Mesa 3D

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Mesa 3D is an open source 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.

[edit] Advantages

• 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.

• Mesa 3D is distributed under the MIT License.

• Whilst Mesa 3D supports several hardware graphics accelerators, it may also be compiled as a software-only renderer. Since it is also Open Sourced, 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.

[edit] External links

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