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StormMesa 68K and PowerPC
14-Feb-97: Introduction of StormMESA 2.0!
On time for the A.U.G.S meeting in Zofingen/Schweiz Sam Jordan of Haage&Partner completed
his version of the OpenGL compatible MESA project. Some pictures of the meeting
Some impressive samples
Facts
StormMESA V2.0 is a 3D graphics library that is almost completey compatible to the OpenGL
standard.
 StormMESA
V2.0 basiert auf AMESA V1.6 von Stefan Zivkovic. Im MESA-Archiv befindet sich die Datei 'README.AMIGA', welches
sich auf das AMESA V1.6 bezieht.
AMESA is based on MESA from Brian Paul. More information on MESA can be found in the Internet/WWW
or in the Readme in the MESA archive.
The library is freely available according to the GNU Public Licence. The GPL can be found within the Mesa archive.
StormMESA is done as link libraries.
The 68K version of StormMESA V2.0 needs at least an 68040 processor with FPU because the link libraries
were compiled accordingly. In fact it does not make much sense to run such a complex application on a slower processor.
The PowerPC version of StormMESA V2.0 supports any PowerPC processor and demonstrates impressively
the superiority of the WarpUP solution.
StormMESA V2.0 needs OS2.0+; some features will even need later OS version:
- fullscreen mode needs at least OS3.0
- AGA mode (ecept for fullscreen) needs at least OS3.1. OS3.0 users without a graphics board must use the fullscreen
mode.
We recommend to use a PowerPC processor, OS3.1, graphics board, a lot of RAM and a lot of harddisk space. Besides
this we recommand to use a graphics board software that takes maximum advantage of the blitter of the graphics
board. At this time only "Picasso96" fullfils these needs.
Features
Some of the key features of this StormMESA implementation:
- Almost full OpenGL compatible. The official OpenGL tutorial demos of SGI will run problem-free.
- StormMESA V2.0 is based on the latest MESA implementation (MESA V2.5)
- It supports 68040 and 68060 (with FPU) and all PowerPC processors.
- It supports AGA and Graphics boards and Hi/TrueColor modes.
- The color conversion for the 8 bit output is speeded up very much. Additionally the quality of the output was
improved by dithering methods.
- A lot of graphics drivers were done for optimal support of the various AMIGA systems:
- New double buffering drivers
- New driver that takes full advantage of the blitter of the graphics boards. This mode can only be used when
the software of the graphics board is able to install new bitmaps in the RAM of the graphics board. This mode can
only be used on graphics boards modes. It can speed up some demos extremely (especially when Hi/TrueColor modes
are used).
- New driver for FullScreen mode. This support OS3.0 compatible Multibuffering completely transparent for the
developers. This mode can be only be used when the software of the graphics board is able to support OS3.0 compatible
Multibuffering. This mode can also be used in AGA mode. Then a Chunky-To-Planar conversion will be proceeded.
- Most of the drawing routins are done in a C version as well as in an Assembler one (68K and PowerPC). The link
libraries contain the Assembler drawing routines. This StormMESA implementation was speed up in general.
- The interface (API) is fully backwards compatible to former AmigaMESA versions.
- A flexible controll of the AUX-/TK based demos by an enviroment variable. The old MESA version could only display
most demos in Single Buffer Mode. This made them very slow. Now you can control the mode.
StormMESA V2.0 was done with the StormC Compiler and the assemblers PhxAss (68K) and
StormPowerASM (PowerPC).
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