Actually, you have a choice of ways to translate this gradient value into a MIP level. This also brings up one of the shortcomings of MIP mapping. MIP mapping assumes that both the u and v components of the texture index are undergoing a uniform scaling, while in fact the terms du/dt and dv/dt are relatively independent. Thus, we must make some sort of compromise. Two of the most common approaches are given below: The differences between these level selection methods is illustrated by the accompanying figure.