Mip-Mapping is an anti-aliasing method that is used in many 3D rendering applications like 3D configurators. The method is usually used in game visualization and 3D image rendering. Mip-mapping removes the “moiré” patterns that usually occur in detailed textures with many lines. Moiré patterns appear when an applied texture is further away and the number of texels exceeds the number of pixels to be rendered, resulting in a loss of visual information. The idea behind mipmapping is simple: if the image to be rendered is large or close to the camera, the renderer uses a larger texture map, while for a smaller image or greater distance, smaller textures are used. MIP stands for the Latin expression multum in parvo, which means “much in little”.
Mipmapping is an image processing technique that uses an original, high-resolution texture image or a map and filter and scales to multiple, lower-resolution texture maps within the same texture file. This simply means that smaller texture maps are created based on an original, with each texture being smaller than the previous “level”, usually half the resolution size. So if an original (level 0) texture has a size of 128 x 128, level 1 would be 64 x 64, level 2 would be 32 x 32, and so on. Each reduced texture is called a “mip level” and represents what the original texture would look like if it were a certain distance away from the camera or viewer. Filters allow these differently sized textures and colors to look more natural when viewed from a distance. The merge helps to avoid moiré patterns and allows a lower processor load.
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