diff --git a/code/FindInstancesProcess.cpp b/code/FindInstancesProcess.cpp
index e4a3541f4..76dfa6434 100644
--- a/code/FindInstancesProcess.cpp
+++ b/code/FindInstancesProcess.cpp
@@ -175,43 +175,32 @@ void FindInstancesProcess::Execute( aiScene* pScene)
 					// use a constant epsilon for colors and UV coordinates
 					static const float uvEpsilon = 10e-4f;
 
-					BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(4 == AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS);
-
-					// as in JIV: manually unrolled as continue wouldn't work as desired in inner loops
-					if (orig->mTextureCoords[0]) {
-						if(!CompareArrays(orig->mTextureCoords[0],inst->mTextureCoords[0],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
-							continue;
-						if (orig->mTextureCoords[1]) {
-							if(!CompareArrays(orig->mTextureCoords[1],inst->mTextureCoords[1],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
+					{
+						unsigned int i, end = orig->GetNumUVChannels();
+						for(i = 0; i < end; ++i) {
+							if (!orig->mTextureCoords[i]) {
 								continue;
-							if (orig->mTextureCoords[2]) {
-								if(!CompareArrays(orig->mTextureCoords[2],inst->mTextureCoords[2],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
-									continue;
-								if (orig->mTextureCoords[3]) {
-									if(!CompareArrays(orig->mTextureCoords[3],inst->mTextureCoords[3],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
-										continue;
-								}
+							}
+							if(!CompareArrays(orig->mTextureCoords[i],inst->mTextureCoords[i],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon)) {
+								break;	
 							}
 						}
-					}
-
-					BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(4 == AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS);
-
-					// and the same nasty stuff for vertex colors ...
-					if (orig->mColors[0]) {
-						if(!CompareArrays(orig->mColors[0],inst->mColors[0],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
+						if (i != end) {
 							continue;
-						if (orig->mTextureCoords[1]) {
-							if(!CompareArrays(orig->mColors[1],inst->mColors[1],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
+						}
+					}
+					{
+						unsigned int i, end = orig->GetNumColorChannels();
+						for(i = 0; i < end; ++i) {
+							if (!orig->mColors[i]) {
 								continue;
-							if (orig->mTextureCoords[2]) {
-								if(!CompareArrays(orig->mColors[2],inst->mColors[2],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
-									continue;
-								if (orig->mTextureCoords[3]) {
-									if(!CompareArrays(orig->mColors[3],inst->mColors[3],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon))
-										continue;
-								}
 							}
+							if(!CompareArrays(orig->mColors[i],inst->mColors[i],orig->mNumVertices,uvEpsilon)) {
+								break;	
+							}
+						}
+						if (i != end) {
+							continue;
 						}
 					}
 
diff --git a/code/JoinVerticesProcess.cpp b/code/JoinVerticesProcess.cpp
index 785837759..ff2abd728 100644
--- a/code/JoinVerticesProcess.cpp
+++ b/code/JoinVerticesProcess.cpp
@@ -115,8 +115,8 @@ void JoinVerticesProcess::Execute( aiScene* pScene)
 // Unites identical vertices in the given mesh
 int JoinVerticesProcess::ProcessMesh( aiMesh* pMesh, unsigned int meshIndex)
 {
-	BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT( AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS    == 4);
-	BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT( AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_TEXTURECOORDS == 4);
+	BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT( AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS    == 8);
+	BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT( AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_TEXTURECOORDS == 8);
 
 	// Return early if we don't have any positions
 	if (!pMesh->HasPositions() || !pMesh->HasFaces()) {
@@ -168,14 +168,7 @@ int JoinVerticesProcess::ProcessMesh( aiMesh* pMesh, unsigned int meshIndex)
 
 	// Run an optimized code path if we don't have multiple UVs or vertex colors.
 	// This should yield false in more than 99% of all imports ...
-	const bool complex = (
-		pMesh->mTextureCoords[1]	||
-		pMesh->mTextureCoords[2]	|| 
-		pMesh->mTextureCoords[3]	||
-		pMesh->mColors[0]			|| 
-		pMesh->mColors[1]			|| 
-		pMesh->mColors[2]			||
-		pMesh->mColors[3] );
+	const bool complex = ( pMesh->GetNumColorChannels() > 0 || pMesh->GetNumUVChannels() > 1);
 
 	// Now check each vertex if it brings something new to the table
 	for( unsigned int a = 0; a < pMesh->mNumVertices; a++)	{
@@ -213,22 +206,48 @@ int JoinVerticesProcess::ProcessMesh( aiMesh* pMesh, unsigned int meshIndex)
 			// Actually this increases runtime performance slightly, at least if branch
 			// prediction is on our side.
 			if (complex){
-				// manually unrolled because continue wouldn't work as desired in an inner loop
+				// manually unrolled because continue wouldn't work as desired in an inner loop, 
+				// also because some compilers seem to fail the task. Colors and UV coords
+				// are interleaved since the higher entries are most likely to be
+				// zero and thus useless. By interleaving the arrays, vertices are,
+				// on average, rejected earlier.
+
+				if( (uv.texcoords[1] - v.texcoords[1]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
 				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[0], v.colors[0]) > squareEpsilon)
 					continue;
+
+				if( (uv.texcoords[2] - v.texcoords[2]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
 				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[1], v.colors[1]) > squareEpsilon)
 					continue;
+
+				if( (uv.texcoords[3] - v.texcoords[3]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
 				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[2], v.colors[2]) > squareEpsilon)
 					continue;
+
+				if( (uv.texcoords[4] - v.texcoords[4]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
 				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[3], v.colors[3]) > squareEpsilon)
 					continue;
 
-				// texture coord matching manually unrolled as well
-				if( (uv.texcoords[1] - v.texcoords[1]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+				if( (uv.texcoords[5] - v.texcoords[5]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
 					continue;
-				if( (uv.texcoords[2] - v.texcoords[2]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[4], v.colors[4]) > squareEpsilon)
 					continue;
-				if( (uv.texcoords[3] - v.texcoords[3]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+
+				if( (uv.texcoords[6] - v.texcoords[6]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
+				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[5], v.colors[5]) > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
+
+				if( (uv.texcoords[7] - v.texcoords[7]).SquareLength() > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
+				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[6], v.colors[6]) > squareEpsilon)
+					continue;
+				
+				if( GetColorDifference( uv.colors[7], v.colors[7]) > squareEpsilon)
 					continue;
 			}
 
diff --git a/include/aiMesh.h b/include/aiMesh.h
index 4637535dc..aabf12531 100644
--- a/include/aiMesh.h
+++ b/include/aiMesh.h
@@ -90,14 +90,14 @@ extern "C" {
  *  Supported number of vertex color sets per mesh. */
 
 #ifndef AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS
-#	define AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS 0x4
+#	define AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS 0x8
 #endif // !! AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_COLOR_SETS
 
 /** @def AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_TEXTURECOORDS
  *  Supported number of texture coord sets (UV(W) channels) per mesh */
 
 #ifndef AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_TEXTURECOORDS
-#	define AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_TEXTURECOORDS 0x4
+#	define AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_TEXTURECOORDS 0x8
 #endif // !! AI_MAX_NUMBER_OF_TEXTURECOORDS
 
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------