Ideal Settings for Fur in Blender Internal

What are the best settings to achieve a semi-realistic fur look in Blender Internal?

Welp.
There are semi-automatic weapons out there and people might have a clue what that does mean. “Semi-realistic” is all up to you.
Nevertheless first thing they will tell you - lights. Make your lights shine. :wink:

Yes, but how many lights and how bright should I make them?

Well, i assume semi-realistic environment’s lights should have come in place… If this is for a heroines closeup… or some spooky green hairball… can’t really tell. BI portraits usually are done using three-point light rigs. But that is again, usually, not associated with “realistic”, rather “artistic”.
Anyhow, you’d need to adjust lights so that you see the detail of the hair. If it comes out dark splotch or overblown white spot lights are off. Take proportions from wiki initially. Leave hair color for after, see how it looks plain white.

What types of lights would work best for my particular situation?

This is where we have been already. No one here knows the situation you are in, i believe.
Looking at your art, you could take a look into BF BBB movie materials, or, more recent product, materials of which are available here.

I’ve taken a look at the BBB project before and I’ve noticed that there is a huge amount of lights and that the render time is incredibly long. The style of this film is what I meant by semi-realistic fur. Is there an alternative way to achieve the same look while maintaining a relatively short render time?

I seriously doubt there is. Fur ‘weights’ a lot.
Not saying that i’m a last instance, it’s just my limited knowledge here.

Alright. Thanks for trying to help.