how does one increase the amount of polygons in an object??

I dont think thats possigle with Bryce... maybe someone else knows a way.

You can increase the polygon count of terrain and lattices in the TE by increasing the resolution. Other then that you can't, ( not that I know of ) If your problem is an import looks rough like you can actually see the polygons, you can smooth it using the E icon

thank you!

There is a mesh smoothing available (which really doesn't work well) by clicking on the 'e' when you have the model highlighted. The real way to increase poly count, and I do this all the time with the low poly free models, is to use Metasequoia and smooth the mesh by any factor you have capacity for. http://www1.sphere.ne.jp/mizno/main_e.html the freeware one increases or decreases poly count and it saves in formats that Bryce recognizes.

The edit smooth option works well just as it's designed to do. It does not change the geometry of an import, It only changes the way it renders it. If you have a cube and you want to smooth the edges, it won't do that ( that's changing the geometry ).

Hmmm, well, you can create a smooth edged cube, but since you have a model you want to use that won't work. You can select mesh with the rope or the rectangle tools, then extrude in bezel with a low setting. You might also try one of the shareware programs. The shareware saves in native format only, which the freeware imports and then converts to export (go figure).