# Surface mesh display

This display object controls the rendering of triangulated surface meshes (two-dimensional manifolds) as produced by, for example, the Construct surface mesh, Create isosurface, or Dislocation analysis modifiers.

Surfaces meshes in OVITO typically represent closed two-dimensional manifolds that may be periodic if periodic boundary conditions are active. For visualization purposes, a periodic mesh is first converted to a non-periodic representation by cutting it at the simulation cell boundaries. OVITO can generate so called 'cap polygons' to fill the holes that occur at the intersection of the closed surface with the periodic boundary.

## Parameters

Surface color

  The rendering color for the surface.

Transparency

  The degree of transparency of the surface.

Smooth shading

  Enables the interpolation of normal vectors between vertices of the polygonal mesh (also known as Gouraud shading).

Cap polygons

  This option enables the display of the cap polygons at the intersection of a closed surface with periodic boundaries.