File: docs/README.WIN32

Last updated: Oct 15, 2001 - Karl Schultz - kschultz@users.sourceforge.net

Quick Start

If you have Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 installed, simply go to the top directory
of the Mesa distribution and type 'nmake -f Makefile.win NODEBUG=1' for
an optimized build.

Details and Notes

- Building Mesa as noted above should visit and build the following:
  src        MesaGL.dll, MesaGL.lib, osmesa.dll, osmesa.lib
  si-glu     MesaGLU.dll, MesaGLU.lib
  src-glut   glut32.dll, glut32.lib
  demos      a handful of demo executables.

- After building, you can copy the above DLL files to a place in your PATH
  or to the demos directory if you just want to give the demos a try.
  The DLL and LIB files are copied to the ./lib directory.  The makefile
  creates this directory if it does not already exist.

- The make targets 'clean' and 'clobber' will remove objects and libraries.
  But the files in ./lib are never cleaned.

- The make target 'install' will take its best shot at copying DLL files,
  LIB files, and headers to the right places.  I strongly suggest that
  you examine the makefiles to make sure that 'install' doesn't do anything
  that you can't live with.

- The makefiles are designed to work with Microsoft's NMAKE, and do,
  unfortunately, have some Microsoft-specific things in them.  If you
  would like to use gcc or some other build tools like the Cygnus tools,
  then you will have to hack the makefiles to make them work with your
  tools.  I'm sorry about this; I wasn't motivated to make this any
  different, but if you end up modifying the makefiles for your tools,
  you can send me the changes and I can apply the changes to the 
  source tree.

- There are no Microsoft Visual Studio project files.  However, these
  should be very easy to create.  One can use the compiler and linker
  options found in the makefiles to make quick progress in creating
  projects.

- The DLL files are built so that the external entry points use the
  stdcall calling convention.

- Static LIB files are not built.  The LIB files that are built with
  the current makefiles are the linker import files associated with
  the DLL files.  If static LIB's are desired, it should not be too
  difficult to modify the makefiles to generate them.

- The si-glu sources are used to build the GLU libs.  This was done
  mainly to get the better tessellator code.  However the C++ NURBS
  code is not built.  If you need NURBS, consider modifying the
  makefiles to build the C++ code or try to build the older GLU
  code in src-glu.

- The osmesa driver builds and should work on Windows as well as
  any other platform.

- The Windows driver (in src/Windows) builds and runs at least at
  a minimal level.  I modified this driver to work with the new
  Mesa 4.0 code and driver architecture, but I did not do a great
  deal of optimization and testing.  There are many opportunities
  for optimization, many of which can be done by coding more specific
  paths for the rasterizers.  See src/osmesa/osmesa.c for some good
  examples.

- There is DirectDraw support in the Windows driver, but I do not
  know if it compiles or works.  If you have an application that
  does not draw much in a frame, but needs a higher framerate, then
  it may pay to turn on the DirectDraw code, since DD often performs
  the off-screen to on-screen blit faster than GDI.

- Some of the more specialized code like FX drivers, stereo, and
  parallel support isn't compiled or tested.  I left much of this
  code alone, but it may need some work to get it 'turned on' again.

- No assembly code is compiled or assembled.  Again, this may need
  some work to turn it back on or use it again.

If you have a Windows-related build problem or question, it is
probably better to direct it to me (kschultz@users.sourceforge.net),
rather than directly to the other Mesa developers.  I will help you
as much as I can.  I also monitor the Mesa mailing lists and will
answer questions in this area there as well.


Karl Schultz