Timothy Lochner

Given the number of issues we have run into with vert data packing over the years, it seems like this isn't as common as I would have assumed.

What kind of issues have you seen? Our artists have never complained about vertex data packing. But they have complained several times about texture compression artifacts.

No, I mean driver issues not quality issues. Vertex data packing is great from a content perspective, but it doesn't seem to be tested very well.

No outstanding issues ATM, I just mean in the past we have hit this. Although we do have to do manual unpacking on some platforms that don't support all data types.

I may add I always stick to short2 and short4 (or equivalent half) but not short1 or short3 for maximum compatibility

Honestly I am of the opinion we should just pack optimally and unpack manually in the shader. Vertex pulling is the future anyway...

What's vertex pulling?

Push is when the hardware provides the data to the shader. Pull is when the shader loads the data from a buffer. GPU HW ppl like push because they can pre-load the shader and avoid initial data load memory stall.