Methods and devices for lossy encoding of point clouds. Rate-distortion optimization is used in coding an occupancy pattern for a sub-volume to determine whether to invert any of the bits of the occupancy pattern. The assessment may be a greedy evaluation of whether to invert bits in the coding order. Inverting a bit of the occupancy pattern amounts to adding or removing a point from the point cloud. A distortion metric may measure distance between the point added or removed and its nearest neighbouring point.