Mesa Unix/X11 Information



Installation
============

There are two ways to compile Mesa on Unix/X11 systems:

1. The old way:
    First type 'make' alone to see the list of system
    configurations currently supported.  If you see your configuration on the
    list, type 'make <config>'.  Most popular Unix/X workstations are currently
    supported.

    If your system configuration is not listed by 'make', you'll have to modify
    the top-level Makefile and Make-config files.  There are instructions in
    each file.

    When finished, the Mesa libraries will be in the Mesa-x.y/lib/ directory.


2. The new way:
    Type './configure' and then 'make'.  This uses GNU autoconfig.
    Run 'make check' to build the demos.
    See docs/INSTALL for more details.
    When finished, the Mesa libraries will be in the Mesa-x.y/src/.libs/,
    Mesa-x.y/si-glu/.libs, etc directories.


Notes on assembly language optimizations:

   When using the old-style Makefiles, you can specify a configuration
   that uses X86 assembly language optimizations (linux-3dnow for example).

   The detection of MMX, 3DNow!, PIII/SSE, etc capability is done at
   runtime.  That means you can compile Mesa for 3DNow! optimizations
   even if you don't have an AMD CPU.

   However, your Linux binutils and assembler must understand the
   special instructions in order to compile them.  If you have
   compilation problems, try upgrading your binutils.


Header and library files:
   After you've compiled Mesa and tried the demos I recommend the following
   procedure for "installing" Mesa.

   Copy the Mesa include/GL directory to /usr/local/include:
	cp -r include/GL /usr/local/include

   Copy the Mesa library files to /usr/local/lib:
	cp lib/* /usr/local/lib

	(actually, use "cp -d" on Linux to preserve symbolic links)


Xt/Motif widgets:
   If you want to use Mesa or OpenGL in your Xt/Motif program you can build
   the widgets found in either the widgets-mesa or widgets-sgi directories.
   The former were written for Mesa and the later are the original SGI
   widgets.  Look in those directories for more information.


Notes:
   HP users:  a Mesa user reports that the HP-UX 10.01 C compiler has
   a bug which effects glReadPixels.  A patch for the compiler (PHSS_5743) is
   available.  Otherwise be sure your compiler is version 10.13 or later.

   QNX users:  if you have problems running the demos try setting the
   stack size to 200K or larger with -N200K, for example.

   SunOS 5.x users:  The X shared memory extension may not work
   correctly.  If Mesa prints an error message to the effect of "Shared memory
   error" then you'll have to append the following three lines to the end of
   your /etc/system file then reboot:
      set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax = 0x2000000
      set shmsys:shminfo_shmmni = 0x1000
      set shmsys:shminfo_shmseg = 0x100



Using the library
=================

Configuration options:
   The file src/mesa/main/config.h has many parameters which you can adjust
   such as maximum number of lights, clipping planes, maximum texture size,
   etc.  In particular, you may want to change DEPTH_BITS from 16 to 32
   if a 16-bit depth buffer isn't precise enough for your application.


Shared libraries:
   If you compile shared libraries you may have to set an environment
   variable to specify where the Mesa libraries are located.  On Linux and
   Sun systems for example, set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable to include
   /your-dir/Mesa-2.6/lib.   Otherwise, when you try to run a demo it
   may fail with a message saying that one or more libraries couldn't be
   found.


Remote display of OpenGL/GLX programs:
   As of version 1.2.3, Mesa's header files use the same GLenum and GLUenum
   values as SGI's (and most/all other vendor's) OpenGL headers.  This means
   you can freely mix object files compiled with OpenGL or Mesa headers.
   In fact, on systems with dynamic runtime linkers it's possible to dynam-
   ically link with Mesa or OpenGL shared libraries at runtime, without
   recompiling or relinking anything!

   Using IRIX 5.x as an example, you can run SGI's OpenGL demos with the
   Mesa shared libraries as follows.  Let's assume you're installing Mesa
   in /usr/local/Mesa and using the C-shell:
       % cd /usr/local/Mesa
       % make irix5-dso
       % setenv _RLD_LIST "/usr/local/Mesa/lib/libGL.so:DEFAULT"
       % /usr/demos/bin/ideas_ogl      // this is a test

   You can now run OpenGL executables on almost any X display!  There may
   be some problems from the fact that Mesa supports many X visual types
   that an OpenGL client may not expect (grayscale for example).  In this
   case the application may abort, print error messages, or just behave
   strangely.  You may have to experiment with the MESA_RGB_VISUAL envi-
   ronment variable.


Xt/Motif Widgets:
   Two versions of the Xt/Motif OpenGL drawing area widgets are included:

      widgets-sgi/	SGI's stock widgets
      widgets-mesa/	Mesa-tuned widgets

   Look in those directories for details


Togl:
   Togl is an OpenGL/Mesa widget for Tcl/Tk.
   See http://togl.sourceforge.net for more information.



X Display Modes:
   Mesa supports RGB(A) rendering into almost any X visual type and depth.

   The glXChooseVisual function tries its best to pick an appropriate visual
   for the given attribute list.  However, if this doesn't suit your needs
   you can force Mesa to use any X visual you want (any supported by your
   X server that is) by setting the MESA_RGB_VISUAL and MESA_CI_VISUAL
   environment variables.  When an RGB visual is requested, glXChooseVisual
   will first look if the MESA_RGB_VISUAL variable is defined.  If so, it
   will try to use the specified visual.  Similarly, when a color index
   visual is requested, glXChooseVisual will look for the MESA_CI_VISUAL
   variable.

   The format of accepted values is:  <visual-class> <depth>
   Here are some examples:

   using the C-shell:
	% setenv MESA_RGB_VISUAL "TrueColor 8"		// 8-bit TrueColor
	% setenv MESA_CI_VISUAL "PseudoColor 12"	// 12-bit PseudoColor
	% setenv MESA_RGB_VISUAL "PseudoColor 8"	// 8-bit PseudoColor

   using the KornShell:
	$ export MESA_RGB_VISUAL="TrueColor 8"
	$ export MESA_CI_VISUAL="PseudoColor 12"
	$ export MESA_RGB_VISUAL="PseudoColor 8"


Double buffering:
   Mesa can use either an X Pixmap or XImage as the backbuffer when in
   double buffer mode.  Using GLX, the default is to use an XImage.  The
   MESA_BACK_BUFFER environment variable can override this.  The valid
   values for MESA_BACK_BUFFER are:  Pixmap and XImage (only the first
   letter is checked, case doesn't matter).

   A pixmap is faster when drawing simple lines and polygons while an
   XImage is faster when Mesa has to do pixel-by-pixel rendering.  If you
   need depth buffering the XImage will almost surely be faster.  Exper-
   iment with the MESA_BACK_BUFFER variable to see which is faster for
   your application.  


Colormaps:
   When using Mesa directly or with GLX, it's up to the application writer
   to create a window with an appropriate colormap.  The aux, tk, and GLUT
   toolkits try to minimize colormap "flashing" by sharing colormaps when
   possible.  Specifically, if the visual and depth of the window matches
   that of the root window, the root window's colormap will be shared by
   the Mesa window.  Otherwise, a new, private colormap will be allocated.

   When sharing the root colormap, Mesa may be unable to allocate the colors
   it needs, resulting in poor color quality.  This can happen when a
   large number of colorcells in the root colormap are already allocated.
   To prevent colormap sharing in aux, tk and GLUT, define the environment
   variable MESA_PRIVATE_CMAP.  The value isn't significant.


Gamma correction:
   To compensate for the nonlinear relationship between pixel values
   and displayed intensities, there is a gamma correction feature in
   Mesa.  Some systems, such as Silicon Graphics, support gamma
   correction in hardware (man gamma) so you won't need to use Mesa's
   gamma facility.  Other systems, however, may need gamma adjustment
   to produce images which look correct.  If in the past you thought
   Mesa's images were too dim, read on.

   Gamma correction is controlled with the MESA_GAMMA environment
   variable.  Its value is of the form "Gr Gg Gb" or just "G" where
   Gr is the red gamma value, Gg is the green gamma value, Gb is the
   blue gamma value and G is one gamma value to use for all three
   channels.  Each value is a positive real number typically in the
   range 1.0 to 2.5.  The defaults are all 1.0, effectively disabling
   gamma correction.  Examples using csh:

	% setenv MESA_GAMMA "2.3 2.2 2.4"	// separate R,G,B values
	% setenv MESA_GAMMA "2.0"		// same gamma for R,G,B

   The demos/gamma.c program may help you to determine reasonable gamma
   value for your display.  With correct gamma values, the color intensities
   displayed in the top row (drawn by dithering) should nearly match those
   in the bottom row (drawn as grays).

   Alex De Bruyn reports that gamma values of 1.6, 1.6 and 1.9 work well
   on HP displays using the HP-ColorRecovery technology.

   Mesa implements gamma correction with a lookup table which translates
   a "linear" pixel value to a gamma-corrected pixel value.  There is a
   small performance penalty.  Gamma correction only works in RGB mode.
   Also be aware that pixel values read back from the frame buffer will
   not be "un-corrected" so glReadPixels may not return the same data
   drawn with glDrawPixels.

   For more information about gamma correction see:
   http://www.inforamp.net/~poynton/notes/colour_and_gamma/GammaFAQ.html


Overlay Planes

   Overlay planes in the frame buffer are supported by Mesa but require
   hardware and X server support.  To determine if your X server has
   overlay support you can test for the SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS property:

	xprop -root | grep SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS


HPCR glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT) dithering

   If you set the MESA_HPCR_CLEAR environment variable then dithering
   will be used when clearing the color buffer.  This is only applicable
   to HP systems with the HPCR (Color Recovery) system.


Extensions
==========
   There are three Mesa-specific GLX extensions at this time.

   GLX_MESA_pixmap_colormap 

      This extension adds the GLX function:

         GLXPixmap glXCreateGLXPixmapMESA( Display *dpy, XVisualInfo *visual,
                                           Pixmap pixmap, Colormap cmap )

      It is an alternative to the standard glXCreateGLXPixmap() function.
      Since Mesa supports RGB rendering into any X visual, not just True-
      Color or DirectColor, Mesa needs colormap information to convert RGB
      values into pixel values.  An X window carries this information but a
      pixmap does not.  This function associates a colormap to a GLX pixmap.
      See the xdemos/glxpixmap.c file for an example of how to use this
      extension.

   GLX_MESA_release_buffers

      Mesa associates a set of ancillary (depth, accumulation, stencil and
      alpha) buffers with each X window it draws into.  These ancillary
      buffers are allocated for each X window the first time the X window
      is passed to glXMakeCurrent().  Mesa, however, can't detect when an
      X window has been destroyed in order to free the ancillary buffers.

      The best it can do is to check for recently destroyed windows whenever
      the client calls the glXCreateContext() or glXDestroyContext()
      functions.  This may not be sufficient in all situations though.

      The GLX_MESA_release_buffers extension allows a client to explicitly
      deallocate the ancillary buffers by calling glxReleaseBuffersMESA()
      just before an X window is destroyed.  For example:

         #ifdef GLX_MESA_release_buffers
            glXReleaseBuffersMESA( dpy, window );
         #endif
         XDestroyWindow( dpy, window );

      This extension is new in Mesa 2.0.

   GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer

      This extension adds the glXCopySubBufferMESA() function.  It works
      like glXSwapBuffers() but only copies a sub-region of the window
      instead of the whole window.

      This extension is new in Mesa version 2.6



Summary of X-related environment variables:
   MESA_RGB_VISUAL - specifies the X visual and depth for RGB mode (X only)
   MESA_CI_VISUAL - specifies the X visual and depth for CI mode (X only)
   MESA_BACK_BUFFER - specifies how to implement the back color buffer (X only)
   MESA_PRIVATE_CMAP - force aux/tk libraries to use private colormaps (X only)
   MESA_GAMMA - gamma correction coefficients (X only)


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$Id: README.X11,v 3.11 2003/12/17 15:14:31 brianp Exp $