColourMapper - but I am very new to Maya and need a holding hand tutorial for this.

Can anyone help me out?

[drblacksnake]

what kind of particles? some are hardware-, other software-only renderable.
most likely you'll have to reproduce all.

[jcarruthers]

They are point particles being emitted from an object.

[joojaa]

Obviously its faster if it does not render the bulk of items! BY the time you get it to render in sw its allrewady slower then the hw render. Besides theres nothing in maya that will let you render those particles in sw render.