make Decimate modifier permanent I've got a really cool model of a Mechwarrior robot, beautifully made, that is entirely too many vertices for putting into my game framework. I've been using the Decimate modifier successfully to reduce the vertex count from around 199K to about 20K, or about 10% original size. Great!.

Now I need to uv map the model with a simple texture. Not looking for precision here, I'm just learning the ropes.

Problem is, when I uvunwrap the model, the full vertex count reappears and everything is entirely too complex.

Is there a way to apply the Decimate modifier and make it permanent? Basically have Blender forget about all those decimated vertices?

Thanks!
Simply click the Apply button of the decimate modifier. You must be in Object Mode for that to work.