Geometry Primitives
A primitive refers to a unit of geometry. When rendered, a primitive is a single draw call, and how it's rendered, as points or triangles, depends on the type of primitive it is.
There are several types of primitives that can be defined for geometry:
- Mesh
- Particles
- Quadric:
- Sphere
- Cylinder
- Torus
- Disc
Mesh
A mesh has vertex references to points to represent triangles, and renders as a solid shape.
Particles
A particle has vertex references to points to represent the points of a particle system, and renders as a point sprites.
Quadric Primitives
A quadric primitive is defined by a simple mathematical function and has a single vertex references to point to represent the center of the shape. These are simple, light-weight primitives that can render quickly, or used for other non-rendering purposes such as volumes. The geometry of quadric primitives is instanced, so drawing many spheres, for example, only uses a single sphere mesh.
There are several types of quadric primitive shapes:
- Sphere
- Cylinder
- Torus
- Disc
When selecting the geometry type from geometry shape nodes, the type "Primitive" refers to these quadric shape types.