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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / platform / external / mesa3d / 4d864b087e9c998b28b37e10d41418edbaba9fab / . / 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
131
132<p>
Brian Paul30aea492005-07-01 01:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]133Ongoing: Mesa is used as the core of many hardware OpenGL drivers for
134the XFree86 X.org X servers within the
Adam Jacksond78834b2005-11-03 20:49:07 +0000[diff] [blame]135<A href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/" target="_parent">DRI project</A>.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]136I continue to enhance Mesa with new extensions and features.
137</p>
138
139
140
141<H1>Major Versions</H1>
142
143<p>
144This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa. Note that Mesa's major
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]145version number tracks OpenGL's minor version number (+1).
146Work is underway to implement the OpenGL 2.0 specification.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]147</p>
148
149
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]150<H2>Version 6.x features</H2>
151<p>
152Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
153extensions incorporated as standard features:
154</p>
155<ul>
156<li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
157<li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]158<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
159</ul>
160<p>
161Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]162for the sake of consistency.
163The old tokens are still available.
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]164</p>
165<pre>
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]166New Token Old Token
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]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>