If my memory is right, once this topic was somewhere, but i cant find it now, so:
I would like to request texturing for particles. i don't know how it may work in software rendering mode, but it must be supported for GL and D3D.. I think it would be nice to add such line for particle definitions in fxdefs as "particle texture" or something like that.. and may be a scaling factor for it. it may be loaded from sprites folder or graphics. that will enable creating of great effects without much slowdown)