Mipmapping creates a sequence of textures, each time downsampling the image by a factor of two in width and height.  The process continues until the final image is only 1x1 pixel.

The mipmapped texture then contains multiple levels of detail.



OpenGL will automatically choose the level of detail.  For example, points far from the camera will be texture mapped with the smaller textures in the mipmap, while points nearer the camera are textured with larger textures.

Mipmaps are memory efficient, only requiring 1/3rd more storage.

High