DirectDraw surface data
File type: Game file, Bitmap image file
Files with dds extension can be usually encontered as 3D textures from DirectDraw Surface format.
Found 2 different file type records with the same dds filename suffix.
File type category:
Game file
Bitmap image file
Date updated: June 23, 2025
File extension dds is used for DirectDraw Surface format, a 3D texture format compressed with DirectX Texture Compression (DXTC1-5=S3TC).
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.
This format is used in numerous current computer games.
Many graphics editors can open and work with DirectDraw textures.
Textures can be generally exported as bitmap images.
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Paint.NET (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
GIMP for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Paint.NET (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
GIMP for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Paint.NET (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
GIMP for Linux (Linux/Unix)
FastPictureViewer Professional (Microsoft Windows)
DDS Converter (Microsoft Windows)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
Paint.NET (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP (Microsoft Windows)
GIMP for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
GIMP for Linux (Linux/Unix)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
DDS Converter (Microsoft Windows)
XnConvert (Multiplatform)
Easy2Convert JPG to DDS (Microsoft Windows)
Magic.TXD (Microsoft Windows)
XnConvert (Multiplatform)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
DirectX (Microsoft Windows)
FastPictureViewer Professional (Microsoft Windows)
Painkiller Overdose (Microsoft Windows)
Need for Speed SHIFT (Microsoft Windows)
Battlefield 1942 (Microsoft Windows)
Crysis (Microsoft Windows)
FPS Creator (Microsoft Windows)
Orbiter (Microsoft Windows)
Stronghold 3 (Microsoft Windows)
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II (Microsoft Windows)
ANNO 2070 (Microsoft Windows)
This War of Mine (Multiplatform)
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing (Multiplatform)
Transport Fever (Multiplatform)
File type category:
Various data file
Date updated: October 26, 2017
The dds file extension is used by the XMap, a set of tools for managing XMap GIS databases for Microsoft Windows operating system, developed by DeLorme.
The dds file contains dataset.
Use XMap to work with *.dds files.
Xmap (Microsoft Windows)
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