Tessellation

Tessellation is the technique of entirely covering a 2D space with smaller shapes so that no forms overlap and no area is left uncovered. Humans have used it 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 subdivides 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 (graphics processing unit).

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 tesseldlation tutorial. (OGLdev)
• Tessellation shaders. (Oregon State University)

Blender, CGI, Programming terms