SDL_GPUVERTEXELEMENTFORMAT(3type)

💅 NAME 💅

SDL_GPUVertexElementFormat — bestie, it literally tells you what format a vertex attribute is in. That's the whole job. Iconic, honestly.

This page lives in the SDL3 DATATYPES section of the manual, and the page itself is named SDL_GPUVert...ementFormat (yes the title gets truncated like that, that's just how man pages do, don't worry about it 🫶).

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_gpu.h>

typedef enum SDL_GPUVertexElementFormat
{
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INVALID,

    /* 32-bit Signed Integers */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT3,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT4,

    /* 32-bit Unsigned Integers */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT3,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT4,

    /* 32-bit Floats */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT3,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT4,

    /* 8-bit Signed Integers */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE4,

    /* 8-bit Unsigned Integers */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE4,

    /* 8-bit Signed Normalized */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE2_NORM,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE4_NORM,

    /* 8-bit Unsigned Normalized */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE2_NORM,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE4_NORM,

    /* 16-bit Signed Integers */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT4,

    /* 16-bit Unsigned Integers */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT4,

    /* 16-bit Signed Normalized */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT2_NORM,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT4_NORM,

    /* 16-bit Unsigned Normalized */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT2_NORM,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT4_NORM,

    /* 16-bit Floats */
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_HALF2,
    SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_HALF4
} SDL_GPUVertexElementFormat;

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

Okay so. Picture this: you're building a GPU graphics pipeline and you gotta tell it how the bytes in your vertex buffer are actually laid out. That's literally this enum. It's the menu of every format a vertex attribute can be in. 💅

The number at the end of each name (2, 3, 4) is how many components are in it — the ones with no number are just a single component, periodt. So like FLOAT2 is two floats, FLOAT3 is three, etc. The prefix tells you the type (INT, UINT, FLOAT, BYTE, UBYTE, SHORT, USHORT, HALF), and _NORM means it's the normalized version of that type. And yes, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INVALID is sitting up there at the top being the "nope, not a real format" one 🙈.

The categories, in the order they appear:

• 32-bit Signed Integers — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT3, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_INT4
• 32-bit Unsigned Integers — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT3, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UINT4
• 32-bit Floats — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT3, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_FLOAT4
• 8-bit Signed Integers — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE4
• 8-bit Unsigned Integers — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE4
• 8-bit Signed Normalized — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE2_NORM, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_BYTE4_NORM
• 8-bit Unsigned Normalized — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE2_NORM, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_UBYTE4_NORM
• 16-bit Signed Integers — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT4
• 16-bit Unsigned Integers — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT4
• 16-bit Signed Normalized — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT2_NORM, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_SHORT4_NORM
• 16-bit Unsigned Normalized — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT2_NORM, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_USHORT4_NORM
• 16-bit Floats — SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_HALF2, SDL_GPU_VERTEXELEMENTFORMAT_HALF4

ngl bestie, notice that the 8-bit and 16-bit groups only come in 2 and 4 component flavors — there's no BYTE3 or SHORT3 in here. The 32-bit ones get the full 1, 2, 3, 4 treatment. That's just how it is. 💀

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🦋 AVAILABILITY 🦋

This enum has been around since SDL 3.2.0. So if your SDL is older than that, this whole page is giving nothing and you gotta upgrade, fr fr.

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💖 SEE ALSO 💖

• SDL_CreateGPUGraphicsPipeline(3)

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okay that's the whole page, you ate that 🎀✨

This one's from Simple Directmedia Layer, version SDL 3.4.18 — go forth and format your vertices, bestie, you're the main character of this pipeline now 👑💜