A technique using scaled down versions of a texture image, generated beforehand and stored in memory, are then used in rendering a 3D scene to provide the best quality. This technique allows objects to look more detailed when coming closer to them by defining multiple texture maps- very detailed textures maps are used when the object is close and less detailed ones used when the object is further away. This helps to avoid the blocky textures, and the step effect on lines. Usually they talk about MIP-levels or Level of Detail (LOD) which refers to the quality of the texture map used. Derived from Latin phrase, multium in parvo, ("many in one"), because it uses several pre-filtered texture patterns known as MIP-maps Original texture is reduced by 1/4 and stored as the 2nd texture, then it is reduced by again by 1/4 and stored as the 3rd texture… The appropriate texture MIP-map is selected depending on how far or near the object is from the viewpoint.

In computer graphics, mipmaps (also MIP maps) or pyramids are pre-calculated, optimized sequences of images, each of which is a progressively lower resolution representation of the previous. The height and width of each image, or level, in the mipmap is a power of two smaller than the previous level. Mipmaps do not have to be square. They are intended to increase rendering speed and reduce aliasing artifacts. A high-resolution mipmap image is used for high-density samples, such as for objects close to the camera; lower-resolution images are used as the object appears farther away. This is a more efficient way of downfiltering (minifying) a texture than sampling all texels in the original texture that would contribute to a screen pixel; it is faster to take a constant number of samples from the appropriately downfiltered textures. Mipmaps are widely used in 3D computer games, flight simulators, other 3D imaging systems for texture filtering and 2D as well as 3D GIS software. Their use is known as mipmapping. The letters MIP in the name are an acronym of the Latin phrase multum in parvo, meaning "much in little".

Since mipmaps, by definition, are pre-allocated, additional storage space is required to take advantage of them. They are also related to wavelet compression. Mipmap textures are used in 3D scenes to decrease the time required to render a scene. They also improve image quality by reducing aliasing and Moiré patterns that occur at large viewing distances, at the cost of 33% more memory per texture.