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diff --git a/docs/faq.html b/docs/faq.html index 448def5274f..89145f0cb88 100644 --- a/docs/faq.html +++ b/docs/faq.html @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ <center> <h1>Mesa Frequently Asked Questions</h1> -Last updated: 7 March 2003 +Last updated: 30 March 2003 </center> <br> @@ -32,20 +32,20 @@ Last updated: 7 March 2003 <h2><a name="part1">1.1 What is Mesa?</a></h2> <p> <a name="part1">Mesa is an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification. -OpenGL is a high-level programming library for interactive 3D graphics. +OpenGL is a programming library for writing interactive 3D applications. See the </a><a href="http://www.opengl.org/">OpenGL website</a> for more information. </p> <p> -Mesa 5.0.x supports the OpenGL 1.4 specification. +Mesa 5.x supports the OpenGL 1.4 specification. </p> <h2>1.2 Does Mesa support/use graphics hardware?</h2> <p> -Yes. Specifically, Mesa serves as the OpenGL core for the XFree86/DRI -OpenGL drivers. See the <a href="http://dri.sf.net/">DRI website</a> for -more information. +Yes. Specifically, Mesa serves as the OpenGL core for the open-source +XFree86/DRI OpenGL drivers. See the <a href="http://dri.sf.net/">DRI +website</a> for more information. </p> <p> There have been other hardware drivers for Mesa over the years (such as @@ -53,34 +53,40 @@ the 3Dfx Glide/Voodoo driver, an old S3 driver, etc) but the DRI drivers are the modern ones. </p> -<h2>1.3 What purpose does (software) Mesa serve today?</h2> +<h2>1.3 What purpose does Mesa (software-based rendering) serve today?</h2> <p> -Commercial, hardware-accelerated OpenGL implementations are available for -many operating systems today. +Hardware-accelerated OpenGL implementations are available for most popular +operating systems today. Still, Mesa serves at least these purposes: </p> <ul> -<li>Mesa is used as the core of the XFree86/DRI hardware drivers. -</li><li>Mesa is quite portable and allows OpenGL to be used on systems that have - no other OpenGL solution. -</li><li>Software rendering with Mesa serves as a reference for validating the +<li>Mesa is used as the core of the open-source XFree86/DRI hardware drivers. +</li> +<li>Mesa is quite portable and allows OpenGL to be used on systems + that have no other OpenGL solution. +</li> +<li>Software rendering with Mesa serves as a reference for validating the hardware drivers. -</li><li>A software implementation of OpenGL is useful for experimentation, such - as testing new rendering techniques. -</li><li>Mesa can render images with deep color channels: 16-bit integer and 32-bit - floating point color channels are supported. +</li> +<li>A software implementation of OpenGL is useful for experimentation, + such as testing new rendering techniques. +</li> +<li>Mesa can render images with deep color channels: 16-bit integer + and 32-bit floating point color channels are supported. This capability is only now appearing in hardware. -</li><li>Mesa's internal limits (max lights, clip planes, texture size, etc) can be +</li> +<li>Mesa's internal limits (max lights, clip planes, texture size, etc) can be changed for special needs (hardware limits are hard to overcome). -</li></ul> +</li> +</ul> <h2>1.4 How do I upgrade my DRI installation to use a new Mesa release?</h2> <p> -You don't! The Mesa source code lives inside the XFree86/DRI source tree -and gets compiled into the individual DRI driver modules. +You don't! A copy of the Mesa source code lives inside the XFree86/DRI source +tree and gets compiled into the individual DRI driver modules. If you try to install Mesa over an XFree86/DRI installation, you'll lose -hardware rendering (because Mesa's libGL.so is different than the XFree86 -libGL.so). +hardware rendering (because stand-alone Mesa's libGL.so is different than +the XFree86 libGL.so). </p> <p> The DRI developers will incorporate the latest release of Mesa into the |