Normal Vector Encoder/Decoder

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• Encoding float3 normal vectors to uint16 by using optimized spherical coords together with alias method, with a bounded error less than 0.562432 degree.

• Both encoding and decoding are very fast. Encoding do use a search process to map jagged array entry to a linearized index, but the searching is short and cache friendly. (5 steps at most, <2 steps in average). Decoding don't do any searching at all.

• Encoder need a 3172-bytes look up table, while decoder only needs 1362 bytes. (can be further reduced to 1/2 if exploit symmetries)

• The code is not carefully optimized.

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• Normal Encoding ref: J. Smith, G. Petrova, S. Schaefe, Encoding Normal Vectors using Optimized Spherical Coordinates. http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/schaefer/research/normalCompression.pdf

• Alias Method ref: Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 2, Sect. 3.4.1, ex. 7.