#Packing

#Purpose

The Packing section chooses how many bits are used to store each cell. Lower values reduce VRAM and recording/storage size. Higher values support more tribes and can make shader math simpler.

#Controls

Packing section

Bits/cell:
Segmented control with $1$ , $2$ , $4$ , $8$ , $16$ , and $32$ -bit options.
Frame size:
Read-only estimate for the grid using the pending packing value.
Bytes:
Exact pending frame byte count.
Max recording size:
Recording frame limit for the current device.
Max supported size:
WebGPU buffer limit for the current device.
Apply:
Commits the pending packing and rebuilds GPU resources. Disabled while running, downloading, unchanged, or over the allowed frame limit.
Restore:
Resets the pending value back to the committed packing.

#Choosing A Value

A packing value must support the number of states in the ruleset, including dead. The maximum state count is $\max\left(2^\texttt{bitsPerCell},\,256\right)$ :

Bits/cell	States	Cells per `u32` word
$1$	$2$	$32$
$2$	$4$	$16$
$4$	$16$	$8$
$8$	$256$	$4$
$16$	$256$	$2$
$32$	$256$	$1$

As covered in the benchmark results, tighter packings are most useful when recording and to support larger grids, while wider packings are better suited to non-recording runs with small grids and to rulesets that need more tribes.

The app disables packing choices that cannot represent the current tribe count. If a preset or snapshot requires more states, the app chooses the smallest fitting format that also fits current buffer limits.