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primitive restart
A special marker value in an index list that says 'stop this strip of connected shapes and start a new one.'
When drawing connected shapes like triangle strips, vertices are referenced by an index list. A primitive restart is a reserved index value that breaks the strip so the next vertices begin a fresh, disconnected strip instead of joining the old one. This lets many separate strips be drawn in a single call. Systems must decide whether primitive IDs continue counting or reset across that restart boundary.
See also
- primitiveThe basic shape a GPU actually draws — a point, a line, or a triangle.
- primitive assemblyThe pipeline stage that groups individual vertices into the actual shapes (triangles, lines) to be drawn.
- pipelineThe ordered assembly line of stages a GPU runs to turn 3D geometry into the colored pixels on screen.