Mipmaps and Level of Detail (LOD)

Mipmaps reduce aliasing and bandwidth by sampling pre‑filtered versions of a texture. LOD is simply “which mip do we use right now?”.

In this sample the key idea is: we want stable, good-looking texture sampling while assets are streaming in, without turning texture management into a giant subsystem.

What we do here

  • Use mipmapped textures when available (KTX2 transcodes can include mips).

  • For raw RGBA uploads, we cap auto‑generated mips to a small number to avoid large VRAM spikes.

  • Enable sampler anisotropy with a UI slider so you can see the trade‑offs quickly.

Where it lives in code

  • Sampler creation and anisotropy slider:

    • renderer_resources.cpp (sampler creation helpers)

    • ImGui panel in renderer_rendering.cpp

  • Upload path (staging → device image, then transition to SHADER_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL):

    • renderer_resources.cpp

    • resource_manager.cpp / scene_loading.cpp (higher-level streaming/control flow)

Tips

  • Prefer compressed formats (BC/ASTC/ETC) with mips for big scenes.

  • Clamp the max anisotropy to what your device supports.

Future work ideas

If you want to take this farther:

  • Add a per-material “mip bias” control (great for stylized looks and debugging shimmering).

  • Add texture streaming by mip level (load low mips first, then refine).

  • Add a small “texture residency” overlay (counts of textures by mip availability).

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