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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 Bollb5da52a2012-09-18 18:57:02 +0200[diff] [blame]10<div class="header">
11 <h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
12</div>
13
14<iframe src="contents.html"></iframe>
15<div class="content">
16
Andreas Bollecd5c7c2012-06-12 09:05:03 +0200[diff] [blame]17<h1>Introduction</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]18
19<p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]20The Mesa project began as an open-source implementation of the
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame^]21<a href="https://www.opengl.org/">OpenGL</a> specification -
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]22a system for rendering interactive 3D graphics.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]23</p>
24
25<p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]26Over the years the project has grown to implement more graphics APIs,
27including
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame^]28<a href="https://www.khronos.org/opengles/">OpenGL ES</a> (versions 1, 2, 3),
29<a href="https://www.khronos.org/opencl/">OpenCL</a>,
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]30<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU">VDPAU</a> and
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame^]31<a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan</a>.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]32</p>
33
34<p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]35A variety of device drivers allows the Mesa libraries to be used in many
36different environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware
37acceleration for modern GPUs.
38</p>
39
40<p>
41Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame^]42<a href="https://dri.freedesktop.org/">Direct Rendering
43Infrastructure</a> and <a href="https://x.org">X.org</a> to
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]44provide OpenGL support on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating
Timo Jyrinki385d6b22008-08-26 12:36:39 -0600[diff] [blame]45systems.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]46</p>
47
48
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]49
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]50<h1>Project History</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]51
52<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]53The Mesa project was originally started by Brian Paul.
54Here's a short history of the project.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]55</p>
56
57<p>
58August, 1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time. The project
59has no name at that point. I was simply interested in writing a simple
603D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API. I was partially
61inspired by the <em>VOGL</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
62I had been programming with IRIS GL since 1991.
63</p>
64
65<p>
66November 1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
67graphics library on the internet. SGI was generally receptive to the
68idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
69to release it.
70</p>
71
72<p>
73February 1995: Mesa 1.0 is released on the internet. I expected that
74a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
75I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
76daily basis. That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa. The
77name Mesa just popped into my head one day. SGI had asked me not to use
78the terms <em>"Open"</em> or <em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
79want to make up a new acronym. Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
80language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
81</p>
82
83<p>
84In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
85It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
86Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
87For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
88I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
89the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
90</p>
91
92
93<p>
941995-1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
95my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
96of Wisconsin in Madison. My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame^]97Mesa is now being using for the <a href="https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html">Vis5D</a> project.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]98</p><p>
Brian Paul30aea492005-07-01 01:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]99October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]100</p>
101
102<p>
103March 1997: Mesa 2.2 is released. It supports the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics
104card via the Glide library. It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
105implementation for Linux.
106</p>
107
108<p>
109September 1998: Mesa 3.0 is released. It's the first publicly-available
110implementation of the OpenGL 1.2 API.
111</p>
112
113<p>
114March 1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting. I contribute to the
115development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
116</p>
117
118<p>
119September 1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc. Mesa is a key
120component of 3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
121Drivers for 3dfx, 3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
122</p>
123
124<p>
125October 2001: Mesa 4.0 is released.
126It implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification.
127</p>
128
129
130<p>
Brian Paul30cd76e2010-08-26 11:20:31 -0600[diff] [blame]131November 2001: I cofounded Tungsten Graphics, Inc. with Keith Whitwell,
132Jens Owen, David Dawes and Frank LaMonica.
133Tungsten Graphics was acquired by VMware in December 2008.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]134</p>
135
136<p>
137November 2002: Mesa 5.0 is released.
138It implements the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
139</p>
140
141<p>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]142January 2003: Mesa 6.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.5
143specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
144GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
145</p>
146
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]147<p>
Brian02dd2222007-06-28 16:44:24 -0600[diff] [blame]148June 2007: Mesa 7.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 2.1 specification
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]149and OpenGL Shading Language.
150</p>
151
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]152<p>
1532008: Keith Whitwell and other Tungsten Graphics employees develop
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame^]154<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium3D">Gallium</a>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]155- a new GPU abstraction layer. The latest Mesa drivers are based on
156Gallium and other APIs such as OpenVG are implemented on top of Gallium.
157</p>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]158
159<p>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]160February 2012: Mesa 8.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 3.0 specification
161and version 1.30 of the OpenGL Shading Language.
162</p>
163
164<p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]165July 2016: Mesa 12.0 is released, including OpenGL 4.3 support and initial
166support for Vulkan for Intel GPUs. Plus, there's another gallium software
167driver ("swr") based on LLVM and developed by Intel.
168</p>
169
170<p>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]171Ongoing: Mesa is the OpenGL implementation for several types of hardware
172made by Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, plus the VMware virtual GPU.
173There's also several software-based renderers: swrast (the legacy
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]174Mesa rasterizer), softpipe (a gallium reference driver), llvmpipe
175(LLVM/JIT-based high-speed rasterizer) and swr (another LLVM-based driver).
176</p>
177<p>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]178Work continues on the drivers and core Mesa to implement newer versions
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]179of the OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan specifications.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]180</p>
181
182
183
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]184<h1>Major Versions</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]185
186<p>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]187This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
188Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
189of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
190</p>
191
192
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]193<h2>Version 12.x features</h2>
194<p>
195Version 12.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.3 API, but not all drivers
196support OpenGL 4.3.
197</p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]198<p>
199Initial support for Vulkan is also included.
200</p>
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]201
202
203<h2>Version 11.x features</h2>
204<p>
205Version 11.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.1 API, but not all drivers
206support OpenGL 4.1.
207</p>
208
209
210<h2>Version 10.x features</h2>
211<p>
212Version 10.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.3 API, but not all drivers
213support OpenGL 3.3.
214</p>
215
216
Ian Romanick07914842012-08-30 13:55:02 -0700[diff] [blame]217<h2>Version 9.x features</h2>
218<p>
219Version 9.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.1 API.
220While the driver for Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is the only
221driver to support OpenGL 3.1, many developers across the open-source
222community contributed features required for OpenGL 3.1. The primary
223features added since the Mesa 8.0 release are
224GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object and GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object.
225</p>
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]226<p>
227Version 9.0 of Mesa also included the first release of the Clover state
228tracker for OpenCL.
229</p>
Ian Romanick07914842012-08-30 13:55:02 -0700[diff] [blame]230
231
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]232<h2>Version 8.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]233<p>
234Version 8.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.0 API.
235The developers at Intel deserve a lot of credit for implementing most
236of the OpenGL 3.0 features in core Mesa, the GLSL compiler as well as
237the i965 driver.
238</p>
239
240
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]241<h2>Version 7.x features</h2>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]242<p>
243Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API. The main feature
244of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]245</p>
246
247
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]248<h2>Version 6.x features</h2>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]249<p>
250Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
251extensions incorporated as standard features:
252</p>
253<ul>
254<li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
255<li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]256<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
257</ul>
258<p>
259Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]260for the sake of consistency.
261The old tokens are still available.
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]262</p>
263<pre>
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]264New Token Old Token
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]265------------------------------------------------------------
266GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
267GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
268GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
269GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
270GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
271GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
272GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
273GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
274GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
275GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
276GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
277GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
278GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
279</pre>
280<p>
281See the
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame^]282<a href="https://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html">
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]283OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
284</p>
285
286
287
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]288<h2>Version 5.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]289<p>
290Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
291extensions incorporated as standard features:
292</p>
293<ul>
294<li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
295<li>GL_ARB_shadow
296<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
297<li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
298<li>GL_ARB_window_pos
299<li>GL_EXT_blend_color
300<li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
301<li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
302<li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
303<li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
304<li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
305<li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
306<li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
307<li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
308<li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
Brian Paul3a604da2003-08-28 03:10:00 +0000[diff] [blame]309<li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]310<li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
311</ul>
312
313
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]314<h2>Version 4.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]315
316<p>
317Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
318extensions incorporated as standard features:
319</p>
320
321<ul>
322<li>GL_ARB_multisample
323<li>GL_ARB_multitexture
324<li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
325<li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
326<li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
327<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
328<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
329<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
330<li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
331</ul>
332
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]333<h2>Version 3.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]334
335<p>
336Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
337features:
338</p>
339<ul>
340<li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
341<li>New texture border clamp mode
342<li>glDrawRangeElements()
343<li>standard 3-D texturing
344<li>advanced MIPMAP control
345<li>separate specular color interpolation
346</ul>
347
348
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]349<h2>Version 2.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]350<p>
351Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
352features.
353</p>
354<ul>
355<li>Texture mapping:
356 <ul>
357 <li>glAreTexturesResident
358 <li>glBindTexture
359 <li>glCopyTexImage1D
360 <li>glCopyTexImage2D
361 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
362 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
363 <li>glDeleteTextures
364 <li>glGenTextures
365 <li>glIsTexture
366 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
367 <li>glTexSubImage1D
368 <li>glTexSubImage2D
369 </ul>
370<li>Vertex Arrays:
371 <ul>
372 <li>glArrayElement
373 <li>glColorPointer
374 <li>glDrawElements
375 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
376 <li>glIndexPointer
377 <li>glInterleavedArrays
378 <li>glNormalPointer
379 <li>glTexCoordPointer
380 <li>glVertexPointer
381 </ul>
382<li>Client state management:
383 <ul>
384 <li>glDisableClientState
385 <li>glEnableClientState
386 <li>glPopClientAttrib
387 <li>glPushClientAttrib
388 </ul>
389<li>Misc:
390 <ul>
391 <li>glGetPointer
392 <li>glIndexub
393 <li>glIndexubv
394 <li>glPolygonOffset
395 </ul>
396</ul>
397
Andreas Bollb5da52a2012-09-18 18:57:02 +0200[diff] [blame]398</div>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]399</body>
400</html>