DDS - Revision history

HaleyStarshine: /* Plugins */ : the previous link to a GIMP DDS plugin was dead,

2012-04-15T21:33:29Z

‎Plugins: : the previous link to a GIMP DDS plugin was dead,

Eshme: /* See Also */

2010-01-26T20:12:47Z

‎See Also

BryanDerksen: Category:Textures

2010-01-13T22:24:53Z

Category:Textures

KigenBarzhad at 18:52, 13 January 2010

2010-01-13T18:52:33Z

KigenBarzhad at 18:32, 13 January 2010

2010-01-13T18:32:26Z

KigenBarzhad: All information related to DDS files. Includes software/plugin locations for editing and creation.

2010-01-13T18:25:15Z

All information related to DDS files. Includes software/plugin locations for editing and creation.

New page

== Description ==
The DirectDraw Surface graphics file format was established by Microsoft for use with the DirectX SDK. The format is specifically designed for use in real-time rendering applications, such as 3D games. It can be used to store textures, cubemaps, mipmap levels, and allows for compression. Due to the fact that most video cards natively support DXTn texture compression, use of this format can save memory on the video card.

Drivers can perform this compression on the fly thanks to the GL_ARB_texture_compression extension. Thus, it would appear the only advantage of DDS is just reduced space (meaning faster loading) without "double degradation" caused by recompressing already-compressed formats like JPEG. However, DDS files expose this automated process to artists. This allows the image author to correct or prevent artifacts that might occur in a completely automated compression process, or even emphasize specific parts of an image's MIP maps.

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! *
! File Format Specifications
|-
| '''Extension'''
| *.DDS
|-
| '''Compression'''
| None, DXTn
|-
| '''Color Depth'''
| 1- to 32-bits
|}

*Credit goes to [http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/DDS_%28file_format%29 modwiki.com] for description information

==Software Location ==
=== Plugins ===
* [http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html Nvidia Photoshop Pluggin] (This plugin only works for the 32-bit version of photoshop)
* [http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/ GIMP DDS Plugin]

=== Other ===
* [http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_thumbnail_viewer.html DDS Thumbnail Viewer] - Allows you to view .dds files in Thumbnail view in the Windows Explorer.
* [http://developer.nvidia.com/object/windows_texture_viewer.html Windows Texture Viewer] - WTV was developed by Tomas Blaho for simple DDS viewing, especially for those DDS files with an alpha channel.

== See Also ==

[[Category:File Formats|DDS]]

@@ Line 32: / Line 32: @@
 == See Also ==
 [[DDS Export Settings]]
 [[Category:File types|DDS]]
 [[Category:Textures]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:24, 13 January 2010
Line 34:		Line 34:

	[[Category:File types\|DDS]]		[[Category:File types\|DDS]]
		+	[[Category:Textures]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:52, 13 January 2010
Line 33:		Line 33:
	[[DDS Export Settings]]		[[DDS Export Settings]]

−	[[Category:File ~~Formats~~\|DDS]]	+	[[Category:File types\|DDS]]

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 === Plugins ===
 * [http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html Nvidia Photoshop Pluggin] (This plugin only works for the 32-bit version of photoshop)
-* [http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/ GIMP DDS Plugin]
+* [http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/ GIMP DDS Plugin]
 === Other ===