Ok, I'm not really sure where to post this as I have two, sort of different questions, so I'll post it here.

1. My first problem is this: When I go to render settings (to choose what to render with), I only get a choice of Maya Software and Maya Hardware, no Mental Ray!

The strange thing is that a month or two ago, this problem didn't exist, does anyone know how I turned the other rendering options off (and more importantly, how to get them back!)

2. Secondly, I've been trying to render scenes with multiple particle types in maya Software for a while, and many of the particles never showed up! I had a look on the net and found that some of the particles need to be rendered separately in Maya Hardware, and I have no problem with that.

However, the tutorials then say I need 'compositing software'. What is compositing software and what software packages include a compositing function?

Thanks a heap!