weekly research: MIP mapping

what is MIP ?

wikipedia has the answers

Mip maps (invented by Lance Williams in 1983)

... are pre-calculated, optimised collections of bitmaps that accompany a main texture, intending on increasing rendering spped and reducing artifacts.

MIP is an acronym, from the latin : multum in parvo, or "much in a small space"

If the full res map isnt required - the renderer will automatically switch to a lower res version, or interpolate between the full- res version and a lower res version - if tri-linear filtering is enabled.

see anistropic mip mapping.