Managed DirectX® 9 Kick Start: Graphics and Game Programming

Simplifying Existing Meshes

Now let's say that your artist has just given you a mesh for “prop” that resides in differing locations in your scene, depending on which level you are on. It some levels, the mesh is way in the background, and doesn't need to be nearly as detailed as in other levels where it is right up close to the character. You could ask your artist to make you two different models, a high detailed one, and a low detailed one, but if the artist is already swamped with work, why not just use some of the built-in simplification our mesh class can provide.

Simplifying a mesh is the act of taking an existing mesh, using a set of provided weights, and trying to remove as many faces or vertices as possible to achieve a lower-detail mesh. ...