"For reference, the vertex color data on a 500 triangle mesh is roughly equivalent to adding a 64x64 3 channel dxt1 texture" Could you explain the calculation for this estimate ?
Vertex color isn't cheap - its 32 bits per vertex and can't be shared as readily as texture information. It really only makes sense if you are applying unique information to sparse geometry or have a fixed limit on texture samplers and have run out. For reference, the vertex color data on a 500 triangle mesh is roughly…