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Mesa 3D is a free software graphics library, initially developed by Brian Paul in August 1993, that provides a generic OpenGL implementation for rendering three-dimensional graphics on multiple platforms. Though Mesa is not an officially licensed OpenGL implementation, the structure, syntax and semantics of the API is that of OpenGL. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... For other uses, see Software developer (disambiguation). ... Code complete redirects here. ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... A cross-platform (or platform independent) programming language, software application or hardware device works on more than one system platform (e. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... The MIT License, also called the X License or the X11 License, originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a license for the use of certain types of computer software. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... Free software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things. ... This article is about the scientific discipline of computer graphics. ... Illustration of an application which may use libvorbisfile. ... Brian Paul is a computer programmer who initially wrote (in August 1993), and continues to maintain the Open Source Mesa graphics library. ... OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. ... The rewrite of this article is being devised at Talk:3D computer graphics/Temp. ... In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. ... OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. ... API may refer to: In computing, application programming interface In petroleum industry, American Petroleum Institute In education, Academic Performance Index This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

As of July 2007, it is the only commonly known, fully open source implementation of OpenGL which is continually updated to support latest OpenGL specification. It is widely used, most importantly by the X.Org implementation of the X Window System where it serves as the OpenGL core for the open-source X.Org/DRI OpenGL drivers. X.Org provides the essential functionality used by most graphical applications which run on UNIX-like platforms such as Linux. July 2007 is the seventh month of that year. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Specification may refer to several different concepts: Specification (standards) refers to specific standards Specificatio - a legal concept Specification (regression) refers to the practice of translating theory into a regression model Category: ... The X.Org logo The X.Org Foundation is the consortium holding the stewardship for the development of the X Window System. ... “X11” redirects here. ... Application has the following meanings: In general, an application is using something general to some more conrete. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ...

The new Gallium 3D architecture will soon replace Mesa 3D, adding compatibility to more recent version of OpenGL, recent card functionalities and simplified driver architecture.

History

Initially, Mesa started off by rendering all 3D computer graphics on the Central Processing Unit, but the architecture of Mesa was open to implement graphics processor-accelerated 3D rendering in Mesa. Once 3D graphics cards became mainstream on PC hardware, companies began working on adding support for hardware-accelerated 3D rendering to Mesa. One of the first drivers to support hardware-acceleration was the 3dfx driver for the Glide API for the very popular Voodoo I/II graphics cards and others as well. All rendering was done indirectly in the X server, leaving some overhead and speed lagging behind the theoretical maximum. The Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) finally succeeded in providing an interface for direct 3D rendering by the OpenGL applications and was officially added to Mesa. This article is about process of creating 3D computer graphics. ... CPU redirects here. ... “GPU” redirects here. ... A GeForce 4 4200-based graphics card A graphics card or video card is a component of a computer which is designed to convert a logical representation of an image stored in memory to a signal that can be used as input for a display medium, most often a monitor... Glide was a proprietary 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx used on their Voodoo graphics cards. ... 3dfx Interactive was a company which specialized in the manufacturing of cutting-edge 3D graphics processing units and, later, graphics cards. ... A graphics/video/display card/board/adapter is a computer component designed to convert the logical representation of visual information into a signal that can be used as input for a display medium. ... In computing, the X Window System (commonly X11 or X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays. ... In computing, the Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) is an interface used in the X Window System to securely allow user applications to access the video hardware without requiring data to be passed (slowly) through the X Server. ...

Features

• In its current form, Mesa 3D is available and can be compiled on virtually all modern platforms.

• Though not an official OpenGL implementation for licensing reasons, the Mesa 3D authors have worked to keep the API in line with the most current OpenGL standards and conformance tests, as set forth by the OpenGL ARB.

• Whilst Mesa 3D supports several hardware graphics accelerators, it may also be compiled as a software-only renderer. Since it is also free/open source software, it is possible to use it to study the internal workings of an OpenGL-compatible renderer.

• It is sometimes possible to find subtle bugs in OpenGL applications by linking against Mesa 3D and using a conventional debugger to track problems into the lower level library.

• Already (at least partially) 3D acceleration managed cards : ATI Mach 64 and r100 to r500 chipsets, Intel chipsets, IBM/Toshiba/Sony Cell chip (in Gallium 3D architecture) used in Sony Playstation 3, really limited Nvidia support, S3 Virge & Savage chipsets, VIA chipsets, Matrox G200 & G400, SiliconMotion and more...^[1].

The OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) is an independent consortium that governs the OpenGL specification. ... OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. ...

External links

• Mesa 3D Homepage - Information and documentation for the latest version of Mesa 3D.
• Homepage at Sourceforge

Image File history File links Free_Software_Portal_Logo. ... freedesktop. ... The X.Org Server (officially the ) is the official reference implementation of the X Window System. ... D-Bus is a free software project which offers a simple way for applications to communicate with one another. ... HAL is a Hardware Abstraction Layer and Open-source software Project that allows desktop applications on an operating system to readily access hardware information so that they can locate and use such hardware regardless of bus or device type. ... Fontconfig (the name is spelled in both capitalized and uncapitalized form) is a library designed to provide system-wide font configuration, customization, and application access. ... Xft is a Free library written by Keith Packard. ... cairo is a free software graphics library with multiple backends that provides a vector based device-independent API for software developers. ... In computing, the Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) is an interface used in the X Window System to securely allow user applications to access the video hardware without requiring data to be passed (slowly) through the X Server. ... In computing, XCB (X C Binding) is a C language binding for the X Window System. ... A screenshot of renouveau in action (renouveau is the blue window in the top left corner) In computing, nouveau is an X.Org Foundation and Freedesktop. ... Telepathy is a software framework which can be used to make software for interpersonal communications such as instant messaging, Voice over IP or videoconferencing. ... The GTK-Qt Theme Engine is a project allowing GTK to use Qt widget styles. ... Galago is a desktop presence information framework, designed to transmit presence information between programs. ... GStreamer is a multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject. ... GeoClue is a software framework which can be used to enable geospatial awareness in applications. ... Poppler is a free software library for viewing PDF documents; it is maintained by freedesktop. ... The Portland Project is an initiative taken to establish a greater Linux foothold in the desktop market. ... Avahi is a system for multicast DNS service discovery. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Compiz fusion. ... Swfdec is a free/open source Macromedia Flash player. ...

References

1. ^ Direct Rendering Infrastructure Status Page on freedesktop.org