A visual media processing method includes determining that a first video block of a visual media data uses a geometric partitioning mode (GPM) and a second video block of the visual media data uses a non-GPM mode; constructing, based on a unified pruning process, a first merge list for the first video block and a second merge list for the second video block, wherein the first merge list and the second merge list comprise merge candidates, and the pruning process includes adding a new merge candidate to the merge list based on comparing motion information of the new merge candidate with motion information of at least one merge candidate in the merge list, wherein the GPM comprises splitting the first video block into multiple prediction partitions to apply motion prediction separately, and at least one partition having a non-rectangular shape.