Image format
The DDS format
DDS is a GPU texture format with block compression and mipmaps. Microsoft introduced DDS with DirectX 7 in 1999 so games could load textures straight into the graphics card.
When to use DDS
You make DDS files for a game or mod; you convert them when you want to look at or edit a texture.
It is best for game textures that load directly into video memory, and it opens on game engines, modding tools and a few editors with plug-ins.
How to open it: Paint.NET, GIMP (with DDS support), Photoshop with NVIDIA’s plug-in and game modding tools open DDS files.
| Full name | DirectDraw Surface |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .dds |
| MIME type | image/vnd-ms.dds |
| Introduced | 1999 |
| Compression | Lossy |
| Transparency | Yes |
| Animation | No |
| Support | Specialist format |
| Typical size | A 2048 × 2048 texture with mipmaps is about 3–5 MB compressed |
Good at
- Loads into the graphics card with no decoding
- Stores mipmaps and cube maps in one file
Not so good at
- Block compression blurs detail and bands gradients
- Almost nothing outside game tools can open it
The common mistake
Many DDS textures store only the color a shader expects, like a normal map or a single channel, so a “converted” texture can look purple or gray and still be correct.
Questions
What is a DDS file?
DDS (DirectDraw Surface) is a GPU texture format with block compression and mipmaps. Microsoft introduced DDS with DirectX 7 in 1999 so games could load textures straight into the graphics card.
How do I open a DDS file?
Paint.NET, GIMP (with DDS support), Photoshop with NVIDIA’s plug-in and game modding tools open DDS files.