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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / platform / external / mesa3d / d7af11a041fb072f72ccac8587b8af1d2e43dfe7 / . / 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
159<li>GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two
160<li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
161</ul>
162<p>
163Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
164for the sake of consistency. The old names will still be valid.
165</p>
166<pre>
167New Name Old Name
168------------------------------------------------------------
169GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
170GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
171GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
172GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
173GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
174GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
175GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
176GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
177GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
178GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
179GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
180GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
181GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
182</pre>
183<p>
184See the
185<a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html" target="_parent">
186OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
187</p>
188
189
190
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]191<H2>Version 5.x features</H2>
192<p>
193Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
194extensions incorporated as standard features:
195</p>
196<ul>
197<li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
198<li>GL_ARB_shadow
199<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
200<li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
201<li>GL_ARB_window_pos
202<li>GL_EXT_blend_color
203<li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
204<li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
205<li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
206<li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
207<li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
208<li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
209<li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
210<li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
211<li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
Brian Paul3a604da2003-08-28 03:10:00 +0000[diff] [blame]212<li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +0000[diff] [blame]213<li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
214</ul>
215
216
217<H2>Version 4.x features</H2>
218
219<p>
220Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
221extensions incorporated as standard features:
222</p>
223
224<ul>
225<li>GL_ARB_multisample
226<li>GL_ARB_multitexture
227<li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
228<li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
229<li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
230<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
231<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
232<li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
233<li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
234</ul>
235
236<H2>Version 3.x features</H2>
237
238<p>
239Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
240features:
241</p>
242<ul>
243<li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
244<li>New texture border clamp mode
245<li>glDrawRangeElements()
246<li>standard 3-D texturing
247<li>advanced MIPMAP control
248<li>separate specular color interpolation
249</ul>
250
251
252<H2>Version 2.x features</H2>
253<p>
254Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
255features.
256</p>
257<ul>
258<li>Texture mapping:
259 <ul>
260 <li>glAreTexturesResident
261 <li>glBindTexture
262 <li>glCopyTexImage1D
263 <li>glCopyTexImage2D
264 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
265 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
266 <li>glDeleteTextures
267 <li>glGenTextures
268 <li>glIsTexture
269 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
270 <li>glTexSubImage1D
271 <li>glTexSubImage2D
272 </ul>
273<li>Vertex Arrays:
274 <ul>
275 <li>glArrayElement
276 <li>glColorPointer
277 <li>glDrawElements
278 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
279 <li>glIndexPointer
280 <li>glInterleavedArrays
281 <li>glNormalPointer
282 <li>glTexCoordPointer
283 <li>glVertexPointer
284 </ul>
285<li>Client state management:
286 <ul>
287 <li>glDisableClientState
288 <li>glEnableClientState
289 <li>glPopClientAttrib
290 <li>glPushClientAttrib
291 </ul>
292<li>Misc:
293 <ul>
294 <li>glGetPointer
295 <li>glIndexub
296 <li>glIndexubv
297 <li>glPolygonOffset
298 </ul>
299</ul>
300
301
302</body>
303</html>