| Tessellation |
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| June 2011 | |
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The word "tessellate" means to form or arrange small squares in a checker or mosaic pattern. A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures (such as triangles, squares, hexagons etc) that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. In the subject of computer graphics, tessellation techniques are often used to manage datasets of polygons and divide them into suitable structures for rendering. Normally, the dataset is tessellated into triangles for real time rendering and this is sometimes referred to as triangulation. Tessellation is a staple feature of DirectX 11 and OpenGL. The example below shows that tessellation provides more sophisticated animations with more details on all edges and realistic shadows. 
These screen captures from the Heaven benchmark show DX11’s tessellation
enabled (right) and
disabled (left). Notice how the extra polygons add
detail and shape to the walls, road, and roof tiles.
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