The paper introduces the *progressive mesh* (PM) representation, a new method for storing and transmitting complex triangle meshes efficiently. PM addresses several practical issues in computer graphics, including mesh simplification, level-of-detail (LOD) approximation, progressive transmission, mesh compression, and selective refinement. The PM representation stores an arbitrary mesh as a coarse base mesh and a sequence of detail records that incrementally refine the base mesh back to the original. This allows for smooth transitions between different levels of detail, efficient progressive transmission, and selective refinement. The paper also presents a new mesh simplification procedure that preserves the overall appearance of the mesh, including discrete and scalar attributes. The PM representation is lossless and supports continuous-resolution rendering, making it suitable for various applications such as interactive LOD transitions and view-dependent rendering over low-bandwidth channels. The paper discusses the construction of PM representations, the optimization algorithm, and compares the PM representation with other methods like multiresolution analysis (MRA).The paper introduces the *progressive mesh* (PM) representation, a new method for storing and transmitting complex triangle meshes efficiently. PM addresses several practical issues in computer graphics, including mesh simplification, level-of-detail (LOD) approximation, progressive transmission, mesh compression, and selective refinement. The PM representation stores an arbitrary mesh as a coarse base mesh and a sequence of detail records that incrementally refine the base mesh back to the original. This allows for smooth transitions between different levels of detail, efficient progressive transmission, and selective refinement. The paper also presents a new mesh simplification procedure that preserves the overall appearance of the mesh, including discrete and scalar attributes. The PM representation is lossless and supports continuous-resolution rendering, making it suitable for various applications such as interactive LOD transitions and view-dependent rendering over low-bandwidth channels. The paper discusses the construction of PM representations, the optimization algorithm, and compares the PM representation with other methods like multiresolution analysis (MRA).