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fragment
A fragment is a candidate pixel produced when the GPU rasterizes a triangle, before it is finalized on screen.
Rasterization turns each triangle into a grid of fragments — one per pixel it covers — each carrying interpolated data like color, depth, and texture coordinates. A fragment is only a candidate: depth tests, blending, or the fragment shader can modify or discard it before it becomes an actual pixel in the framebuffer. So 'fragment' and 'pixel' are close but not identical: many fragments may compete for one final pixel.
See also
- fragment shaderA fragment shader is a small program the GPU runs for every fragment to decide its final color.
- framebufferA framebuffer is the block of memory holding the image being rendered, essentially the picture that becomes the screen.
- frustum clippingFrustum clipping discards or trims geometry that falls outside the pyramid-shaped volume the camera can actually see.
Referenced by
fragment shader · framebuffer · frustum clipping · gradient quad · immediate-mode UI