Anyone played the elder scrolls? You can drop items and then carry them around. This would enhance the technique
Cervator described.
Maybe for intermideate solution: have the drop-key be chargable so if you just press it short you drop it but when you hold the key it gets thrown further. (or simply two keys, one drop, one throw
)
For the object types: Maybe every object has a list of available forms (mesh, 3d item, billboard), eg:
big stick: (True, True, False)
small leaves: (False, True True)
and the engine just has it's changeRenderState or whatsoever which renders the best available one below the threshold.
For example: an Item has (True, False, True) and the engine shall switch from best to second best it would actually display the third one because second best is not available.