Each of the tessellation levels is used to determine the number and spacing
of segments used to subdivide a corresponding edge.
The method used to derive the number and spacing of segments is specified by
an OpExecutionMode
in the tessellation control or tessellation
evaluation shader using one of the identifiers SpacingEqual
,
SpacingFractionalEven
, or SpacingFractionalOdd
.
If SpacingEqual
is used, the floating-point tessellation level is first
clamped to [1, maxLevel
], where maxLevel
is the
implementation-dependent maximum tessellation level
(VkPhysicalDeviceLimits
::maxTessellationGenerationLevel
).
The result is rounded up to the nearest integer n, and the
corresponding edge is divided into n segments of equal length in (u,v)
space.
If SpacingFractionalEven
is used, the tessellation level is first
clamped to [2, maxLevel
] and then rounded up to the nearest even
integer n.
If SpacingFractionalOdd
is used, the tessellation level is clamped to
[1, maxLevel
- 1] and then rounded up to the nearest odd integer
n.
If n is one, the edge will not be subdivided.
Otherwise, the corresponding edge will be divided into n - 2 segments
of equal length, and two additional segments of equal length that are
typically shorter than the other segments.
The length of the two additional segments relative to the others will
decrease monotonically with n - f, where f is the clamped
floating-point tessellation level.
When n - f is zero, the additional segments will have equal length to
the other segments.
As n - f approaches 2.0, the relative length of the additional
segments approaches zero.
The two additional segments must be placed symmetrically on opposite sides
of the subdivided edge.
The relative location of these two segments is implementation-dependent, but
must be identical for any pair of subdivided edges with identical values of
f.
When the tessellator produces triangles (in the Triangles
or Quads
modes), the orientation of all triangles is specified with an
OpExecutionMode
of VertexOrderCw
or VertexOrderCcw
in the
tessellation control or tessellation evaluation shaders.
If the order is VertexOrderCw
, the vertices of all generated triangles
will have clockwise ordering in (u,v) or (u,v,w) space.
If the order is VertexOrderCcw
, the vertices will have
counter-clockwise ordering.
The vertices of a triangle have counter-clockwise ordering if
is positive, and clockwise ordering if a is negative. ui and vi are the u and v coordinates in normalized parameter space of the ith vertex of the triangle.
![]() | Note |
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The value a is proportional (with a positive factor) to the signed area of the triangle. In |
For all primitive modes, the tessellator is capable of generating points
instead of lines or triangles.
If the tessellation control or tessellation evaluation shader specifies the
OpExecutionMode
PointMode
, the primitive generator will generate
one point for each distinct vertex produced by tessellation.
Otherwise, the tessellator will produce a collection of line segments or
triangles according to the primitive mode.
When tessellating triangles or quads in point mode with fractional odd
spacing, the tessellator may produce interior vertices that are
positioned on the edge of the patch if an inner tessellation level is less
than or equal to one.
Such vertices are considered distinct from vertices produced by subdividing
the outer edge of the patch, even if there are pairs of vertices with
identical coordinates.
The points, lines, or triangles produced by the tessellator are passed to subsequent pipeline stages in an implementation-dependent order.