Vertex shaders

Definition:
A vertex shader is a graphics processing function used to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment.


Software support:
Microsoft's Direct 3D and Silicon Graphic's OpenGL supports shaders.


Description:
The purpose of vertex shaders is to transform each vertex's 3D position in virtual space to the 2D co-ordinate at which it appears on the screen. Vertex shaders can manipulate properties such as position, color, and texture coordinate, but cannot create new vertices. In simlple language, vertex shaders are used to smoothen up the sharp regions.