In maya set samples to fixed, filter type to triangle and number of pixels to filter to 1 and 1. I imagine this is the same for max since mentalray is an external plugin.
this is a flaw of max's renderer, same issue rooster had with his rtt problem. Ever tried using a different renderer, like vray or mentalray ? (no clue if that helps)
Arnold would be able to do this. Arnold isn't a third party rendering engine anymore - it's the default maya one. You could also use mentalray, renderman, or vray.
You can load mipmapped TIF and EXR Files with mentalray. They can be created with commandline tools. https://elementalray.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/texture-publishing-to-mental-ray/
I think i'll use nParticles and driving with fluid and curlNoise. All dynamics in Maya, render with mentalRay and compositing with Nuke. for the impact maybe something like this : https://vimeo.com/81277405
Maya LT is designed to be used for games. So it's not really supposed to be used for making short films and doesn't support exporting to any offline renderers like Arnold, Mentalray, or Renderman.