Work arounds and the Sprite Fire.

This is the result I've ended up with using the Sprites, and I'm quite happy with how it looks.

Lynn helped me figure out why the sprites weren't appearing properly in renders, saying that using the maya hardware renderer for the sprites might work better, as a result I've started using render layers to separate different parts of the scene up.

This has helped with the nParticle fire as well as even though i don't think the light was linked to the nParticle system, the light seemed to distort as it passed through the flame, making it look odd and unnatural.

This is what it looks like in the view port, I'm happy with the way its turned out and think this is a far more game appropriate method than the other two.

One issue u have come across, and don't seem to be able to fix, is that the incandescence on the torch handle, which was previously random flickering, is now constant, despite the script i put into place.

It was working, and pausing the scene on different frames shows the change, but when rendering it out it is a constant glow.