.dds File — DirectDraw Surface

DDS (DirectDraw Surface) is a container format developed by Microsoft for storing compressed and uncompressed textures and cube maps for use with DirectX graphics APIs. DDS files commonly use GPU-native compression formats including DXT1/BC1 (4:1 compression, 1-bit alpha), DXT3/BC2 (4:1 with explicit alpha), DXT5/BC3 (4:1 with interpolated alpha), BC4 (single-channel), BC5 (two-channel, for normal maps), BC6H (HDR), and BC7 (high-quality lossy). These compression formats can be decompressed directly by the GPU hardware without CPU intervention, making DDS the standard texture format for game engines. DDS files support mipmaps (pre-calculated lower-resolution versions for efficient rendering at different distances), cube maps (six faces for environment mapping), volume textures (3D textures), and texture arrays. The format is extensively used in game development with DirectX (and OpenGL via extensions), storing textures, normal maps, specular maps, height maps, and lightmaps. Tools like NVIDIA Texture Tools, Intel Texture Works, and AMD Compressonator convert images to DDS with various compression settings. Most game engines import DDS or convert textures to DDS-compatible formats internally.