If you reduce the object size with the geoscale line (and the scale line in msh.option) does it actually reduce the number of polys or just compress them?

shrinks the size of them. if you wanted to remove them, edit the model in XSI and remove them.

But does it takes up the same amount of memory pool space?

Question, how and where do I use the geoscale line, and what do I put into the msh.option to downsize an object?