Direct3D Rendering Cookbook

Refining meshes with Phong tessellation

In this recipe, we will implement a simple technique for the local refinement of triangle meshes through tessellation—Phong tessellation. This technique, put forward by Boubekeur and Alexa in 2008, follows the same principles as Phong shading (thus the name) and normal mapping, but instead of improving the perceived visual smoothness of flat surfaces, it improves the actual smoothness of contours and silhouettes.

Phong tessellation is computationally inexpensive when compared to algorithms for approximating Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces. It still achieves smooth silhouettes and more importantly, it can be locally implemented on the tessellation hardware without requiring any additional precalculated ...