image_mipmap(3)

🦋 image_mipmap — Arcan Lua API, bestie edition

okay so this one's from the Arcan Lua API manual and it's literally called image_mipmap, and ngl the vibe is "force-toggle image mipmap storage" ✨

💖 NAME

image_mipmap — Forcetoggle image mipmap storage 🎀

(yes, Forcetoggle is one word, that's how they wrote it, we respect the hyphen-free lifestyle)

✨ SYNOPSIS

nil
image_mipmap( vid, state )

🌸 DESCRIPTION

okay so picture this: mipmapping is the super common procedure of generating multiple versions of the same image — typically at lower resolutions for each "level" — and then letting the rendering subsystem decide which version is the most suitable for whatever rendering operation is happening right now 👑

the way it works out: this usually saves on memory bandwidth, at the cost of approximately a third more memory consumption. tradeoffs, we love them.

this function enforces a certain mipmap state for a video object 🫶. and heads up — some filtering methods rely on access to lower mipmap levels, FILTER_TRILINEAR in particular. so if you're running trilinear and the lower levels aren't there… yeah 💀

⭐ NOTES

1. this is a no-operation in memory conservative mode 🙈
2. the default mipmap state for all objects is determined at compile time (ARCAN_VIDEO_DEFAULT_MIPMAP_STATE), with hardcoded mipmap disable defaults for frameservers and for rendertarget storage 🎀
3. the engine does not currently support manually generated mipmaps 😭 these can be useful in some contexts, particularly when dealing with texture compression, or when optimizing memory use through pre-pass analysis of visibility with color-coded mipmap levels. so like — useful, yes, supported, no 💅
4. this state transformation is costly with non-trivially determined benefits. in order to reliably switch open GL backend state, a new GL store needs to be created, thus the raw texture data is copied and uploaded again 😮‍💨 like, full re-upload. not free. no cap.

lowkey read note 4 twice before you sprinkle image_mipmap calls everywhere, bestie 🫶

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🌈 EXAMPLE

function image_mipmap0()
      icon = load_image("test.png");
      props = image_surface_properties(icon);
      icon2 = null_surface(props.width, props.height);
      icon2 = image_sharestorage(icon, icon2);
      show_image({icon, icon2});
      resize_image(icon, props.width * 0.5, props.height * 0.5);
      resize_image(icon2, props.width * 0.5, props.height * 0.5);
      move_image(icon2, props.width, 0);
      image_mipmap(icon2, false);
      image_mipmap(icon, true);
end

two surfaces sharing storage, both resized to half size, one moved over next to the other, and then the mipmap states get flipped in opposite directions — one false, one true. a little side-by-side comparison moment, iykyk 👑

💀 MISUSE

function image_mipmap0()
      image_mipmap(WORLDID, "potatoe");
end

not the "potatoe" 😭😭 this is the "don't do this" example — a WORLDID where a video object id belongs, and a string where a state belongs. bestie. respectfully. do not 🫠

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🫶 SEE ALSO:

• image

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and that's the whole page, fr fr 💜 — this icon of a manpage is from the Arcan Lua API manual, page dated October 2026, and the source line at the bottom just says image. slay, we love a tidy footer 🎀✨