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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / platform / external / mesa3d / 0791484c4233f3b474b1d9ba1af2f4608fe7e962 / . / docs / intro.html
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2<html lang="en">
3<head>
4 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
5 <title>Mesa Introduction</title>
6 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mesa.css">
7</head>
8<body>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]9
Andreas Bollecd5c7c2012-06-12 09:05:03 +0200[diff] [blame]10<h1>Introduction</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]11
12<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]13Mesa is an open-source implementation of the
14<a href="http://www.opengl.org/" target="_parent">OpenGL</a> specification -
15a system for rendering interactive 3D graphics.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]16</p>
17
18<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]19A variety of device drivers allows Mesa to be used in many different
20environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware acceleration
21for modern GPUs.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]22</p>
23
24<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]25Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the
Timo Jyrinki385d6b22008-08-26 12:36:39 -0600[diff] [blame]26<a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/" target="_parent">Direct Rendering
27Infrastructure</a> and <a href="http://x.org" target="_parent">X.org</a> to
28provide OpenGL support to users of X on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating
29systems.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]30</p>
31
32
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]33
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]34<h1>Project History</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]35
36<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]37The Mesa project was originally started by Brian Paul.
38Here's a short history of the project.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]39</p>
40
41<p>
42August, 1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time. The project
43has no name at that point. I was simply interested in writing a simple
443D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API. I was partially
45inspired by the <em>VOGL</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
46I had been programming with IRIS GL since 1991.
47</p>
48
49<p>
50November 1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
51graphics library on the internet. SGI was generally receptive to the
52idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
53to release it.
54</p>
55
56<p>
57February 1995: Mesa 1.0 is released on the internet. I expected that
58a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
59I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
60daily basis. That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa. The
61name Mesa just popped into my head one day. SGI had asked me not to use
62the terms <em>"Open"</em> or <em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
63want to make up a new acronym. Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
64language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
65</p>
66
67<p>
68In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
69It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
70Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
71For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
72I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
73the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
74</p>
75
76
77<p>
781995-1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
79my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
80of Wisconsin in Madison. My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
81Mesa is now being using for the <a href="http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html" target="_parent">Vis5D</a> project.
82</p><p>
Brian Paul30aea492005-07-01 01:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]83October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]84</p>
85
86<p>
87March 1997: Mesa 2.2 is released. It supports the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics
88card via the Glide library. It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
89implementation for Linux.
90</p>
91
92<p>
93September 1998: Mesa 3.0 is released. It's the first publicly-available
94implementation of the OpenGL 1.2 API.
95</p>
96
97<p>
98March 1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting. I contribute to the
99development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
100</p>
101
102<p>
103September 1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc. Mesa is a key
104component of 3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
105Drivers for 3dfx, 3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
106</p>
107
108<p>
109October 2001: Mesa 4.0 is released.
110It implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification.
111</p>
112
113
114<p>
Brian Paul30cd76e2010-08-26 11:20:31 -0600[diff] [blame]115November 2001: I cofounded Tungsten Graphics, Inc. with Keith Whitwell,
116Jens Owen, David Dawes and Frank LaMonica.
117Tungsten Graphics was acquired by VMware in December 2008.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]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 Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]136<p>
1372008: Keith Whitwell and other Tungsten Graphics employees develop
138<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium3D" target="_parent">Gallium</a>
139- a new GPU abstraction layer. The latest Mesa drivers are based on
140Gallium and other APIs such as OpenVG are implemented on top of Gallium.
141</p>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]142
143<p>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]144February 2012: Mesa 8.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 3.0 specification
145and version 1.30 of the OpenGL Shading Language.
146</p>
147
148<p>
149Ongoing: Mesa is the OpenGL implementation for several types of hardware
150made by Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, plus the VMware virtual GPU.
151There's also several software-based renderers: swrast (the legacy
152Mesa rasterizer), softpipe (a gallium reference driver) and llvmpipe
153(LLVM/JIT-based high-speed rasterizer).
154Work continues on the drivers and core Mesa to implement newer versions
155of the OpenGL specification.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]156</p>
157
158
159
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]160<h1>Major Versions</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]161
162<p>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]163This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
164Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
165of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
166</p>
167
168
Ian Romanick07914842012-08-30 13:55:02 -0700[diff] [blame^]169<h2>Version 9.x features</h2>
170<p>
171Version 9.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.1 API.
172While the driver for Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is the only
173driver to support OpenGL 3.1, many developers across the open-source
174community contributed features required for OpenGL 3.1. The primary
175features added since the Mesa 8.0 release are
176GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object and GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object.
177</p>
178
179
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]180<h2>Version 8.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]181<p>
182Version 8.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.0 API.
183The developers at Intel deserve a lot of credit for implementing most
184of the OpenGL 3.0 features in core Mesa, the GLSL compiler as well as
185the i965 driver.
186</p>
187
188
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]189<h2>Version 7.x features</h2>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]190<p>
191Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API. The main feature
192of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]193</p>
194
195
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]196<h2>Version 6.x features</h2>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]197<p>
198Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
199extensions incorporated as standard features:
200</p>
201<ul>
202<li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
203<li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]204<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
205</ul>
206<p>
207Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]208for the sake of consistency.
209The old tokens are still available.
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]210</p>
211<pre>
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]212New Token Old Token
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]213------------------------------------------------------------
214GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
215GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
216GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
217GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
218GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
219GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
220GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
221GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
222GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
223GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
224GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
225GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
226GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
227</pre>
228<p>
229See the
230<a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html" target="_parent">
231OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
232</p>
233
234
235
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]236<h2>Version 5.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]237<p>
238Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
239extensions incorporated as standard features:
240</p>
241<ul>
242<li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
243<li>GL_ARB_shadow
244<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
245<li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
246<li>GL_ARB_window_pos
247<li>GL_EXT_blend_color
248<li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
249<li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
250<li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
251<li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
252<li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
253<li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
254<li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
255<li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
256<li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
Brian Paul3a604da2003-08-28 03:10:00 +0000[diff] [blame]257<li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]258<li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
259</ul>
260
261
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]262<h2>Version 4.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]263
264<p>
265Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
266extensions incorporated as standard features:
267</p>
268
269<ul>
270<li>GL_ARB_multisample
271<li>GL_ARB_multitexture
272<li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
273<li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
274<li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
275<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
276<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
277<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
278<li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
279</ul>
280
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]281<h2>Version 3.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]282
283<p>
284Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
285features:
286</p>
287<ul>
288<li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
289<li>New texture border clamp mode
290<li>glDrawRangeElements()
291<li>standard 3-D texturing
292<li>advanced MIPMAP control
293<li>separate specular color interpolation
294</ul>
295
296
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]297<h2>Version 2.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]298<p>
299Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
300features.
301</p>
302<ul>
303<li>Texture mapping:
304 <ul>
305 <li>glAreTexturesResident
306 <li>glBindTexture
307 <li>glCopyTexImage1D
308 <li>glCopyTexImage2D
309 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
310 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
311 <li>glDeleteTextures
312 <li>glGenTextures
313 <li>glIsTexture
314 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
315 <li>glTexSubImage1D
316 <li>glTexSubImage2D
317 </ul>
318<li>Vertex Arrays:
319 <ul>
320 <li>glArrayElement
321 <li>glColorPointer
322 <li>glDrawElements
323 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
324 <li>glIndexPointer
325 <li>glInterleavedArrays
326 <li>glNormalPointer
327 <li>glTexCoordPointer
328 <li>glVertexPointer
329 </ul>
330<li>Client state management:
331 <ul>
332 <li>glDisableClientState
333 <li>glEnableClientState
334 <li>glPopClientAttrib
335 <li>glPushClientAttrib
336 </ul>
337<li>Misc:
338 <ul>
339 <li>glGetPointer
340 <li>glIndexub
341 <li>glIndexubv
342 <li>glPolygonOffset
343 </ul>
344</ul>
345
346
347</body>
348</html>