This means the array can be shared between geometries when unchanged,
reducing memory usage and increasing performance. It also means that
handling the data can be done more generically using the attribute
system. In the future the transforms can become attributes too.
Two other changes are related here:
- The "almost unique ids" are cached with a shared cache so they
are shared too.
- The reference indices are baked as an attribute now, making the process
more generic and potentially easier to optimize in the future.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/117951
Hans Goudey
2e6223d90f