Worksheet 6 — Part 2 · Mipmap and Filtering Exploration

Nearest filtering selects the closest texel, giving crisp results when magnified but causing obvious aliasing when the texture shrinks. Linear filtering blends neighboring texels, which softens magnification and reduces stair-stepping during minification. Mipmaps pre-filter the texture at successively lower resolutions so minification can use a level that matches the on-screen size, significantly reducing shimmering. Disabling mipmaps forces the renderer to sample the full-resolution image even when the geometry is far away, making aliasing easier to spot.