Wow! not posted here for a while...

Unfortunately, I have made very little progrss on this job (been very busy spinning my wheels and getting nowhere :shakehead )

I've taking the plunge and finally opened the maya dynamics toolset. Added a simple emitter to the centre chamber of the original room scene. The chamber itself is a collision object so the particles won't drift outside. Still have a lot of detail to add, just thought I'd post an update.

All suggestions most welcome...

https://www.kickarz.com/room_test2.wmv (3.2Mb - right pick - save target as)

below is a screen shot for those who rather not download the vid..