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tessellation
A GPU stage that subdivides coarse shapes into many finer triangles for extra detail.
Instead of storing a highly detailed mesh, an artist can supply coarse patches and let the GPU generate dense geometry on the fly through tessellation, adjusting detail by distance. It runs between the vertex and geometry stages via the tessellation shaders. It is a genuinely optional hardware feature, so a renderer must not claim to support it before it actually works.
See also
- TCS / TESThe two GPU shader stages that control and then generate the extra geometry when a surface is subdivided.
- tessellationShaderThe Vulkan on/off flag declaring whether a GPU driver actually supports tessellation.
- topologyHow a GPU interprets a list of vertices — as separate points, connected lines, or triangles.