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  11   <h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
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  16
  17 <h1>Introduction</h1>
  18
  19 <p>
  20 The Mesa project began as an open-source implementation of the
  21 <a href="http://www.opengl.org/">OpenGL</a> specification -
  22 a system for rendering interactive 3D graphics.
  23 </p>
  24
  25 <p>
  26 Over the years the project has grown to implement more graphics APIs,
  27 including
  28 <a href="http://www.khronos.org/opengles/">OpenGL ES</a> (versions 1, 2, 3),
  29 <a href="http://www.khronos.org/opencl/">OpenCL</a>,
  30 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU">VDPAU</a> and
  31 <a href="http://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan</a>.
  32 </p>
  33
  34 <p>
  35 A variety of device drivers allows the Mesa libraries to be used in many
  36 different environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware
  37 acceleration for modern GPUs.
  38 </p>
  39
  40 <p>
  41 Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the
  42 <a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/">Direct Rendering
  43 Infrastructure</a> and <a href="http://x.org">X.org</a> to
  44 provide OpenGL support on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating
  45 systems.
  46 </p>
  47
  48
  49
  50 <h1>Project History</h1>
  51
  52 <p>
  53 The Mesa project was originally started by Brian Paul.
  54 Here's a short history of the project.
  55 </p>
  56
  57 <p>
  58 August, 1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time.  The project
  59 has no name at that point.  I was simply interested in writing a simple
  60 3D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API.  I was partially
  61 inspired by the <em>VOGL</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
  62 I had been programming with IRIS GL since 1991.
  63 </p>
  64
  65 <p>
  66 November 1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
  67 graphics library on the internet.  SGI was generally receptive to the
  68 idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
  69 to release it.
  70 </p>
  71
  72 <p>
  73 February 1995: Mesa 1.0 is released on the internet.  I expected that
  74 a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
  75 I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
  76 daily basis.  That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa.  The
  77 name Mesa just popped into my head one day.  SGI had asked me not to use
  78 the terms <em>"Open"</em> or <em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
  79 want to make up a new acronym.  Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
  80 language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
  81 </p>
  82
  83 <p>
  84 In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
  85 It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
  86 Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
  87 For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
  88 I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
  89 the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
  90 </p>
  91
  92
  93 <p>
  94 1995-1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
  95 my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
  96 of Wisconsin in Madison.  My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
  97 Mesa is now being using for the <a href="http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html">Vis5D</a> project.
  98 </p><p>
  99 October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released.  It implements the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
 100 </p>
 101
 102 <p>
 103 March 1997: Mesa 2.2 is released.  It supports the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics
 104 card via the Glide library.  It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
 105 implementation for Linux.
 106 </p>
 107
 108 <p>
 109 September 1998: Mesa 3.0 is released.  It's the first publicly-available
 110 implementation of the OpenGL 1.2 API.
 111 </p>
 112
 113 <p>
 114 March 1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting.  I contribute to the
 115 development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
 116 </p>
 117
 118 <p>
 119 September 1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc.  Mesa is a key
 120 component of 3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
 121 Drivers for 3dfx, 3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
 122 </p>
 123
 124 <p>
 125 October 2001: Mesa 4.0 is released.
 126 It implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification.
 127 </p>
 128
 129
 130 <p>
 131 November 2001: I cofounded Tungsten Graphics, Inc. with Keith Whitwell,
 132 Jens Owen, David Dawes and Frank LaMonica.
 133 Tungsten Graphics was acquired by VMware in December 2008.
 134 </p>
 135
 136 <p>
 137 November 2002: Mesa 5.0 is released.
 138 It implements the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
 139 </p>
 140
 141 <p>
 142 January 2003: Mesa 6.0 is released.  It implements the OpenGL 1.5
 143 specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
 144 GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
 145 </p>
 146
 147 <p>
 148 June 2007: Mesa 7.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 2.1 specification
 149 and OpenGL Shading Language.
 150 </p>
 151
 152 <p>
 153 2008: Keith Whitwell and other Tungsten Graphics employees develop
 154 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium3D">Gallium</a>
 155 - a new GPU abstraction layer.  The latest Mesa drivers are based on
 156 Gallium and other APIs such as OpenVG are implemented on top of Gallium.
 157 </p>
 158
 159 <p>
 160 February 2012: Mesa 8.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 3.0 specification
 161 and version 1.30 of the OpenGL Shading Language.
 162 </p>
 163
 164 <p>
 165 July 2016: Mesa 12.0 is released, including OpenGL 4.3 support and initial
 166 support for Vulkan for Intel GPUs.  Plus, there's another gallium software
 167 driver ("swr") based on LLVM and developed by Intel.
 168 </p>
 169
 170 <p>
 171 Ongoing: Mesa is the OpenGL implementation for several types of hardware
 172 made by Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, plus the VMware virtual GPU.
 173 There's also several software-based renderers: swrast (the legacy
 174 Mesa rasterizer), softpipe (a gallium reference driver), llvmpipe
 175 (LLVM/JIT-based high-speed rasterizer) and swr (another LLVM-based driver).
 176 </p>
 177 <p>
 178 Work continues on the drivers and core Mesa to implement newer versions
 179 of the OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan specifications.
 180 </p>
 181
 182
 183
 184 <h1>Major Versions</h1>
 185
 186 <p>
 187 This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
 188 Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
 189 of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
 190 </p>
 191
 192
 193 <h2>Version 12.x features</h2>
 194 <p>
 195 Version 12.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.3 API, but not all drivers
 196 support OpenGL 4.3.
 197 </p>
 198 <p>
 199 Initial support for Vulkan is also included.
 200 </p>
 201
 202
 203 <h2>Version 11.x features</h2>
 204 <p>
 205 Version 11.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.1 API, but not all drivers
 206 support OpenGL 4.1.
 207 </p>
 208
 209
 210 <h2>Version 10.x features</h2>
 211 <p>
 212 Version 10.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.3 API, but not all drivers
 213 support OpenGL 3.3.
 214 </p>
 215
 216
 217 <h2>Version 9.x features</h2>
 218 <p>
 219 Version 9.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.1 API.
 220 While the driver for Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is the only
 221 driver to support OpenGL 3.1, many developers across the open-source
 222 community contributed features required for OpenGL 3.1.  The primary
 223 features added since the Mesa 8.0 release are
 224 GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object and GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object.
 225 </p>
 226 <p>
 227 Version 9.0 of Mesa also included the first release of the Clover state
 228 tracker for OpenCL.
 229 </p>
 230
 231
 232 <h2>Version 8.x features</h2>
 233 <p>
 234 Version 8.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.0 API.
 235 The developers at Intel deserve a lot of credit for implementing most
 236 of the OpenGL 3.0 features in core Mesa, the GLSL compiler as well as
 237 the i965 driver.
 238 </p>
 239
 240
 241 <h2>Version 7.x features</h2>
 242 <p>
 243 Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API.  The main feature
 244 of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
 245 </p>
 246
 247
 248 <h2>Version 6.x features</h2>
 249 <p>
 250 Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
 251 extensions incorporated as standard features:
 252 </p>
 253 <ul>
 254 <li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
 255 <li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
 256 <li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
 257 </ul>
 258 <p>
 259 Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
 260 for the sake of consistency.
 261 The old tokens are still available.
 262 </p>
 263 <pre>
 264 New Token                   Old Token
 265 ------------------------------------------------------------
 266 GL_FOG_COORD_SRC            GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
 267 GL_FOG_COORD                GL_FOG_COORDINATE
 268 GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD        GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
 269 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE     GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
 270 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE   GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
 271 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER  GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
 272 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY          GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
 273 GL_SRC0_RGB                 GL_SOURCE0_RGB
 274 GL_SRC1_RGB                 GL_SOURCE1_RGB
 275 GL_SRC2_RGB                 GL_SOURCE2_RGB
 276 GL_SRC0_ALPHA               GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
 277 GL_SRC1_ALPHA               GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
 278 GL_SRC2_ALPHA               GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
 279 </pre>
 280 <p>
 281 See the
 282 <a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html">
 283 OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
 284 </p>
 285
 286
 287
 288 <h2>Version 5.x features</h2>
 289 <p>
 290 Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
 291 extensions incorporated as standard features:
 292 </p>
 293 <ul>
 294 <li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
 295 <li>GL_ARB_shadow
 296 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
 297 <li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
 298 <li>GL_ARB_window_pos
 299 <li>GL_EXT_blend_color
 300 <li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
 301 <li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
 302 <li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
 303 <li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
 304 <li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
 305 <li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
 306 <li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
 307 <li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
 308 <li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
 309 <li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
 310 <li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
 311 </ul>
 312
 313
 314 <h2>Version 4.x features</h2>
 315
 316 <p>
 317 Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
 318 extensions incorporated as standard features:
 319 </p>
 320
 321 <ul>
 322 <li>GL_ARB_multisample
 323 <li>GL_ARB_multitexture
 324 <li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
 325 <li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
 326 <li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
 327 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
 328 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
 329 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
 330 <li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
 331 </ul>
 332
 333 <h2>Version 3.x features</h2>
 334
 335 <p>
 336 Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
 337 features:
 338 </p>
 339 <ul>
 340 <li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
 341 <li>New texture border clamp mode
 342 <li>glDrawRangeElements()
 343 <li>standard 3-D texturing
 344 <li>advanced MIPMAP control
 345 <li>separate specular color interpolation
 346 </ul>
 347
 348
 349 <h2>Version 2.x features</h2>
 350 <p>
 351 Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
 352 features.
 353 </p>
 354 <ul>
 355 <li>Texture mapping:
 356         <ul>
 357         <li>glAreTexturesResident
 358         <li>glBindTexture
 359         <li>glCopyTexImage1D
 360         <li>glCopyTexImage2D
 361         <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
 362         <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
 363         <li>glDeleteTextures
 364         <li>glGenTextures
 365         <li>glIsTexture
 366         <li>glPrioritizeTextures
 367         <li>glTexSubImage1D
 368         <li>glTexSubImage2D
 369         </ul>
 370 <li>Vertex Arrays:
 371         <ul>
 372         <li>glArrayElement
 373         <li>glColorPointer
 374         <li>glDrawElements
 375         <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
 376         <li>glIndexPointer
 377         <li>glInterleavedArrays
 378         <li>glNormalPointer
 379         <li>glTexCoordPointer
 380         <li>glVertexPointer
 381         </ul>
 382 <li>Client state management:
 383         <ul>
 384         <li>glDisableClientState
 385         <li>glEnableClientState
 386         <li>glPopClientAttrib
 387         <li>glPushClientAttrib
 388         </ul>
 389 <li>Misc:
 390         <ul>
 391         <li>glGetPointer
 392         <li>glIndexub
 393         <li>glIndexubv
 394         <li>glPolygonOffset
 395         </ul>
 396 </ul>
 397
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