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