so this "decimate" feature is part of the poser UI... things begin to make sense now. i would guess (and this is just a swag) that poser's "decimate" is a software algo to cut polys from the model. wheras, in directx, the progressive level of detail resampling uses hardware assisted functionality of current and previous generation videocards to downsample a mesh to lower levels of detail. when a mesh is loaded and marked for LOD, it is cached in system memory and the progressive LOD meshes are also created. when rendered, only the chosen LOD-mesh is pushed thru the pipeline and into world space. like i said, this is a complete guess, and would require extensive testing to prove if it is a viable strategy. the feature set of poser seems like a perfect match for my needs, but as the details emerge, the picture isn't so rosy. this is unfortunate, because one of the case studies or testimonials on their site is from someone using poser assets in a game rendered environment. that testimonial is what led me to beilieve that this would be a possibility for creating characters and assets without hiring out for expensive custom 3d work. so, can poser export to .x format? ;o)