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Xlib Software Driver ==================== Mesa's Xlib driver provides an emulation of the GLX interface so that OpenGL programs which use the GLX API can render to any X display, even those that don't support the GLX extension. Effectively, the Xlib driver converts all OpenGL rendering into Xlib calls. The Xlib driver is the oldest Mesa driver and the most mature of Mesa's software-only drivers. Since the Xlib driver *emulates* the GLX extension, it's not totally conformant with a true GLX implementation. The differences are fairly obscure, however. The unique features of the Xlib driver follows. X Visual Selection ------------------ Mesa supports RGB(A) rendering into TrueColor and DirectColor visuals, for any depth with a corresponding renderable OpenGL texture format. The glXChooseVisual function tries to choose the best X 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** environment variable. When a 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. The format of accepted values is: ``visual-class depth`` Here are some examples: :: using csh: % setenv MESA_RGB_VISUAL "TrueColor 8" // 8-bit TrueColor % setenv MESA_RGB_VISUAL "DirectColor 30" // 30-bit DirectColor using bash: $ export MESA_RGB_VISUAL="TrueColor 8" $ export MESA_RGB_VISUAL="DirectColor 30" Double Buffering ---------------- Mesa can use either an X Pixmap or XImage as the back color buffer when in double-buffer mode. 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). Using XImage is almost always faster than a Pixmap since it resides in the application's address space. When glXSwapBuffers() is called, XPutImage() or XShmPutImage() is used to transfer the XImage to the on-screen window. A Pixmap may be faster when doing remote rendering of a simple scene. Some OpenGL features will be very slow with a Pixmap (for example, blending will require a round-trip message for pixel readback.) Experiment 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 GLUT toolkit tries 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. Overlay Planes -------------- Hardware overlay planes are supported by the Xlib driver. To determine if your X server has overlay support you can test for the SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS property: .. code-block:: console xprop -root | grep SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS Extensions ---------- The following Mesa-specific extensions are implemented in the Xlib driver. GLX_MESA_pixmap_colormap ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This extension adds the GLX function: .. code-block:: c 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_pixmap_colormap specification <specs/MESA_pixmap_colormap.spec>`__ 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: .. code-block:: c #ifdef GLX_MESA_release_buffers glXReleaseBuffersMESA( dpy, window ); #endif XDestroyWindow( dpy, window ); `GLX_MESA_release_buffers specification <specs/MESA_release_buffers.spec>`__ This extension was added 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. `GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer specification <specs/MESA_copy_sub_buffer.spec>`__ This extension was added in Mesa 2.6 Summary of X-related environment variables ------------------------------------------ +-----------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Environment variable | Description | +=============================+======================================+ | :envvar:`MESA_RGB_VISUAL` | specifies the X visual and depth for | | | RGB mode (X only) | +-----------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | :envvar:`MESA_BACK_BUFFER` | specifies how to implement the back | | | color buffer (X only) | +-----------------------------+--------------------------------------+