Applying textures to particles?
 

So I made some rain in my first try using particles, I was aware that particles don't show up in a render but I thought I could find a way to apply a material to the particles. But I can't... so I am just wondering if I can do this? thanks!
:)

you can apply textures and they will show up in renders

depends on the type of particle you're using
if it doesn't have (s/w) next to it it wont show up in hardware render, but if it doesn't then it wont show up in software render

they all show up in mental ray (why you'd use the other two is beyond me)

to apply a texture switch the particle render type to blobby, right click and assign a new material and do it like normal

alternatively you could just use instancing to make your particles look like a model you made

The fisrt part dosent really make sense.

If they have S/W next to them then they can be rendered with maya software renderer, if thy dont then there only hardware renderable, though any particle will show up in hardware, and as you said they all show up in MR

As to why you would bother, well hardware is super fast and software is a lot faster than MR which is a big consideration when rendering for comping.