Hard to tell what your issue is without a shot of your topology, and what you need to select. Is this using material IDs for baking purposes? Usually I select by element instead of by polygon, a lot faster.
PyrZern: no that is the highres. Even though its not that heavy, could probably run in realtime if needed : ) there is almost no sub-d polygons in the mesh, even if it was, i wouldnt care so much about n-gons anyway : )
For a non-destructive workflow as a novice hard surface self teaching path, I'd suggest that you start with polygonal suddiv fundementals, they're an essential component too acquire if mechanical prop creation is a career aspiration.
Try using the Color > Batch Bake (mental ray) feature instead, see if that changes anything. It's found in the Polygon module. Set it to "enable bake override" and switch from Lights Only to Occlusion. Good luck.
For some reason this game runs like shit on my laptop, like 5 fps, where as the island demo, which looks to be pushing more polygons with shaders etc too, runs perfectly, at least 30fps.
It's been there for a few years at least :) The number will also update as you move a component. It's based on the location of the manipulator in world space, so if you select an edge or polygon, it'll show the average of all vertex positions.
The fix is easy, go to polygon mode or element mode, then select all and detach as another object (and then delete the leftover object that has 0 verts) It's one of the lovely "features" of 3d max that I've gotten used to :(
well, no release today it seems. But here's some cool new videos that give a much better look at dynamesh http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?161219-Z4R2-Dynamesh-Beyond-the-Polygon-Barrier&p=892912#post892912
thanks for the fix :) do you think you could add "cut faces" for when polygons next to each other are selected (to not interfere with the bridge tool) http://blenderaddonlist.blogspot.de/2015/01/addon-cut-faces.html
Fast (hotkey based), stable (never crashes), free, not used at studios,. Sure can, although you should still get Zbrush as it can handle 2 to 3 times as many polygons when sculpting.