Quote - I also want to attach more meta-data to mesh vertices than just UV coordinates, which data would be very useful in designing sophisticated shaders.

 

That would be very cool! 
That's one arena where higher end apps have the advantage, most of them are able to link to additional info about objects, entities within a project. Applications that I use, like Autocad, Max, CS2, Macromedia stuff all have it, and make it really slick and easy to expand their usability.

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