This is a freeware plugin used to reduce the number of polygons in a Lightwave object. It includes a lwpanels GUI with interactive controls and an OpenGL preview.
written by Kasper
J. Wessing
Summary: This useful polygon reduction Lightwave Modeler plugin was written by Kasper J. Wessing. It is based on the polygon reduction code written by Stan Melax for Game Developer magazine, Nov. 1998.
This is a freeware plugin used to reduce the number of polygons in a
Lightwave object. It includes a lwpanels GUI with interactive controls
and an OpenGL preview.
Decimate is written for the Lightwave Modeler 5.6 with lwpanels v16, but should also work on previous versions of Lightwave, and I think it should support lwpanels v12. I know that Lightwave 5.5 does something strange with the OpenGL view in solid and hiddenline mode. If anybody knows what the problem is, you can contact me.
Once you are certain you have the prerequisites listed above, you can download the Decimate executable by clicking on the appropriate link below.
To install Decimate, just copy the Decimate.p file into your Modeler plugins directory. Run the Lightwave Modeler and choose Objects->Prefs->Add Plugin. After you select the Decimate.p plugin from the file requester, you should now find a Decimate entry in the Tools->Custom pulldown menu.
Make sure there is an object in the modeler's foreground layer. Decimate will reduce the selected polygons in the first foreground layer, or it will reduce the entire object if there are no selected polygons. If you select points you will have the option to not collapse these points. For instance, here is a hint that may be handy for some people, try it out. Make a sphere and then select the first row of points above the center and the first row below the center. Decimate, and reduce to the lowest possible value.
Choose Tools->Custom->Decimate and shortly the lwpanel interface will appear with the OpenGL preview of your object. For more help, click on the Help button found in the upper left portion of the panel.