3 <TITLE>Mesa Introduction</TITLE>
5 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mesa.css"></head>
12 Mesa is a 3-D graphics library with an API which is very similar to
13 that of <a href="http://www.opengl.org/" target="_parent">OpenGL</a>.*
14 To the extent that Mesa utilizes the OpenGL command syntax or state
15 machine, it is being used with authorization from <a
16 href="http://www.sgi.com/" target="_parent">Silicon Graphics,
17 Inc.</a>(SGI). However, the author does not possess an OpenGL license
18 from SGI, and makes no claim that Mesa is in any way a compatible
19 replacement for OpenGL or associated with SGI. Those who want a
20 licensed implementation of OpenGL should contact a licensed
25 Please do not refer to the library as <em>MesaGL</em> (for legal
26 reasons). It's just <em>Mesa</em> or <em>The Mesa 3-D graphics
31 * OpenGL is a trademark of <a href="http://www.sgi.com/"
32 target="_parent">Silicon Graphics Incorporated</a>.
36 <H1>Project History</H1>
39 The Mesa project was founded by me, Brian Paul. Here's a short history
44 August, 1993: I begin working on Mesa in my spare time. The project
45 has no name at that point. I was simply interested in writing a simple
46 3D graphics library that used the then-new OpenGL API. I was partially
47 inspired by the <em>VOGL</em> library which emulated a subset of IRIS GL.
48 I had been programming with IRIS GL since 1991.
52 November 1994: I contact SGI to ask permission to distribute my OpenGL-like
53 graphics library on the internet. SGI was generally receptive to the
54 idea and after negotiations with SGI's legal department, I get permission
59 February 1995: Mesa 1.0 is released on the internet. I expected that
60 a few people would be interested in it, but not thousands.
61 I was soon receiving patches, new features and thank-you notes on a
62 daily basis. That encouraged me to continue working on Mesa. The
63 name Mesa just popped into my head one day. SGI had asked me not to use
64 the terms <em>"Open"</em> or <em>"GL"</em> in the project name and I didn't
65 want to make up a new acronym. Later, I heard of the Mesa programming
66 language and the Mesa spreadsheet for NeXTStep.
70 In the early days, OpenGL wasn't available on too many systems.
71 It even took a while for SGI to support it across their product line.
72 Mesa filled a big hole during that time.
73 For a lot of people, Mesa was their first introduction to OpenGL.
74 I think SGI recognized that Mesa actually helped to promote
75 the OpenGL API, so they didn't feel threatened by the project.
80 1995-1996: I continue working on Mesa both during my spare time and during
81 my work hours at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University
82 of Wisconsin in Madison. My supervisor, Bill Hibbard, lets me do this because
83 Mesa is now being using for the <a href="http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/%7Ebillh/vis.html" target="_parent">Vis5D</a> project.
85 October 1996: Mesa 2.0 is released. It implementes the OpenGL 1.1 specification.
89 March 1997: Mesa 2.2 is released. It supports the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics
90 card via the Glide library. It's the first really popular hardware OpenGL
91 implementation for Linux.
95 September 1998: Mesa 3.0 is released. It's the first publicly-available
96 implementation of the OpenGL 1.2 API.
100 March 1999: I attend my first OpenGL ARB meeting. I contribute to the
101 development of several official OpenGL extensions over the years.
105 September 1999: I'm hired by Precision Insight, Inc. Mesa is a key
106 component of 3D hardware acceleration in the new DRI project for XFree86.
107 Drivers for 3dfx, 3dLabs, Intel, Matrox and ATI hardware soon follow.
111 October 2001: Mesa 4.0 is released.
112 It implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification.
117 November 2001: I cofound <a href="http://www.tungstengraphics.com" target="_parent">
118 Tungsten Graphics, Inc.</a> with Keith Whitwell, Jens Owen, David Dawes and
120 I continue to develop Mesa as part of my resposibilities with Tungsten
121 Graphics and as a spare-time project.
125 November 2002: Mesa 5.0 is released.
126 It implements the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
130 January 2003: Mesa 6.0 is released. It implements the OpenGL 1.5
131 specification as well as the GL_ARB_vertex_program and
132 GL_ARB_fragment_program extensions.
137 Ongoing: Mesa is used as the core of many hardware OpenGL drivers for XFree86
139 <A href="http://dri.sourceforge.net/" target="_parent">DRI project</A>.
140 I continue to enhance Mesa with new extensions and features.
145 <H1>Major Versions</H1>
148 This is a summary of the major versions of Mesa. Note that Mesa's major
149 version number tracks OpenGL's minor version number.
153 <H2>Version 6.x features</H2>
155 Version 6.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.5 API with the following
156 extensions incorporated as standard features:
159 <li>GL_ARB_occlusion_query
160 <li>GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
161 <li>GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
164 Also note that several OpenGL tokens were renamed in OpenGL 1.5
165 for the sake of consistency. The old names will still be valid.
169 ------------------------------------------------------------
170 GL_FOG_COORD_SRC GL_FOG_COORDINATE_SOURCE
171 GL_FOG_COORD GL_FOG_COORDINATE
172 GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORD GL_CURRENT_FOG_COORDINATE
173 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_TYPE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_TYPE
174 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_STRIDE GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_STRIDE
175 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY_POINTER GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY_POINTER
176 GL_FOG_COORD_ARRAY GL_FOG_COORDINATE_ARRAY
177 GL_SRC0_RGB GL_SOURCE0_RGB
178 GL_SRC1_RGB GL_SOURCE1_RGB
179 GL_SRC2_RGB GL_SOURCE2_RGB
180 GL_SRC0_ALPHA GL_SOURCE0_ALPHA
181 GL_SRC1_ALPHA GL_SOURCE1_ALPHA
182 GL_SRC2_ALPHA GL_SOURCE2_ALPHA
186 <a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation/spec.html" target="_parent">
187 OpenGL specification</a> for more details.
192 <H2>Version 5.x features</H2>
194 Version 5.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.4 API with the following
195 extensions incorporated as standard features:
198 <li>GL_ARB_depth_texture
200 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
201 <li>GL_ARB_texture_mirror_repeat
202 <li>GL_ARB_window_pos
203 <li>GL_EXT_blend_color
204 <li>GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
205 <li>GL_EXT_blend_logic_op
206 <li>GL_EXT_blend_minmax
207 <li>GL_EXT_blend_subtract
209 <li>GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
210 <li>GL_EXT_point_parameters
211 <li>GL_EXT_secondary_color
212 <li>GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
213 <li>GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias (plus, a per-texture LOD bias parameter)
214 <li>GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
218 <H2>Version 4.x features</H2>
221 Version 4.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.3 API with the following
222 extensions incorporated as standard features:
226 <li>GL_ARB_multisample
227 <li>GL_ARB_multitexture
228 <li>GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
229 <li>GL_ARB_texture_compression
230 <li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
231 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_add
232 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
233 <li>GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
234 <li>GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
237 <H2>Version 3.x features</H2>
240 Version 3.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.2 API with the following
244 <li>BGR, BGRA and packed pixel formats
245 <li>New texture border clamp mode
246 <li>glDrawRangeElements()
247 <li>standard 3-D texturing
248 <li>advanced MIPMAP control
249 <li>separate specular color interpolation
253 <H2>Version 2.x features</H2>
255 Version 2.x of Mesa implements the OpenGL 1.1 API with the following
261 <li>glAreTexturesResident
265 <li>glCopyTexSubImage1D
266 <li>glCopyTexSubImage2D
270 <li>glPrioritizeTextures
279 <li>glEdgeFlagPointer
281 <li>glInterleavedArrays
283 <li>glTexCoordPointer
286 <li>Client state management:
288 <li>glDisableClientState
289 <li>glEnableClientState
290 <li>glPopClientAttrib
291 <li>glPushClientAttrib