My sincere apologies for keeping silent for so long, but it seems that there has just been too much happening in my life to have time to post updates. Not much happening on particles currently, but here's a quick recap of what has happened since my last post.
As some of you may already know I got a 7 month job from the Blender Foundation as a part of the 2.5 support team! The current main goal is getting Blender 2.5 out of beta, so bug fixing is what I mostly do these days. Currently I'm keeping busy with non-particle bugs, but that's only because the 2.5 bug tracker is already pretty much free of particle bugs. I dare you to find me some more though as the goal is to have 2.5 ready for serious work!
As part of the bug fixing I refactored the particle collision response code to be much more stable and robust. So no more leaky/freaky collisions for particles! Real new features are a no-go before 2.5 is out of beta, but that hasn't stopped others from tinkering with cool stuff for the future.
Raul's fluid particles were committed before the feature freeze and I currently have a patch to review from Raul and Stephen that implements plastic spring behavior to the fluid (sticky goo here we come!). This feature will hopefully be ready when the feature freeze ends! You can read more about fluid particle development in Raul's blog.
Lukas Tönne has also been busy with node particles and more. I haven't yet had much time to check out his work but I've been hearing many good things and have high hopes for this project! More info about this in Lukas's blog.
I still think it would be a good idea for me to start making video tutorials on various sides of the particle system, but I just never seem to have the time to sit down and start recording. I also have a huge todo/ideas list for particles and proper development will surely continue once the feature freeze ends.
To finish here are a few teaser pics of a what could be possible in the future with just one particle and some code I have laying around :)
