float-encoding

How can I encode four unsigned bytes (0-255) to a float and back again using HLSL?

Hello! I am facing a task where one of my hlsl shaders require multiple texture lookups per pixel. My 2d textures are fixed to 256*256, so two bytes should be sufficient to address any given texel given this constraint. My idea is then to put two xy-coordinates in each float, giving me eight xy-coordinates in pixel space when packed in ...