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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / platform / external / mesa3d / 10378919d76a6ad4bc4fbb921424807cb469d791 / . / docs / intro.html
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Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]1<HTML>
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3<TITLE>Mesa Introduction</TITLE>
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5<BODY text="#000000" bgcolor="#55bbff">
6
7<H1>Introduction</H1>
8
9<p>
10Mesa is a 3-D graphics library with an API which is very similar to
11that of <a href="http://www.opengl.org/" target="_parent">OpenGL</a>.*
12To the extent that Mesa utilizes the OpenGL command syntax or state
13machine, it is being used with authorization from <a
14href="http://www.sgi.com/" target="_parent">Silicon Graphics,
15Inc.</a>(SGI). However, the author does not possess an OpenGL license
16from SGI, and makes no claim that Mesa is in any way a compatible
17replacement for OpenGL or associated with SGI. Those who want a
18licensed implementation of OpenGL should contact a licensed
19vendor.
20</p>
21
22<p>
23Please do not refer to the library as <em>MesaGL</em> (for legal
24reasons). It's just <em>Mesa</em> or <em>The Mesa 3-D graphics
25library</em>. <br>
26</p>
27
28<p>
29* OpenGL is a trademark of <a href="http://www.sgi.com/"
30target="_parent">Silicon Graphics Incorporated</a>.
31</p>
32
33
34<H1>Project History</H1>
35
36<p>
37The Mesa project was founded by me, Brian Paul. Here's a short history
38of the project.
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>
83October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implementes the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
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>
115November 2001: I cofound <a href="http://www.tungstengraphics.com" target="_parent">
116Tungsten Graphics, Inc.</a> with Keith Whitwell, Jens Owen, David Dawes and
117Frank LaMonica.
118I continue to develop Mesa as part of my resposibilities with Tungsten
119Graphics and as a spare-time project.
120</p>
121
122<p>
123November 2002: Mesa 5.0 is released.
124It implements the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
125</p>
126
127<p>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]128January 2003: Mesa 6.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.5
129specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
130GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
131</p>
132
133
134<p>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]135Ongoing: Mesa is used as the core of many hardware OpenGL drivers for XFree86
136within the
137<A href="http://dri.sourceforge.net/" target="_parent">DRI project</A>.
138I continue to enhance Mesa with new extensions and features.
139</p>
140
141
142
143<H1>Major Versions</H1>
144
145<p>
146This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa. Note that Mesa's major
147version number tracks OpenGL's minor version number.
148</p>
149
150
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]151<H2>Version 6.x features</H2>
152<p>
153Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
154extensions incorporated as standard features:
155</p>
156<ul>
157<li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
158<li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]159<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
160</ul>
161<p>
162Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
163for the sake of consistency. The old names will still be valid.
164</p>
165<pre>
166New Name Old Name
167------------------------------------------------------------
168GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
169GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
170GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
171GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
172GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
173GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
174GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
175GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
176GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
177GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
178GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
179GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
180GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
181</pre>
182<p>
183See the
184<a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html" target="_parent">
185OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
186</p>
187
188
189
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]190<H2>Version 5.x features</H2>
191<p>
192Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
193extensions incorporated as standard features:
194</p>
195<ul>
196<li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
197<li>GL_ARB_shadow
198<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
199<li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
200<li>GL_ARB_window_pos
201<li>GL_EXT_blend_color
202<li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
203<li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
204<li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
205<li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
206<li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
207<li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
208<li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
209<li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
210<li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
Brian Paul3a604da2003-08-28 03:10:00 +0000[diff] [blame]211<li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]212<li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
213</ul>
214
215
216<H2>Version 4.x features</H2>
217
218<p>
219Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
220extensions incorporated as standard features:
221</p>
222
223<ul>
224<li>GL_ARB_multisample
225<li>GL_ARB_multitexture
226<li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
227<li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
228<li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
229<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
230<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
231<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
232<li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
233</ul>
234
235<H2>Version 3.x features</H2>
236
237<p>
238Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
239features:
240</p>
241<ul>
242<li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
243<li>New texture border clamp mode
244<li>glDrawRangeElements()
245<li>standard 3-D texturing
246<li>advanced MIPMAP control
247<li>separate specular color interpolation
248</ul>
249
250
251<H2>Version 2.x features</H2>
252<p>
253Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
254features.
255</p>
256<ul>
257<li>Texture mapping:
258 <ul>
259 <li>glAreTexturesResident
260 <li>glBindTexture
261 <li>glCopyTexImage1D
262 <li>glCopyTexImage2D
263 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
264 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
265 <li>glDeleteTextures
266 <li>glGenTextures
267 <li>glIsTexture
268 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
269 <li>glTexSubImage1D
270 <li>glTexSubImage2D
271 </ul>
272<li>Vertex Arrays:
273 <ul>
274 <li>glArrayElement
275 <li>glColorPointer
276 <li>glDrawElements
277 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
278 <li>glIndexPointer
279 <li>glInterleavedArrays
280 <li>glNormalPointer
281 <li>glTexCoordPointer
282 <li>glVertexPointer
283 </ul>
284<li>Client state management:
285 <ul>
286 <li>glDisableClientState
287 <li>glEnableClientState
288 <li>glPopClientAttrib
289 <li>glPushClientAttrib
290 </ul>
291<li>Misc:
292 <ul>
293 <li>glGetPointer
294 <li>glIndexub
295 <li>glIndexubv
296 <li>glPolygonOffset
297 </ul>
298</ul>
299
300
301</body>
302</html>