I'm reading OpenGL Superbible 5th ed. I've come across several terms which although explained in the book are not so clear to me yet.
First is multisampling. I understand that it is used to smooth out polygons and help rendering a better image. What I don't understand is how it differs from anti aliasing.
Second is anisotropic filtering. I know the effect of this type of texture filtering, but I want to know how and when exactly it is used. Possibly a general explanation of the algorithm? I googled it and wikipedia doesn't explain much.
Multisampling does not differ from anti-aliasing; it is a type of anti-aliasing. It is well explained by Shawn Hargreaves here
As for anisotropic filtering I could not explain it better than this article. If you can, read it all since it covers Anti-aliasing too !