regarding this topic: why and when is it sensible to disable MipMaps on preloaded textures?
what i meant in that case has nothing to do with mipmapping. i only wanted to remind you as the faqs on preloading point out, the settings in a FileTexture node that preloads textures have to be identical to the ones in the FileTexture connected to the actual rendering geometry in order for the preloading mechanism to work.
ah, i completely missed this detail! thanks joreg!