Views of parametric surfaces are rendered. A set of parametric surface patches representing a parametric surface being rendered is projected onto a scene, producing a set of view-projected surface patches. Each view-projected surface patch is identified for either culling, subdivision or rendering. For patches which are identified for subdivision, the patches are recursively subdivided into sub-patches until for each sub-patch a prescribed screen-space projection of the sub-patch satisfies a prescribed screen-space error metric. Once the error metric is satisfied, the sub-patch is identified for rendering. Patches and sub-patches which have been identified for rendering are prepared and rendered.