Ok, so I downloaded the newest version of Blender with the new hair/particle system, and I must say I am VERY impressed! Just a few minutes playing around, and I made this:
I also noticed that the lighting tools were updated, so you can use soft shadows with the basic lamp, and there are several methods of shadowing for lamps and AO. So, I used them.
Did you download a CVS build? Or is ist the official release 2.45?
The official release doesn’t have the new particle system. You have to get one of the svn builds from www.graphicall.org
Hm, I don’t want an experimental build… I think I’ll be patient and wait for the next stable build of Blender to be released :).
Then you’ll be waiting a very long time 
there is nothing wrong with the Graphicall builds. They are mostly stable builds with new features added to both test features & new feature intergration.
why hold your self back. Better to learn/use now.
btw, Particle hair is the real rock’n’roll build.
m.a.
I’m willing to wait. I’m happy with what I have at the moment.
It seems to me that the Particle Build (the one I used here, from Graphicall) is EXTREMELY stable, and has most of the new features. It hasn’t crashed on me yet, except once when I tried putting a ton of hair on my model, and I only have 512 megs of RAM. But, I don’t need THAT much hair, anyways.
Besides, its not like it replaces your current version of Blender. You don’t use ONLY it, and not have the stable version to use.
The builds at GraphicAll are usually done straight out of SVN. It’s not really wise to say it’s “safe” just because it’s stable for you.
Just something to keep in mind. It can be safe, but it can also break your computer, steal your girlfriend, kill the cat and let you get kidnapped by aliens, lifted-style.
Don’t say nobody warned ya!
it looks really sweet!
I’d personally pick something more interesting then a sphere, personally I find most tests with just one sphere or suzanne a little boring.
Yeah, but I’m not exactly the worlds greatest modeler, so I don’t have anything better to use.
Well, I can try my Dalek model, but it isn’t finished…
I’ll see what I can come up with.
Just use whatever… This sub-forum is for tests, not to showcase your work. Posting tests using objects that anyone can create gives a basic idea of what the (new) feature can do.
nice hairball 
here, kitty kitty…
Well, another reason to wait is the documentation…Release logs usually are really helpful to get some insight into the new features which is never a bad thing, even though you still need to experiment a lot.
And yeah, nice stuff - I do look forward to the new release 