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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / platform / external / mesa3d / 02dd2221b648f7ce03dca47965764c71ccfba4b1 / . / docs / intro.html
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3<TITLE>Mesa Introduction</TITLE>
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Brian Paul36da0452005-01-20 03:55:10 +0000[diff] [blame]5<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mesa.css"></head>
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7<BODY>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]8
9<H1>Introduction</H1>
10
11<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]12Mesa is an open-source implementation of the
13<a href="http://www.opengl.org/" target="_parent">OpenGL</a> specification -
14a system for rendering interactive 3D graphics.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]15</p>
16
17<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]18A variety of device drivers allows Mesa to be used in many different
19environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware acceleration
20for modern GPUs.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]21</p>
22
23<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]24Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the
25<a href="http://dri.sf.net/" target="_parent">Direct Rendering Infrastructure</a>
26and <a href="http://x.org" target="_parent">X.org</a> to provide OpenGL
27support to users of X on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating systems.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]28</p>
29
30
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]31
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]32<H1>Project History</H1>
33
34<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]35The Mesa project was originally started by Brian Paul.
36Here's a short history of the project.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]37</p>
38
39<p>
40August, 1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time. The project
41has no name at that point. I was simply interested in writing a simple
423D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API. I was partially
43inspired by the <em>VOGL</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
44I had been programming with IRIS GL since 1991.
45</p>
46
47<p>
48November 1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
49graphics library on the internet. SGI was generally receptive to the
50idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
51to release it.
52</p>
53
54<p>
55February 1995: Mesa 1.0 is released on the internet. I expected that
56a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
57I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
58daily basis. That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa. The
59name Mesa just popped into my head one day. SGI had asked me not to use
60the terms <em>"Open"</em> or <em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
61want to make up a new acronym. Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
62language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
63</p>
64
65<p>
66In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
67It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
68Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
69For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
70I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
71the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
72</p>
73
74
75<p>
761995-1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
77my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
78of Wisconsin in Madison. My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
79Mesa is now being using for the <a href="http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html" target="_parent">Vis5D</a> project.
80</p><p>
Brian Paul30aea492005-07-01 01:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]81October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]82</p>
83
84<p>
85March 1997: Mesa 2.2 is released. It supports the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics
86card via the Glide library. It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
87implementation for Linux.
88</p>
89
90<p>
91September 1998: Mesa 3.0 is released. It's the first publicly-available
92implementation of the OpenGL 1.2 API.
93</p>
94
95<p>
96March 1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting. I contribute to the
97development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
98</p>
99
100<p>
101September 1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc. Mesa is a key
102component of 3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
103Drivers for 3dfx, 3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
104</p>
105
106<p>
107October 2001: Mesa 4.0 is released.
108It implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification.
109</p>
110
111
112<p>
113November 2001: I cofound <a href="http://www.tungstengraphics.com" target="_parent">
114Tungsten Graphics, Inc.</a> with Keith Whitwell, Jens Owen, David Dawes and
115Frank LaMonica.
116I continue to develop Mesa as part of my resposibilities with Tungsten
117Graphics and as a spare-time project.
118</p>
119
120<p>
121November 2002: Mesa 5.0 is released.
122It implements the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
123</p>
124
125<p>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]126January 2003: Mesa 6.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.5
127specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
128GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
129</p>
130
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]131<p>
Brian02dd2222007-06-28 16:44:24 -0600[diff] [blame^]132June 2007: Mesa 7.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 2.1 specification
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]133and OpenGL Shading Language.
134</p>
135
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]136
137<p>
Brian Paul30aea492005-07-01 01:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]138Ongoing: Mesa is used as the core of many hardware OpenGL drivers for
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]139the XFree86 and X.org X servers within the
Adam Jacksond78834b2005-11-03 20:49:07 +0000[diff] [blame]140<A href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/" target="_parent">DRI project</A>.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]141I continue to enhance Mesa with new extensions and features.
142</p>
143
144
145
146<H1>Major Versions</H1>
147
148<p>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]149This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
150Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
151of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
152</p>
153
154
155<H2>Version 7.x features</H2>
156<p>
157Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API. The main feature
158of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]159</p>
160
161
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]162<H2>Version 6.x features</H2>
163<p>
164Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
165extensions incorporated as standard features:
166</p>
167<ul>
168<li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
169<li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]170<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
171</ul>
172<p>
173Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]174for the sake of consistency.
175The old tokens are still available.
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]176</p>
177<pre>
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]178New Token Old Token
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]179------------------------------------------------------------
180GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
181GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
182GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
183GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
184GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
185GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
186GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
187GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
188GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
189GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
190GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
191GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
192GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
193</pre>
194<p>
195See the
196<a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html" target="_parent">
197OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
198</p>
199
200
201
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]202<H2>Version 5.x features</H2>
203<p>
204Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
205extensions incorporated as standard features:
206</p>
207<ul>
208<li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
209<li>GL_ARB_shadow
210<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
211<li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
212<li>GL_ARB_window_pos
213<li>GL_EXT_blend_color
214<li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
215<li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
216<li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
217<li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
218<li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
219<li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
220<li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
221<li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
222<li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
Brian Paul3a604da2003-08-28 03:10:00 +0000[diff] [blame]223<li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]224<li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
225</ul>
226
227
228<H2>Version 4.x features</H2>
229
230<p>
231Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
232extensions incorporated as standard features:
233</p>
234
235<ul>
236<li>GL_ARB_multisample
237<li>GL_ARB_multitexture
238<li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
239<li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
240<li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
241<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
242<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
243<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
244<li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
245</ul>
246
247<H2>Version 3.x features</H2>
248
249<p>
250Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
251features:
252</p>
253<ul>
254<li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
255<li>New texture border clamp mode
256<li>glDrawRangeElements()
257<li>standard 3-D texturing
258<li>advanced MIPMAP control
259<li>separate specular color interpolation
260</ul>
261
262
263<H2>Version 2.x features</H2>
264<p>
265Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
266features.
267</p>
268<ul>
269<li>Texture mapping:
270 <ul>
271 <li>glAreTexturesResident
272 <li>glBindTexture
273 <li>glCopyTexImage1D
274 <li>glCopyTexImage2D
275 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
276 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
277 <li>glDeleteTextures
278 <li>glGenTextures
279 <li>glIsTexture
280 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
281 <li>glTexSubImage1D
282 <li>glTexSubImage2D
283 </ul>
284<li>Vertex Arrays:
285 <ul>
286 <li>glArrayElement
287 <li>glColorPointer
288 <li>glDrawElements
289 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
290 <li>glIndexPointer
291 <li>glInterleavedArrays
292 <li>glNormalPointer
293 <li>glTexCoordPointer
294 <li>glVertexPointer
295 </ul>
296<li>Client state management:
297 <ul>
298 <li>glDisableClientState
299 <li>glEnableClientState
300 <li>glPopClientAttrib
301 <li>glPushClientAttrib
302 </ul>
303<li>Misc:
304 <ul>
305 <li>glGetPointer
306 <li>glIndexub
307 <li>glIndexubv
308 <li>glPolygonOffset
309 </ul>
310</ul>
311
312
313</body>
314</html>