Anisotropic filtering is a relatively standard option in video games.
This is generally most noticeable on flat wall- or floor-textures that stretch off into the distance.
Mipmaps
A basic solution to this blurring is texture mipmaps.
Mipmapping involves pre-computing a series of downscaled versions of textures.
This design increases the size of any texture file by 33%.
Anisotropic filtering
The solution to this issue is anisotropic filtering.
Tip: The word anisotropic is has a compound origin.
An means not, iso means same, and tropic come from tropism, meaning related to direction.
This name fits because anisotropic filtering does not filter the same way in every direction.
These represent the number of size reductions that are available for use.
Typically, the difference between 8x and 16x is almost impossible to discern except in side-by-side comparisons.
The performance impact of anisotropic filtering is relatively minimal.
