Mipmaps

Mipmaps are additional copies of a texture in a smaller resolution, each being one fourth of the resolution of the previous one (e.g. the first mipmap of a texture with a resolution of 2048x2048 has a resolution of 1024x1024 pixel). The game's engine will choose the texture with the resolution that covers the model best. Depending on the graphics settings, in particular anisotropic filtering and texture quality, the game may prioritize performance over visual quality. Mipmapping has two purposes:

1. Improved performance: Smaller variants of textures can be rendered.
2. Improved anti-aliasing: The game engine will choose the most fitting resolution for the viewpoint, rather than having to scale down a higher resolution texture, which can result in aliased jagged edges.

Comparison of a texture with and without mipmaps

This picture shows the difference between a vehicle livery texture with and without mipmaps. The texture has a large resolution (in this example, the texture has a resolution of 4048x4048 pixel) and covers the whole car, making the difference easy to spot. The texture on the left car uses mipmaps, the one on the right car does not. On the right, the yellow lines just behind the headlights have visible aliasing, as do the decals on the roof.

Usage of mipmaps in GTA V

In almost every case, mipmaps should be used with their number set as high as possible. In only these following two cases, mipmaps may decrease visual quality:

• Colorful emissive textures usually look better from a distance without mipmaps, as mipmaps may cause blurring of the pixels, resulting in less saturated colors.
• Tiled seamless textures may not be displayed properly by the game and instead have incorrect colors or reflections. In this case, mipmaps should be disabled. This is most common with high resolution textures covering a very small UV. This affects diffuse, specular and normal map textures.

To remove mipmaps in OpenIV, set the number to 1, which will remove all mipmaps with the exception of the original full resolution texture.

FiveM

By default, FiveM limits streaming of high resolution textures, and instead may force lower resolution mipmaps to improve memory usage. More information about this feature and how to disable it can be found in the FiveM forums.