docs/intro.rst

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