Types of shaders

There are many shaders used in the gaming industry. They are categorized on the basis of their behavior and features. Some of the shaders are as follows:

• Pixel shaders

• Vertex shaders

• Geometry shaders

• Tessellation shaders

Let's have a detailed look at these types.

Pixel shaders

Pixel shaders are 2D shaders that work on textures or digital images. Pixel shaders process colors and other attributes of a single pixel. Each single pixel is called a fragment. This is the reason pixel shaders are often called fragment shaders.

Vertex shaders

A vertex shader mainly operates on the vertices of a mesh or model. Every mesh of a model is made up of multiple vertices. A vertex shader can only be applied to 3D models. So, a vertex shader is a type of 3D shader.

Geometry shaders

Geometry shaders are used to create new primitive graphic elements. After applying a vertex shader in order to execute a rendering pipeline, geometry shaders are used to create points, lines, and triangles to form a surface...