Primitives

A 3D primitive is a collection of vertices that form a single 3D entity.

In this section

Topic	Description
Point lists	A point list is a collection of vertices that are rendered as isolated points. Your application can use point lists in 3D scenes for star fields, or dotted lines on the surface of a polygon.
Line lists	A line list is a list of isolated, straight line segments. Line lists are useful for such tasks as adding sleet or heavy rain to a 3D scene. Applications create a line list by filling an array of vertices.
Line strips	A line strip is a primitive that is composed of connected line segments. Your application can use line strips for creating polygons that are not closed. A closed polygon is a polygon whose last vertex is connected to its first vertex by a line segment.
Triangle lists	A triangle list is a list of isolated triangles. The isolated triangles might or might not be near each other. A triangle list must have at least three vertices and the total number of vertices must be divisible by three.
Triangle strips	A triangle strip is a series of connected triangles. Because the triangles are connected, the application does not need to repeatedly specify all three vertices for each triangle.