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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / platform / external / mesa3d / 8278f1ec35d9904f0aa568fafd7f7a3dd51b25ba / . / 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>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]174Ongoing: Mesa is the OpenGL implementation for several types of hardware
175made by Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, plus the VMware virtual GPU.
176There's also several software-based renderers: swrast (the legacy
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]177Mesa rasterizer), softpipe (a gallium reference driver), llvmpipe
178(LLVM/JIT-based high-speed rasterizer) and swr (another LLVM-based driver).
179</p>
180<p>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]181Work continues on the drivers and core Mesa to implement newer versions
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]182of the OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan specifications.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]183</p>
184
185
186
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]187<h1>Major Versions</h1>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]188
189<p>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]190This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
191Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
192of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
193</p>
194
195
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]196<h2>Version 12.x features</h2>
197<p>
198Version 12.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.3 API, but not all drivers
199support OpenGL 4.3.
200</p>
Brian Paulac584542017-02-08 12:31:44 -0700[diff] [blame]201<p>
202Initial support for Vulkan is also included.
203</p>
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]204
205
206<h2>Version 11.x features</h2>
207<p>
208Version 11.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.1 API, but not all drivers
209support OpenGL 4.1.
210</p>
211
212
213<h2>Version 10.x features</h2>
214<p>
215Version 10.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.3 API, but not all drivers
216support OpenGL 3.3.
217</p>
218
219
Ian Romanick07914842012-08-30 13:55:02 -0700[diff] [blame]220<h2>Version 9.x features</h2>
221<p>
222Version 9.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.1 API.
223While the driver for Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is the only
224driver to support OpenGL 3.1, many developers across the open-source
225community contributed features required for OpenGL 3.1. The primary
226features added since the Mesa 8.0 release are
227GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object and GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object.
228</p>
Brian Paul1d075522016-09-30 07:18:13 -0600[diff] [blame]229<p>
230Version 9.0 of Mesa also included the first release of the Clover state
231tracker for OpenCL.
232</p>
Ian Romanick07914842012-08-30 13:55:02 -0700[diff] [blame]233
234
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]235<h2>Version 8.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0c14bbb2012-01-13 08:31:26 -0700[diff] [blame]236<p>
237Version 8.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.0 API.
238The developers at Intel deserve a lot of credit for implementing most
239of the OpenGL 3.0 features in core Mesa, the GLSL compiler as well as
240the i965 driver.
241</p>
242
243
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]244<h2>Version 7.x features</h2>
Brianaf846712007-04-27 17:00:13 -0600[diff] [blame]245<p>
246Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API. The main feature
247of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]248</p>
249
250
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]251<h2>Version 6.x features</h2>
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]252<p>
253Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
254extensions incorporated as standard features:
255</p>
256<ul>
257<li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
258<li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]259<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
260</ul>
261<p>
262Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]263for the sake of consistency.
264The old tokens are still available.
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]265</p>
266<pre>
Brian Paulb7c727e2005-08-19 16:57:50 +0000[diff] [blame]267New Token Old Token
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]268------------------------------------------------------------
269GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
270GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
271GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
272GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
273GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
274GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
275GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
276GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
277GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
278GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
279GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
280GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
281GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
282</pre>
283<p>
284See the
Eric Engestrom30cf9ff2017-02-09 02:10:17 +0000[diff] [blame]285<a href="https://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html">
Brian Pauld7af11a2004-01-07 14:51:30 +0000[diff] [blame]286OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
287</p>
288
289
290
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]291<h2>Version 5.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]292<p>
293Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
294extensions incorporated as standard features:
295</p>
296<ul>
297<li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
298<li>GL_ARB_shadow
299<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
300<li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
301<li>GL_ARB_window_pos
302<li>GL_EXT_blend_color
303<li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
304<li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
305<li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
306<li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
307<li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
308<li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
309<li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
310<li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
311<li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
Brian Paul3a604da2003-08-28 03:10:00 +0000[diff] [blame]312<li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]313<li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
314</ul>
315
316
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]317<h2>Version 4.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]318
319<p>
320Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
321extensions incorporated as standard features:
322</p>
323
324<ul>
325<li>GL_ARB_multisample
326<li>GL_ARB_multitexture
327<li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
328<li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
329<li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
330<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
331<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
332<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
333<li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
334</ul>
335
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]336<h2>Version 3.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]337
338<p>
339Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
340features:
341</p>
342<ul>
343<li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
344<li>New texture border clamp mode
345<li>glDrawRangeElements()
346<li>standard 3-D texturing
347<li>advanced MIPMAP control
348<li>separate specular color interpolation
349</ul>
350
351
Andreas Boll210a27d2012-06-12 09:05:36 +0200[diff] [blame]352<h2>Version 2.x features</h2>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]353<p>
354Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
355features.
356</p>
357<ul>
358<li>Texture mapping:
359 <ul>
360 <li>glAreTexturesResident
361 <li>glBindTexture
362 <li>glCopyTexImage1D
363 <li>glCopyTexImage2D
364 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
365 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
366 <li>glDeleteTextures
367 <li>glGenTextures
368 <li>glIsTexture
369 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
370 <li>glTexSubImage1D
371 <li>glTexSubImage2D
372 </ul>
373<li>Vertex Arrays:
374 <ul>
375 <li>glArrayElement
376 <li>glColorPointer
377 <li>glDrawElements
378 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
379 <li>glIndexPointer
380 <li>glInterleavedArrays
381 <li>glNormalPointer
382 <li>glTexCoordPointer
383 <li>glVertexPointer
384 </ul>
385<li>Client state management:
386 <ul>
387 <li>glDisableClientState
388 <li>glEnableClientState
389 <li>glPopClientAttrib
390 <li>glPushClientAttrib
391 </ul>
392<li>Misc:
393 <ul>
394 <li>glGetPointer
395 <li>glIndexub
396 <li>glIndexubv
397 <li>glPolygonOffset
398 </ul>
399</ul>
400
Andreas Bollb5da52a2012-09-18 18:57:02 +0200[diff] [blame]401</div>
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]402</body>
403</html>