Yes the blender and gmax poly count should be the same by definition. As far as a standard goes, according to the content creation guid this model is recommended to have 300 poly's (but those recommendation havent changed since 2004). Dave's original model is below that count. The lowest LOD mesh for this asset will be well below 300 poly's. The texture file is 11.9 megs. Im experimenting with a 2048x2048 (one texture for everything) for the entire model. I will also have a normal map for this one. So this model is going to be gentle on the rendering engine of the game but not so gentle on the memory requirement. If the game has 100 such objects loaded in memory than it will be using around a gig of memory. With the game loading 3-4 basebords 360deg around you current viewpoint it wont take very much before the memory requirement's go through the roof.
Personally I dont think this model should be used anywhere but right next to the tracks. If its going to be placed far enough away from the viewpoint of the user that the highest LOD mesh doesn't get viewed as they pass by than why have it in memory? Use another building.
So to answer your question Ok_liW, as far as standards go thats all dependent on how far the object will be placed from the users viewpoint. If 1800 poly buildings are used everywhere I dont think it will work very well at all we would have to buy server mainboards to get a computer with enough memory to run it all. On the other hand if we use them judiciously we have the freedom to use as many poly's as we want to make it look right.
Hal
Keep on.
