Quote:

Can it be beneficial to include a technique that compiles a shader at 2_0 even if the exact same shader can be compiled at 1_1?



No. The rule of thumb is, always use the lowest version that works.. however, most modern cards perform well on 2.0 so its really not a problem (GeForce FX cards were terrible at 2.0, but if you dont care about them...)

Quote:

How can a vertex have a normal?



How can it not? Triangles dont really exist in direct 3d, only vertices. That is, there is no real polygon normal.. only the vertex normal, and the polygon that is eventually drawn has the normal interpolated fomr each vertex.

Think of a vertex as a vector, not a point.

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