Color and Pickability Schema for Improved RAM and VRAM Usage

[thkruz]

User Story

• As a developer of the color scheme manager
• I want to optimize the storage of object colors
• So that memory usage is reduced and performance is improved.

Acceptance Criteria

• Given an object with color and pickability data

• When I assign a color and pickability to it

• Then it should store only a single int8 corresponding to a uniform, instead of multiple numbers.

• Given a stored int8 corresponding to a color and pickability

• When I want to retrieve or utilize this data

• Then the system should accurately interpret this int8 and provide the correct rgba and pickability properties.

• Given a user changes the default color values

• When the application updates the uniform

• Then it should reflect the updated color and pickability accurately.

Commentary

Currently, we store colors as arrays for rgba values, and we have a separate int8 for pickability. This proposal suggests a more efficient approach by condensing the storage into a single int8, which corresponds to a uniform passed to the GPU. This uniform will contain the rgba component and pickability status. For instance, 1 could mean [255,0,0,1] and pickable, while 2 indicates [255,0,0,1] and NOT pickable. By implementing this, we can greatly optimize memory usage and potentially enhance performance.