What you are thinking of is called Level of Detail (LOD). The principle being that 3D models further away can be rendered with fewer vertices/polygons, i.e., at

What you are thinking of is called Level of Detail (LOD). The principle being that 3D models further away can be rendered with fewer vertices/polygons, i.e., at a lower LOD. 3D models in Minecraft are almost all simple cubes or a collection of rectangles (e.g., torches, levers, slabs). There aren't really any extra polygons in these models that can be removed to create a less detailed representation, unlike, say in this [1] model of a rabbit. Thus, you are right in thinking that Minecraft doesn't implement a LOD by changing the resolution of the models; however, it does use progressively lower resolution textures for texturing models that are farther away. This is a common technique called mipmapping [2]. [1] - https://cathyatseneca.gitbooks.io/3d-modelling-for-programmers/content/3ds_max_basics/3d_representation.html https://cathyatseneca.gitbooks.io/3d-modelling-for-programme... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap