3 <TITLE>Mesa Introduction
</TITLE>
5 <BODY text=
"#000000" bgcolor=
"#55bbff">
10 Mesa is a
3-D graphics library with an API which is very similar to
11 that of
<a href=
"http://www.opengl.org/" target=
"_parent">OpenGL
</a>.*
12 To the extent that Mesa utilizes the OpenGL command syntax or state
13 machine, it is being used with authorization from
<a
14 href=
"http://www.sgi.com/" target=
"_parent">Silicon Graphics,
15 Inc.
</a>(SGI). However, the author does not possess an OpenGL license
16 from SGI, and makes no claim that Mesa is in any way a compatible
17 replacement for OpenGL or associated with SGI. Those who want a
18 licensed implementation of OpenGL should contact a licensed
23 Please do not refer to the library as
<em>MesaGL
</em> (for legal
24 reasons). It's just
<em>Mesa
</em> or
<em>The Mesa
3-D graphics
29 * OpenGL is a trademark of
<a href=
"http://www.sgi.com/"
30 target=
"_parent">Silicon Graphics Incorporated
</a>.
34 <H1>Project History
</H1>
37 The Mesa project was founded by me, Brian Paul. Here's a short history
42 August,
1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time. The project
43 has no name at that point. I was simply interested in writing a simple
44 3D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API. I was partially
45 inspired by the
<em>VOGL
</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
46 I had been programming with IRIS GL since
1991.
50 November
1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
51 graphics library on the internet. SGI was generally receptive to the
52 idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
57 February
1995: Mesa
1.0 is released on the internet. I expected that
58 a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
59 I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
60 daily basis. That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa. The
61 name Mesa just popped into my head one day. SGI had asked me not to use
62 the terms
<em>"Open"</em> or
<em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
63 want to make up a new acronym. Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
64 language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
68 In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
69 It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
70 Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
71 For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
72 I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
73 the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
78 1995-
1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
79 my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
80 of Wisconsin in Madison. My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
81 Mesa is now being using for the
<a href=
"http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html" target=
"_parent">Vis5D
</a> project.
83 October
1996: Mesa
2.0 is released. It implementes the OpenGL
1.1 specification.
87 March
1997: Mesa
2.2 is released. It supports the new
3dfx Voodoo graphics
88 card via the Glide library. It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
89 implementation for Linux.
93 September
1998: Mesa
3.0 is released. It's the first publicly-available
94 implementation of the OpenGL
1.2 API.
98 March
1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting. I contribute to the
99 development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
103 September
1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc. Mesa is a key
104 component of
3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
105 Drivers for
3dfx,
3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
109 October
2001: Mesa
4.0 is released.
110 It implements the OpenGL
1.3 specification.
115 November
2001: I cofound
<a href=
"http://www.tungstengraphics.com" target=
"_parent">
116 Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
</a> with Keith Whitwell, Jens Owen, David Dawes and
118 I continue to develop Mesa as part of my resposibilities with Tungsten
119 Graphics and as a spare-time project.
123 November
2002: Mesa
5.0 is released.
124 It implements the OpenGL
1.4 specification.
128 January
2003: Mesa
6.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL
1.5
129 specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
130 GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
135 Ongoing: Mesa is used as the core of many hardware OpenGL drivers for XFree86
137 <A href=
"http://dri.sourceforge.net/" target=
"_parent">DRI project
</A>.
138 I continue to enhance Mesa with new extensions and features.
143 <H1>Major Versions
</H1>
146 This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa. Note that Mesa's major
147 version number tracks OpenGL's minor version number.
151 <H2>Version
6.x features
</H2>
153 Version
6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL
1.5 API with the following
154 extensions incorporated as standard features:
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
163 Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL
1.5
164 for the sake of consistency. The old names will still be valid.
168 ------------------------------------------------------------
169 GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
170 GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
171 GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
172 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
173 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
174 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
175 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
176 GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
177 GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
178 GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
179 GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
180 GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
181 GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
185 <a href=
"http://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html" target=
"_parent">
186 OpenGL specification
</a> for more details.
191 <H2>Version
5.x features
</H2>
193 Version
5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL
1.4 API with the following
194 extensions incorporated as standard features:
197 <li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
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
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
212 <li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
213 <li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
217 <H2>Version
4.x features
</H2>
220 Version
4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL
1.3 API with the following
221 extensions incorporated as standard features:
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
236 <H2>Version
3.x features
</H2>
239 Version
3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL
1.2 API with the following
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
252 <H2>Version
2.x features
</H2>
254 Version
2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL
1.1 API with the following
260 <li>glAreTexturesResident
264 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
265 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
269 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
278 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
280 <li>glInterleavedArrays
282 <li>glTexCoordPointer
285 <li>Client state management:
287 <li>glDisableClientState
288 <li>glEnableClientState
289 <li>glPopClientAttrib
290 <li>glPushClientAttrib