diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 73a5efe..1c6cd98 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ else()
                 -Wdouble-promotion
                 -Wconversion -Wno-sign-conversion
                 -Werror=vla
+                $<$<STREQUAL:${CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID},Gnu>:-Wcast-align=strict>
                 $<$<STREQUAL:${CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID},Clang>:${WARNING_FLAGS_CLANG}>)
 
         set(BUILD_FLAGS
diff --git a/src/rendering/sprites.h b/src/rendering/sprites.h
index 72ef96d..6825532 100644
--- a/src/rendering/sprites.h
+++ b/src/rendering/sprites.h
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 /* interleaved vertex array data */
 /* TODO: use int16_t for uvs */
+/* TODO: use packed types? */
 /* TODO: int16_t could be used for positioning, but we would need to have more CPU calcs */
 struct sprite_primitive_payload {
     /* upper-left */
@@ -113,7 +114,7 @@ static struct sprite_batch {
         .constant_colored = true,
     };
 
-    const t_color uniform_color = primitives[0].sprite.color;
+    const uint32_t uniform_color = *(uint32_t *)&primitives[0].sprite.color;
 
     /* batch size is clamped so that reallocated short indices could be used */
     if (len >= QUAD_ELEMENT_BUFFER_LENGTH)
@@ -136,10 +137,7 @@ static struct sprite_batch {
             break;
 
         /* if all are modulated the same we can skip sending the color data */
-        if (batch.constant_colored && (current->sprite.color.r != uniform_color.r ||
-                                       current->sprite.color.g != uniform_color.g ||
-                                       current->sprite.color.b != uniform_color.b ||
-                                       current->sprite.color.a != uniform_color.a ))
+        if (batch.constant_colored && *(uint32_t *)&current->sprite.color == uniform_color)
             batch.constant_colored = false;
 
         ++batch.size;
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index 10b02af..44ea51f 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ bool strends(const char *str, const char *suffix);
 
 /* 32-bit color data */
 typedef struct color {
+_Alignas(4)
     uint8_t r;
     uint8_t g;
     uint8_t b;
@@ -85,14 +86,19 @@ typedef struct vec2 {
 
 /* a point in some space (floating point) */
 typedef struct fvec2 {
-    float x, y;
+_Alignas(8)
+    float x;
+    float y;
 } t_fvec2;
 
 
 /* a point in some three dimension space (floating point) */
 /* y goes up, x goes to the right */
 typedef struct fvec3 {
-    float x, y, z;
+_Alignas(8)
+    float x;
+    float y;
+    float z;
 } t_fvec3;
 
 
@@ -111,8 +117,11 @@ typedef struct rect {
 
 /* a rectangle with the origin at the upper left (floating point) */
 typedef struct frect {
-    float x, y;
-    float w, h;
+_Alignas(16)
+    float x;
+    float y;
+    float w;
+    float h;
 } t_frect;