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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / platform / external / mesa3d / 7567e3ece81e1a34d4b4dc82292b404d75a25cb8 / . / docs / intro.html
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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>,
Eric Engestrom8278f1e2017-02-09 15:03:30 +0000[diff] [blame]30<a href="https://www.khronos.org/openmax/">OpenMAX</a>,
31<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU">VDPAU</a>,
32<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Acceleration_API">VA API</a>,
33<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Video_Motion_Compensation">XvMC</a> and
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame]34<a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan</a>.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]35</p>
36
37<p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]38A variety of device drivers allows the Mesa libraries to be used in many
39different environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware
40acceleration for modern GPUs.
41</p>
42
43<p>
44Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame]45<a href="https://dri.freedesktop.org/">Direct Rendering
46Infrastructure</a> and <a href="https://x.org">X.org</a> to
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]47provide OpenGL support on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating
Timo Jyrinki385d6b22008-08-26 12:36:39 -0600[diff] [blame]48systems.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]49</p>
50
51
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]52
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]53<h1>Project History</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]54
55<p>
Brian4d864b02007-04-04 09:33:12 -0600[diff] [blame]56The Mesa project was originally started by Brian Paul.
57Here's a short history of the project.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]58</p>
59
60<p>
61August, 1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time. The project
62has no name at that point. I was simply interested in writing a simple
633D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API. I was partially
64inspired by the <em>VOGL</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
65I had been programming with IRIS GL since 1991.
66</p>
67
68<p>
69November 1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
70graphics library on the internet. SGI was generally receptive to the
71idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
72to release it.
73</p>
74
75<p>
76February 1995: Mesa 1.0 is released on the internet. I expected that
77a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
78I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
79daily basis. That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa. The
80name Mesa just popped into my head one day. SGI had asked me not to use
81the terms <em>"Open"</em> or <em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
82want to make up a new acronym. Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
83language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
84</p>
85
86<p>
87In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
88It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
89Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
90For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
91I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
92the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
93</p>
94
95
96<p>
971995-1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
98my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
99of Wisconsin in Madison. My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame]100Mesa 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]101</p><p>
Brian Paul30aea492005-07-01 01:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]102October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]103</p>
104
105<p>
106March 1997: Mesa 2.2 is released. It supports the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics
107card via the Glide library. It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
108implementation for Linux.
109</p>
110
111<p>
112September 1998: Mesa 3.0 is released. It's the first publicly-available
113implementation of the OpenGL 1.2 API.
114</p>
115
116<p>
117March 1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting. I contribute to the
118development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
119</p>
120
121<p>
122September 1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc. Mesa is a key
123component of 3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
124Drivers for 3dfx, 3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
125</p>
126
127<p>
128October 2001: Mesa 4.0 is released.
129It implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification.
130</p>
131
132
133<p>
Brian Paul30cd76e2010-08-26 11:20:31 -0600[diff] [blame]134November 2001: I cofounded Tungsten Graphics, Inc. with Keith Whitwell,
135Jens Owen, David Dawes and Frank LaMonica.
136Tungsten Graphics was acquired by VMware in December 2008.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]137</p>
138
139<p>
140November 2002: Mesa 5.0 is released.
141It implements the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
142</p>
143
144<p>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]145January 2003: Mesa 6.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.5
146specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
147GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
148</p>
149
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]150<p>
Brian02dd2222007-06-28 16:44:24 -0600[diff] [blame]151June 2007: Mesa 7.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 2.1 specification
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]152and OpenGL Shading Language.
153</p>
154
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]155<p>
1562008: Keith Whitwell and other Tungsten Graphics employees develop
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame]157<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium3D">Gallium</a>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]158- a new GPU abstraction layer. The latest Mesa drivers are based on
159Gallium and other APIs such as OpenVG are implemented on top of Gallium.
160</p>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]161
162<p>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]163February 2012: Mesa 8.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 3.0 specification
164and version 1.30 of the OpenGL Shading Language.
165</p>
166
167<p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]168July 2016: Mesa 12.0 is released, including OpenGL 4.3 support and initial
169support for Vulkan for Intel GPUs. Plus, there's another gallium software
170driver ("swr") based on LLVM and developed by Intel.
171</p>
172
173<p>
Eric Engestrom6a71a692017-02-09 15:04:14 +0000[diff] [blame]174Ongoing: Mesa is the OpenGL implementation for devices designed by
175Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Vivante, plus the VMware and
176VirGL virtual GPUs.
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]177There's also several software-based renderers: swrast (the legacy
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]178Mesa rasterizer), softpipe (a gallium reference driver), llvmpipe
179(LLVM/JIT-based high-speed rasterizer) and swr (another LLVM-based driver).
180</p>
181<p>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]182Work continues on the drivers and core Mesa to implement newer versions
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]183of the OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan specifications.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]184</p>
185
186
187
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]188<h1>Major Versions</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]189
190<p>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]191This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
192Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
193of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
194</p>
195
196
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]197<h2>Version 12.x features</h2>
198<p>
199Version 12.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.3 API, but not all drivers
200support OpenGL 4.3.
201</p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]202<p>
203Initial support for Vulkan is also included.
204</p>
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]205
206
207<h2>Version 11.x features</h2>
208<p>
209Version 11.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.1 API, but not all drivers
210support OpenGL 4.1.
211</p>
212
213
214<h2>Version 10.x features</h2>
215<p>
216Version 10.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.3 API, but not all drivers
217support OpenGL 3.3.
218</p>
219
220
Ian Romanick07914842012-08-30 13:55:02 -0700[diff] [blame]221<h2>Version 9.x features</h2>
222<p>
223Version 9.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.1 API.
224While the driver for Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is the only
225driver to support OpenGL 3.1, many developers across the open-source
226community contributed features required for OpenGL 3.1. The primary
227features added since the Mesa 8.0 release are
228GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object and GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object.
229</p>
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]230<p>
231Version 9.0 of Mesa also included the first release of the Clover state
232tracker for OpenCL.
233</p>
Ian Romanick07914842012-08-30 13:55:02 -0700[diff] [blame]234
235
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]236<h2>Version 8.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]237<p>
238Version 8.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.0 API.
239The developers at Intel deserve a lot of credit for implementing most
240of the OpenGL 3.0 features in core Mesa, the GLSL compiler as well as
241the i965 driver.
242</p>
243
244
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]245<h2>Version 7.x features</h2>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]246<p>
247Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API. The main feature
248of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]249</p>
250
251
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]252<h2>Version 6.x features</h2>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]253<p>
254Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
255extensions incorporated as standard features:
256</p>
257<ul>
258<li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
259<li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]260<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
261</ul>
262<p>
263Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]264for the sake of consistency.
265The old tokens are still available.
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]266</p>
267<pre>
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]268New Token Old Token
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]269------------------------------------------------------------
270GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
271GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
272GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
273GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
274GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
275GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
276GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
277GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
278GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
279GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
280GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
281GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
282GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
283</pre>
284<p>
285See the
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame]286<a href="https://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html">
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]287OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
288</p>
289
290
291
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]292<h2>Version 5.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]293<p>
294Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
295extensions incorporated as standard features:
296</p>
297<ul>
298<li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
299<li>GL_ARB_shadow
300<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
301<li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
302<li>GL_ARB_window_pos
303<li>GL_EXT_blend_color
304<li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
305<li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
306<li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
307<li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
308<li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
309<li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
310<li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
311<li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
312<li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
Brian Paul3a604da2003-08-28 03:10:00 +0000[diff] [blame]313<li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]314<li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
315</ul>
316
317
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]318<h2>Version 4.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]319
320<p>
321Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
322extensions incorporated as standard features:
323</p>
324
325<ul>
326<li>GL_ARB_multisample
327<li>GL_ARB_multitexture
328<li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
329<li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
330<li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
331<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
332<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
333<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
334<li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
335</ul>
336
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]337<h2>Version 3.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]338
339<p>
340Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
341features:
342</p>
343<ul>
344<li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
345<li>New texture border clamp mode
346<li>glDrawRangeElements()
347<li>standard 3-D texturing
348<li>advanced MIPMAP control
349<li>separate specular color interpolation
350</ul>
351
352
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]353<h2>Version 2.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]354<p>
355Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
356features.
357</p>
358<ul>
359<li>Texture mapping:
360 <ul>
361 <li>glAreTexturesResident
362 <li>glBindTexture
363 <li>glCopyTexImage1D
364 <li>glCopyTexImage2D
365 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
366 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
367 <li>glDeleteTextures
368 <li>glGenTextures
369 <li>glIsTexture
370 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
371 <li>glTexSubImage1D
372 <li>glTexSubImage2D
373 </ul>
374<li>Vertex Arrays:
375 <ul>
376 <li>glArrayElement
377 <li>glColorPointer
378 <li>glDrawElements
379 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
380 <li>glIndexPointer
381 <li>glInterleavedArrays
382 <li>glNormalPointer
383 <li>glTexCoordPointer
384 <li>glVertexPointer
385 </ul>
386<li>Client state management:
387 <ul>
388 <li>glDisableClientState
389 <li>glEnableClientState
390 <li>glPopClientAttrib
391 <li>glPushClientAttrib
392 </ul>
393<li>Misc:
394 <ul>
395 <li>glGetPointer
396 <li>glIndexub
397 <li>glIndexubv
398 <li>glPolygonOffset
399 </ul>
400</ul>
401
Andreas Bollb5da52a2012-09-18 18:57:02 +0200[diff] [blame]402</div>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]403</body>
404</html>