What are Meshes?

Meshes allow your shader to render custom geometry instead of the default fullscreen triangle. They provide access to actual vertex data — such as position and color — enabling you to create more complex and meaningful visuals in both 2D and 3D contexts.

A mesh is a collection of vertices and faces that define a 2D or 3D object. Each vertex can carry attributes like:

• Position
• Color
• (In future versions: normals, UVs, etc.)

Why Use Meshes?

Using a mesh opens up new possibilities in shader design:

• Visualize custom shapes and models
• Enable the use of vertex shaders
• Animate or distort geometry using vertex inputs
• Represent 3D objects, characters, or abstract structures

Attributes Passed to Shaders

When a mesh is provided, vertex data is passed to your WGSL shader as:

• @location(0) → vec3<f32> position
• @location(1) → vec3<f32> color

You can access this in your @vertex function and pass it to the fragment stage as needed.

What Happens at Runtime

When you upload or select a mesh, Splitshade:

• Parses the .obj file
• Extracts vertex positions and colors
• Passes this data to your vertex shader using WGSL input attributes

See Mesh Usage to learn how to upload and apply your own.