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Mip Maps Or No?
If you're doing a 2D app using orthographic view cameras with UI canvases & panels Do you need to use Mip Maps at all? I could find a lot of talk about them with 3D but not so much when it came down to 2D usage. I notice that with generate Mip Maps box un checked it cuts the size of my 800 X 600 PNG with transparency down significantly and I could see no real change in the way the images looked or performed, except maybe faster.
Answer by GenericToast · Sep 11, 2017 at 01:34 PM
I don't think mip maps are necessary for 2D games, i usually leave them off unless it's for a 3D game.
The default import settings for 2D projects in newer versions of Unity should have the generate mip maps option unchecked.
Thanks @GenericToast , I did wonder about that. Originally I had set up my project as 3D because we had a model of a car that could be rotated, later on I decided to get rid of it so the project was then technically just 2D from that point on but whenever I imported new graphics for the UI panels $$anonymous$$ip $$anonymous$$aps were on and I never really knew what they were or what they were for. So that's good to know.
Answer by Bodhid · Sep 11, 2017 at 03:09 PM
When using pixel-perfect graphics in a 2D game or UI elements, you don't need to use mipmaps.
However if your game can be displayed at multiple resolutions (from 480p to 2160p for example) it is recommended to use them to avoid aliasing in the images. When combined with trilinear filtering, a 2D game with dynamic resolution will look the best.
If you have for example a big background image, you could uncheck "generate mipmaps" for that image if you are certain that the lower mipmap levels will never be used.
Thanks @Bodhid Our primary output is to small 800 X 600 LCD touch screen car monitors so nothing too big, it's a very specific format we are looking at publishing to end product wise.