Thanks a lot. I actually got my flattened cardboard boxes working last night with the prop_static entity. I used to make lots of maps for Half-Life 1, and am just now trying to learn all the new features and such of the Source/Orange Box engine.

prop_static

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Prop_Types_Overview

you'll find, if you haven't already, that you may want to use a particular model as static but it doesn't show up in game, you should look at the "info" tab in the model viewer to see what properties that prop was compiled with.

You can set any type using _dynamic_override or _physics_override, and disable motion and collisions on that prop in its property sheet in Hammer afterwards.

It works the other way, too, you can set static compiled props to physics if you want.

Both of these scenarios come with a slight performance hit, so try not to go overboard

Alrighty, so which is the correct entity to use for props such as light posts, trees, desks, flattened cardboard boxes, etc?

prop_details pretty much refer to automatic things like grass iirc

generally not useable through Hammer

I've only known this to happen when a map has been compiled for one game then run in another. Like compiling a map with the sdk set to dod:s, which lets the editor see all the dod:s models, then trying to run the game in hldm or something.