The particle emitter is included in 1.1 . It's just the physics plug-in that is not . Of course, there are workarounds for the particle emitter . I said it was hard to make some snow, but i've done some before with good results ( check my gallery ) . In fact, i think all the workarounds you described could work :) And for the fire, there is a fire primitive wich isn't bad at all . To answer your last question, it is stable ( some few remaining bugs, though ) and really easy to learn . litst