A system, method and computer program product are provided for programmable vertex processing. Initially, a vertex program is identified including branch labels and instruction sequences with branch commands. The vertex program is then converted to a binary format capable of being executed by a hardware graphics pipeline. The vertex program may then be executed in the binary format utilizing the hardware graphics pipeline for transforming vertices. As an option, the vertex program is initially written in a textual format capable of being read by a human prior to being converted.