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  11   The Mesa 3D Graphics Library
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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="https://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="https://www.khronos.org/opengles/">OpenGL ES</a> (versions 1, 2, 3),
  29 <a href="https://www.khronos.org/opencl/">OpenCL</a>,
  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
  34 <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan</a>.
  35 </p>
  36
  37 <p>
  38 A variety of device drivers allows the Mesa libraries to be used in many
  39 different environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware
  40 acceleration for modern GPUs.
  41 </p>
  42
  43 <p>
  44 Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the
  45 <a href="https://dri.freedesktop.org/">Direct Rendering
  46 Infrastructure</a> and <a href="https://x.org">X.org</a> to
  47 provide OpenGL support on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating
  48 systems.
  49 </p>
  50
  51
  52
  53 <h2>Project History</h2>
  54
  55 <p>
  56 The Mesa project was originally started by Brian Paul.
  57 Here's a short history of the project.
  58 </p>
  59
  60 <p>
  61 August, 1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time.  The project
  62 has no name at that point.  I was simply interested in writing a simple
  63 3D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API.  I was partially
  64 inspired by the <em>VOGL</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
  65 I had been programming with IRIS GL since 1991.
  66 </p>
  67
  68 <p>
  69 November 1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
  70 graphics library on the internet.  SGI was generally receptive to the
  71 idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
  72 to release it.
  73 </p>
  74
  75 <p>
  76 February 1995: Mesa 1.0 is released on the internet.  I expected that
  77 a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
  78 I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
  79 daily basis.  That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa.  The
  80 name Mesa just popped into my head one day.  SGI had asked me not to use
  81 the terms <em>"Open"</em> or <em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
  82 want to make up a new acronym.  Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
  83 language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
  84 </p>
  85
  86 <p>
  87 In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
  88 It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
  89 Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
  90 For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
  91 I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
  92 the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
  93 </p>
  94
  95
  96 <p>
  97 1995-1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
  98 my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
  99 of Wisconsin in Madison.  My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
 100 Mesa is now being using for the <a href="https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html">Vis5D</a> project.
 101 </p><p>
 102 October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released.  It implements the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
 103 </p>
 104
 105 <p>
 106 March 1997: Mesa 2.2 is released.  It supports the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics
 107 card via the Glide library.  It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
 108 implementation for Linux.
 109 </p>
 110
 111 <p>
 112 September 1998: Mesa 3.0 is released.  It's the first publicly-available
 113 implementation of the OpenGL 1.2 API.
 114 </p>
 115
 116 <p>
 117 March 1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting.  I contribute to the
 118 development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
 119 </p>
 120
 121 <p>
 122 September 1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc.  Mesa is a key
 123 component of 3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
 124 Drivers for 3dfx, 3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
 125 </p>
 126
 127 <p>
 128 October 2001: Mesa 4.0 is released.
 129 It implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification.
 130 </p>
 131
 132
 133 <p>
 134 November 2001: I cofounded Tungsten Graphics, Inc. with Keith Whitwell,
 135 Jens Owen, David Dawes and Frank LaMonica.
 136 Tungsten Graphics was acquired by VMware in December 2008.
 137 </p>
 138
 139 <p>
 140 November 2002: Mesa 5.0 is released.
 141 It implements the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
 142 </p>
 143
 144 <p>
 145 January 2003: Mesa 6.0 is released.  It implements the OpenGL 1.5
 146 specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
 147 GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
 148 </p>
 149
 150 <p>
 151 June 2007: Mesa 7.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 2.1 specification
 152 and OpenGL Shading Language.
 153 </p>
 154
 155 <p>
 156 2008: Keith Whitwell and other Tungsten Graphics employees develop
 157 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium3D">Gallium</a>
 158 - a new GPU abstraction layer.  The latest Mesa drivers are based on
 159 Gallium and other APIs such as OpenVG are implemented on top of Gallium.
 160 </p>
 161
 162 <p>
 163 February 2012: Mesa 8.0 is released, implementing the OpenGL 3.0 specification
 164 and version 1.30 of the OpenGL Shading Language.
 165 </p>
 166
 167 <p>
 168 July 2016: Mesa 12.0 is released, including OpenGL 4.3 support and initial
 169 support for Vulkan for Intel GPUs.  Plus, there's another gallium software
 170 driver ("swr") based on LLVM and developed by Intel.
 171 </p>
 172
 173 <p>
 174 Ongoing: Mesa is the OpenGL implementation for devices designed by
 175 Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Vivante, plus the VMware and
 176 VirGL virtual GPUs.
 177 There's also several software-based renderers: swrast (the legacy
 178 Mesa rasterizer), softpipe (a gallium reference driver), llvmpipe
 179 (LLVM/JIT-based high-speed rasterizer) and swr (another LLVM-based driver).
 180 </p>
 181 <p>
 182 Work continues on the drivers and core Mesa to implement newer versions
 183 of the OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan specifications.
 184 </p>
 185
 186
 187
 188 <h2>Major Versions</h2>
 189
 190 <p>
 191 This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa.
 192 Mesa's major version number has been incremented whenever a new version
 193 of the OpenGL specification is implemented.
 194 </p>
 195
 196
 197 <h3>Version 12.x features</h3>
 198 <p>
 199 Version 12.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.3 API, but not all drivers
 200 support OpenGL 4.3.
 201 </p>
 202 <p>
 203 Initial support for Vulkan is also included.
 204 </p>
 205
 206
 207 <h3>Version 11.x features</h3>
 208 <p>
 209 Version 11.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 4.1 API, but not all drivers
 210 support OpenGL 4.1.
 211 </p>
 212
 213
 214 <h3>Version 10.x features</h3>
 215 <p>
 216 Version 10.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.3 API, but not all drivers
 217 support OpenGL 3.3.
 218 </p>
 219
 220
 221 <h3>Version 9.x features</h3>
 222 <p>
 223 Version 9.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.1 API.
 224 While the driver for Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is the only
 225 driver to support OpenGL 3.1, many developers across the open-source
 226 community contributed features required for OpenGL 3.1.  The primary
 227 features added since the Mesa 8.0 release are
 228 GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object and GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object.
 229 </p>
 230 <p>
 231 Version 9.0 of Mesa also included the first release of the Clover state
 232 tracker for OpenCL.
 233 </p>
 234
 235
 236 <h3>Version 8.x features</h3>
 237 <p>
 238 Version 8.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 3.0 API.
 239 The developers at Intel deserve a lot of credit for implementing most
 240 of the OpenGL 3.0 features in core Mesa, the GLSL compiler as well as
 241 the i965 driver.
 242 </p>
 243
 244
 245 <h3>Version 7.x features</h3>
 246 <p>
 247 Version 7.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 2.1 API.  The main feature
 248 of OpenGL 2.x is the OpenGL Shading Language.
 249 </p>
 250
 251
 252 <h3>Version 6.x features</h3>
 253 <p>
 254 Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
 255 extensions incorporated as standard features:
 256 </p>
 257 <ul>
 258 <li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
 259 <li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
 260 <li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
 261 </ul>
 262 <p>
 263 Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
 264 for the sake of consistency.
 265 The old tokens are still available.
 266 </p>
 267 <pre>
 268 New Token                   Old Token
 269 ------------------------------------------------------------
 270 GL_FOG_COORD_SRC            GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
 271 GL_FOG_COORD                GL_FOG_COORDINATE
 272 GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD        GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
 273 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE     GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
 274 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE   GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
 275 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER  GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
 276 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY          GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
 277 GL_SRC0_RGB                 GL_SOURCE0_RGB
 278 GL_SRC1_RGB                 GL_SOURCE1_RGB
 279 GL_SRC2_RGB                 GL_SOURCE2_RGB
 280 GL_SRC0_ALPHA               GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
 281 GL_SRC1_ALPHA               GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
 282 GL_SRC2_ALPHA               GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
 283 </pre>
 284 <p>
 285 See the
 286 <a href="https://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html">
 287 OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
 288 </p>
 289
 290
 291
 292 <h3>Version 5.x features</h3>
 293 <p>
 294 Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
 295 extensions incorporated as standard features:
 296 </p>
 297 <ul>
 298 <li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
 299 <li>GL_ARB_shadow
 300 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
 301 <li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
 302 <li>GL_ARB_window_pos
 303 <li>GL_EXT_blend_color
 304 <li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
 305 <li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
 306 <li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
 307 <li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
 308 <li>GL_EXT_fog_coord
 309 <li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
 310 <li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
 311 <li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
 312 <li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
 313 <li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
 314 <li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
 315 </ul>
 316
 317
 318 <h3>Version 4.x features</h3>
 319
 320 <p>
 321 Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
 322 extensions incorporated as standard features:
 323 </p>
 324
 325 <ul>
 326 <li>GL_ARB_multisample
 327 <li>GL_ARB_multitexture
 328 <li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
 329 <li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
 330 <li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
 331 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
 332 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
 333 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
 334 <li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
 335 </ul>
 336
 337 <h3>Version 3.x features</h3>
 338
 339 <p>
 340 Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
 341 features:
 342 </p>
 343 <ul>
 344 <li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
 345 <li>New texture border clamp mode
 346 <li>glDrawRangeElements()
 347 <li>standard 3-D texturing
 348 <li>advanced MIPMAP control
 349 <li>separate specular color interpolation
 350 </ul>
 351
 352
 353 <h3>Version 2.x features</h3>
 354 <p>
 355 Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
 356 features.
 357 </p>
 358 <ul>
 359 <li>Texture mapping:
 360   <ul>
 361   <li>glAreTexturesResident
 362   <li>glBindTexture
 363   <li>glCopyTexImage1D
 364   <li>glCopyTexImage2D
 365   <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
 366   <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
 367   <li>glDeleteTextures
 368   <li>glGenTextures
 369   <li>glIsTexture
 370   <li>glPrioritizeTextures
 371   <li>glTexSubImage1D
 372   <li>glTexSubImage2D
 373   </ul>
 374 <li>Vertex Arrays:
 375   <ul>
 376   <li>glArrayElement
 377   <li>glColorPointer
 378   <li>glDrawElements
 379   <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
 380   <li>glIndexPointer
 381   <li>glInterleavedArrays
 382   <li>glNormalPointer
 383   <li>glTexCoordPointer
 384   <li>glVertexPointer
 385   </ul>
 386 <li>Client state management:
 387   <ul>
 388   <li>glDisableClientState
 389   <li>glEnableClientState
 390   <li>glPopClientAttrib
 391   <li>glPushClientAttrib
 392   </ul>
 393 <li>Misc:
 394   <ul>
 395   <li>glGetPointer
 396   <li>glIndexub
 397   <li>glIndexubv
 398   <li>glPolygonOffset
 399   </ul>
 400 </ul>
 401
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