Vertex Shaders Version 3 -

For the first time, shaders could sample textures directly in the vertex stage. This allowed for advanced effects like displacement mapping , where heightmaps deform mesh geometry in real-time.

Version 3.0 introduced true if-else logic and loops, enabling shaders to skip unnecessary calculations and handle complex animation logic. Vertex Shaders Version 3

This allowed developers to control how often vertex data was fetched, making instancing (rendering many identical objects with one call) much more efficient. The Standard Vertex Shader Pipeline For the first time, shaders could sample textures

Reads raw vertex data (Position, Normals, UVs, Color) from memory. For the first time