Aspects of this disclosure relate to a process for rendering graphics that includes performing, with a hardware unit of a graphics processing unit (GPU) designated for vertex shading, a vertex shading operation to shade input vertices so as to output vertex shaded vertices, wherein the hardware unit adheres to an interface that receives a single vertex as an input and generates a single vertex as an output. The process also includes performing, with the hardware unit of the GPU designated for vertex shading, a hull shading operation to generate one or more control points based on one or more of the vertex shaded vertices, wherein the one or more hull shading operations operate on at least one of the one or more vertex shaded vertices to output the one or more control points.