To make it easier to start with Tessellation Shaders, here a GL4.0 example. (VS9,C++).
The file can be downloaded from here:
Update: a first performance benchmark gives around 266 Million Polygons/second using tesselation, which is slower than using a common VBO or OpenGL DisplayList (400 MPoly/s). However, its more flexible, so geometry can be rendered much more efficient.
#version 410 core
layout(vertices = 4) out;
void main(void)
{
gl_TessLevelOuter[0] = 2.0;
gl_TessLevelOuter[1] = 4.0;
gl_TessLevelOuter[2] = 6.0;
gl_TessLevelOuter[3] = 8.0;
gl_TessLevelInner[0] = 8.0;
gl_TessLevelInner[1] = 8.0;
gl_out[gl_InvocationID].gl_Position = gl_in[gl_InvocationID].gl_Position;
}
Source for the quad tessellation evaluation shader:
#version 410 core
layout(quads, equal_spacing, ccw) in;
//quad interpol
vec4 interpolate(in vec4 v0, in vec4 v1, in vec4 v2, in vec4 v3)
{
vec4 a = mix(v0, v1, gl_TessCoord.x);
vec4 b = mix(v3, v2, gl_TessCoord.x);
return mix(a, b, gl_TessCoord.y);
}
void main()
{
gl_Position = interpolate(
gl_in[0].gl_Position,
gl_in[1].gl_Position,
gl_in[2].gl_Position,
gl_in[3].gl_Position);
}

