Tessellation is the technique of entirely covering a 2D space with smaller shapes in a way that none of the forms overlap, and no area is left uncovered. It has been used by humans for thousands of years to create mosaics and tiled surfaces. In ancient Greece, the small stones used to create mosaics were called “tesserae.”

Tessellation in computer graphics

In CAD (computer-aided design), tessellation is used to subdivide mesh surfaces into smaller primitive shapes. In real-time computer graphics, the surfaces of 3D objects are defined as tessellated strips of triangles, which are processed efficiently by the GPU.

Hardware tessellation is supported by graphics APIs, including OpenGL, DirectX, Vulkan, and Metal.

  • Tessellation in OpenGL 4.0. (Khronos Group)
  • Tessellation in Direct 3D 11 — What it is and why it matters. (NVIDIA)
  • Basic OpenGL tessellation tutorial. (OGLdev)
  • Tessellation shaders. (Oregon State University)

Blender, CGI, Programming terms