Prop model poly

I'm attempting to make a guitar prop to chuck around with the grav gun
in hl2. I was just wondering what the normal poly limit is for props? -
Also, in regards to the strings, I presume the best way to do them is
place a transparent texture onto a single face

Can this be done? (sorry, dont play hl2 all that often so I cant think of any using transparent textures off-hand)

Edit: wip.

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My Pit

I dunno what the ideal limit is, but it seems to me that lower is better. That said, I doubt there will be a dozen guitars in any given area so splurging on polies might not be all bad.

Usually, limits only come into play with low end PC's, or maps that need tweaking due to whats in it.

I doubt a guitar will have more polies than a toilet.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Just looked these up in the model viewer.

A dumpster is 550 at LOD0, and around 230 at LOD2.
A blue plastic barrel is 320 at LOD0, 160 at LOD1.
A car in de_nuke is 5500 at LOD0, 1700 at LOD4.

But keep in mind it isn't as simple as just "polys" - if a 100 poly bottle is using a 512x512 specular and normal map, in addition to alpha-map transparency, it would have a bigger performance hit than a 400 poly barrel rendered with just a diffuse texture.

My advice: 800-ish at LOD0 sounds about right for a prop like this, and then make a few lower poly LOD models for people like Orph. :wink:

Cheers, I made it to just over 300 poly tbh, so perhaps I was worrying too much heh.

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My Pit