diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/Chunk.swift b/Sources/Voxelotl/Chunk.swift
index d0a1bea..87e7793 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/Chunk.swift
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/Chunk.swift
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ public struct Chunk: Hashable {
 
 public enum BlockType: Hashable {
   case air
-  case solid(_ color: Color<Float16>)
+  case solid(_ color: Color<Float>)
 }
 
 public struct Block: Hashable {
diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/Game.swift b/Sources/Voxelotl/Game.swift
index 049c038..fbad833 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/Game.swift
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/Game.swift
@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ struct Instance {
   let position: SIMD3<Float>
   let scale: SIMD3<Float>
   let rotation: simd_quatf
-  let color: Color<Float16>
+  let color: Color<Float>
 
   init(
     position: SIMD3<Float> = .zero,
     scale: SIMD3<Float> = .one,
     rotation: simd_quatf = .identity,
-    color: Color<Float16> = .white
+    color: Color<Float> = .white
   ) {
     self.position = position
     self.scale = scale
diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Material.swift b/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Material.swift
index 2f1c849..858dfba 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Material.swift
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Material.swift
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 
 public struct Material {
-  public var ambient: Color<Float16>
-  public var diffuse: Color<Float16>
-  public var specular: Color<Float16>
+  public var ambient: Color<Float>
+  public var diffuse: Color<Float>
+  public var specular: Color<Float>
   public var gloss: Float
 }
diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Mesh.swift b/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Mesh.swift
index 4e00b21..0964d28 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Mesh.swift
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Mesh.swift
@@ -18,6 +18,6 @@ public struct VertexPositionNormalTexcoord: Vertex {
 public struct VertexPositionNormalColorTexcoord: Vertex {
   var position: SIMD3<Float>
   var normal:   SIMD3<Float>
-  var color:    SIMD4<Float16>
+  var color:    SIMD4<Float>
   var texCoord: SIMD2<Float>
 }
diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Renderer.swift b/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Renderer.swift
index 2ff85c1..04869a7 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Renderer.swift
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/Renderer/Renderer.swift
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ public class Renderer {
     if mesh.vertices.isEmpty || mesh.indices.isEmpty { return nil }
 
     let vertices = mesh.vertices.map {
-      ShaderVertex(position: $0.position, normal: $0.normal, color: $0.color.reinterpretUShort, texCoord: $0.texCoord)
+      ShaderVertex(position: $0.position, normal: $0.normal, color: $0.color, texCoord: $0.texCoord)
     }
     guard let vtxBuffer = self.device.makeBuffer(
       bytes: vertices,
@@ -165,9 +165,9 @@ public class Renderer {
   func createMesh(_ mesh: Mesh<VertexPositionNormalTexcoord, UInt16>) -> RendererMesh? {
     if mesh.vertices.isEmpty || mesh.indices.isEmpty { return nil }
 
-    let color = Color<Float16>.white.reinterpretUShort
+    let color = Color<Float>.white
     let vertices = mesh.vertices.map {
-      ShaderVertex(position: $0.position, normal: $0.normal, color: color, texCoord: $0.texCoord)
+      ShaderVertex(position: $0.position, normal: $0.normal, color: SIMD4(color), texCoord: $0.texCoord)
     }
     guard let vtxBuffer = self.device.makeBuffer(
       bytes: vertices,
@@ -341,21 +341,21 @@ public class Renderer {
     }
   }
 
-  func draw(model: matrix_float4x4, color: Color<Float16>, mesh: RendererMesh, material: Material, environment: Environment, camera: Camera) {
+  func draw(model: matrix_float4x4, color: Color<Float>, mesh: RendererMesh, material: Material, environment: Environment, camera: Camera) {
     assert(self._encoder != nil, "draw can't be called outside of a frame being rendered")
 
     var vertUniforms = VertexShaderUniforms(projView: camera.viewProjection)
     var fragUniforms = FragmentShaderUniforms(
       cameraPosition: camera.position,
       directionalLight: normalize(environment.lightDirection),
-      ambientColor:  material.ambient.reinterpretUShort,
-      diffuseColor:  material.diffuse.reinterpretUShort,
-      specularColor: material.specular.reinterpretUShort,
+      ambientColor:  SIMD4(material.ambient),
+      diffuseColor:  SIMD4(material.diffuse),
+      specularColor: SIMD4(material.specular),
       specularIntensity: material.gloss)
     var instance = VertexShaderInstance(
       model:       model,
       normalModel: model.inverse.transpose,
-      color:       color.reinterpretUShort)
+      color:       SIMD4(color))
 
     self._encoder.setCullMode(.init(environment.cullFace))
 
@@ -386,9 +386,9 @@ public class Renderer {
     var fragUniforms = FragmentShaderUniforms(
       cameraPosition: camera.position,
       directionalLight: normalize(environment.lightDirection),
-      ambientColor:  material.ambient.reinterpretUShort,
-      diffuseColor:  material.diffuse.reinterpretUShort,
-      specularColor: material.specular.reinterpretUShort,
+      ambientColor:  SIMD4(material.ambient),
+      diffuseColor:  SIMD4(material.diffuse),
+      specularColor: SIMD4(material.specular),
       specularIntensity: material.gloss)
 
     let numInstances = instances.count
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ public class Renderer {
           .scale(instance.scale)
         data[i] = VertexShaderInstance(
           model: model, normalModel: model.inverse.transpose,
-          color: instance.color.reinterpretUShort)
+          color: SIMD4(instance.color))
       }
     }
     instanceBuffer.didModifyRange(0..<instancesBytes)
@@ -468,17 +468,6 @@ fileprivate extension MTLCullMode {
   }
 }
 
-fileprivate extension Color where T == Float16 {
-  var reinterpretUShort: SIMD4<UInt16> {
-    .init(self.r.bitPattern, self.g.bitPattern, self.b.bitPattern, self.a.bitPattern)
-  }
-}
-fileprivate extension SIMD4 where Scalar == Float16 {
-  var reinterpretUShort: SIMD4<UInt16> {
-    .init(self.x.bitPattern, self.y.bitPattern, self.z.bitPattern, self.w.bitPattern)
-  }
-}
-
 enum RendererError: Error {
   case initFailure(_ message: String)
   case loadFailure(_ message: String)
diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/WorldGenerator.swift b/Sources/Voxelotl/WorldGenerator.swift
index ea1c056..fe3b108 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/WorldGenerator.swift
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/WorldGenerator.swift
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ struct WorldGenerator {
           + self.noise.get(fpos * 0.30) * 0.23
       return if value < threshold {
         .solid(.init(
-          hue:        Float16(180 + self.noise2.get(fpos * 0.05) * 180),
-          saturation: Float16(0.5 + self.noise2.get(SIMD4(fpos * 0.05, 4)) * 0.5),
-          value:      Float16(0.5 + self.noise2.get(SIMD4(fpos * 0.05, 9)) * 0.5).lerp(0.5, 1)).linear)
+          hue:        Float(180 + self.noise2.get(fpos * 0.05) * 180),
+          saturation: Float(0.5 + self.noise2.get(SIMD4(fpos * 0.05, 4)) * 0.5),
+          value:      Float(0.5 + self.noise2.get(SIMD4(fpos * 0.05, 9)) * 0.5).lerp(0.5, 1)).linear)
       } else {
         .air
       }
diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/shader.metal b/Sources/Voxelotl/shader.metal
index 0efb259..4614d17 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/shader.metal
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/shader.metal
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ vertex FragmentInput vertexMain(
   FragmentInput out;
   out.position = u.projView * world;
   out.world    = world.xyz;
-  out.color    = vtx[vertexID].color * i[instanceID].color;
+  out.color    = half4(vtx[vertexID].color) * half4(i[instanceID].color);
   out.normal   = (i[instanceID].normalModel * float4(vtx[vertexID].normal, 0)).xyz;
   out.texCoord = vtx[vertexID].texCoord;
   return out;
@@ -45,18 +45,18 @@ fragment half4 fragmentMain(
   // Compute diffuse component
   float lambert = metal::dot(normal, lightVec);
   float diffuseAmount = metal::max(0.0, lambert);
-  half4 diffuse = u.diffuseColor * diffuseAmount;
+  half4 diffuse = half4(u.diffuseColor) * diffuseAmount;
 
   // Compute specular component (blinn-phong)
   float specularAngle = metal::max(0.0, metal::dot(halfDir, normal));
   float specularTerm = metal::pow(specularAngle, u.specularIntensity);
   // smoothstep hack to ensure highlight tapers gracefully at grazing angles
   float specularAmount = specularTerm * metal::smoothstep(0, 2, lambert * u.specularIntensity);
-  half4 specular = u.specularColor * specularAmount;
+  half4 specular = half4(u.specularColor) * specularAmount;
 
   // Sample texture & vertex color to get albedo
   half4 albedo = texture.sample(sampler, in.texCoord);
-  albedo *= in.color;
+  albedo *= half4(in.color);
 
-  return albedo * (u.ambientColor + diffuse) + specular;
+  return albedo * (half4(u.ambientColor) + diffuse) + specular;
 }
diff --git a/Sources/Voxelotl/shadertypes.h b/Sources/Voxelotl/shadertypes.h
index ab16d91..0a9ef3d 100644
--- a/Sources/Voxelotl/shadertypes.h
+++ b/Sources/Voxelotl/shadertypes.h
@@ -10,13 +10,6 @@
 
 #include <simd/simd.h>
 
-// HACK: allow passing SIMD4<Float16> to shader while `simd_half4` is beta
-#ifdef __METAL_VERSION__
-typedef half4 color_half4;
-#else
-typedef simd_ushort4 color_half4;
-#endif
-
 typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, VertexShaderInputIdx) {
   VertexShaderInputIdxVertices = 0,
   VertexShaderInputIdxInstance = 1,
@@ -26,14 +19,14 @@ typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, VertexShaderInputIdx) {
 typedef struct {
   vector_float3 position;
   vector_float3 normal;
-  color_half4   color;
+  vector_float4 color;
   vector_float2 texCoord;
 } ShaderVertex;
 
 typedef struct {
   matrix_float4x4 model;
   matrix_float4x4 normalModel;
-  color_half4     color;
+  vector_float4   color;
 } VertexShaderInstance;
 
 typedef struct {
@@ -46,7 +39,7 @@ typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, FragmentShaderInputIdx) {
 
 typedef struct {
   vector_float3 cameraPosition, directionalLight;
-  color_half4 ambientColor, diffuseColor, specularColor;
+  vector_float4 ambientColor, diffuseColor, specularColor;
   float specularIntensity;
 } FragmentShaderUniforms;