.dds files are not intended for ordinary users. Therefore, it is quite strange if you suddenly discovered it by accident on your computer. But like any other format, this one can be opened and edited using special software.
What is it needed for?
DDS format documents contain information about 3D textures. These are compressed bitmap images that are used in many 3D applications, especially computer and console games. The compression algorithm allows the use of textures on consoles such as Xbox 360 and Play Station 3: Bethesda especially often renders objects in their games through "didies". The format is supported by most video cards, the DirectX program, as well as software produced by video card manufacturers.
How to open DDS?
The file is a raster image. This means that it can be opened through graphic editor. But you can't always edit. There are special converters that transform these files into formats more familiar to standard software: .bmp, .jpeg, etc. This is, for example, Right Click Image Converter. The utility will quickly convert .dds to a “lighter” extension.
Editing is a little more complicated. Here you can’t do without the help of special programs for processing raster 3D images. You can open a file with this extension and further edit it through programs such as Paint.NET, XnView, Windows Texture Viewer. But of greater interest to every designer is probably Photoshop, which makes it more convenient to work with this format, and with others too.
Photoshop
To open a file in Photoshop, you need a plugin produced by NVIDIA - NVIDIA Texture Tools for Adobe Photoshop. It is free to download, but, of course, you need to have the Adobe editor already installed.
After installing the plugin, you will be able to open DDS in Photoshop. However, working with them is not nearly as easy as with ordinary photographs or pictures. If you suddenly decide to quickly master the basics of processing and designing game objects, even if you have experience editing in Photoshop, you will have to work hard. Each texture has its own dimensions and various complex characteristics.
Have you seriously decided to master .dds and learn how to make your own mods for games like Fallout or Elder Scrolls? You will succeed, just spend a few hours practicing and watching various editing tutorials.
DDS files in the format bitmap uses Microsoft DirectX to store textures and environments. These files can store compressed and uncompressed pixel formats. They are sometimes used to store a desktop Windows backgrounds or wallpaper, as well as for texturing video game unit models. The format was introduced with DirectX 7.0. DirectX 8.0 added support for volumetric textures. Originally developed for DirectX, it can also be used in OpenGL, via GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language), an ARB texture compression extension. It is not part of the OpenGL standard and is not available in all implementations due to S3TC being a patented and royalty based system. With Direct3D 10, the file format has been expanded so that array textures are also included, as well as support for the new Direct3D 10.x and 11 texture formats.
How to open a .DDS file?
To run a .DDS file or any other file on your computer, simply double-click on it. If your file associations are set correctly, software, which is meant to run a file.DDS will open it. You may need to download or purchase the correct application. It is also possible that you have the correct application on your computer, however.DDS files are not associated with it. In this case, when you try to open a .DDS file, you can tell Windows which application is the correct one for that file. From then on, opening the .DDS file will open the correct application.
Today the review will be devoted to a rather rare file format – DDS. Such files are encountered extremely rarely in everyday work at a computer; often users do not even realize that such extensions exist, let alone more pressing questions - how can such files be opened and what programs are best to do this, why open them at all and who should use them? you may need what they store in themselves and what they are used for, and many others.
Why are DDS files needed?
Files with the dds extension are designed to store raster images. The format in question was developed by Microsoft and the SDK was initially created.
What is stored in DDS files
Most often, dds files contain data about 3D textures. They are used in many programs for working with 3D graphics, as well as in modern games with 3D graphics. In the latter case, such files store textures and environmental maps that are used in gaming applications. In addition, desktop screensavers can be stored in dds files.
The .DDS format was developed by MS for use in DirectX - it stores data about 3D textures, which are used, for example, in games
One of the advantages of the format is that it is supported by DXTn video cards, whose drivers are capable of compressing textures on the fly, which ensures performance. The dds files themselves can contain textures in uncompressed and compressed form. This allows such files to be widely used in modern Play Station 3 and Xbox360 consoles.
How to open DDS files
If you are interested in how to open a dds file for the purpose of “just seeing what’s inside,” then a regular converter program will suffice.
The Right Click Image Converter application is very convenient for this purpose, with which you can convert a dds file to , png and other most popular formats in a few seconds. You will just need to click right click mouse over the file and select “Convert to” (here you will need to select the required extension). The file in the selected format will be saved in the same folder.
If you need to edit the dds file or create your own, you can use, for example, . First, you need to download NVIDIA Texture Tools for Photoshop from the developer nvidia com resource (spaces must first be replaced with dots). This tool allows you to open a dds file and save it with the same extension. For other programs that work with graphics, their own filters have been developed that provide the ability to view dds files.
Well, in order to fully work with the dds format in different programs(in 3D editors and other applications that provide import/export of game models with textures), download the nVidia DDS Utilities utility - it is available on the NVIDIA website.
So, we are convinced that opening the dds file is not so difficult - you just need to install required applications and filters for them.
Lyrics:
All textures for games from Bethesda, and, in particular, Skyrim are presented in the format .dds. This format can contain several sizes of the same texture. Any texture size cannot be used, only: 8 , 16 , 32 , 64 , 128 , 256 , 1024 , 2048 and so on. All resources are packaged in .bsa archives with appropriate names. Textures are also called maps. Each diffuse map(color texture) is accompanied by at least normal map , the exception is textures for effects and the like. There is a good write-up about normal maps at Vicki. In short, normal maps allow a low-poly model to look high-poly by adding all sorts of little bumps and bumps, and it’s also purple and has a marker _n(texture name_n.dds) or, now also, _msn, so it is impossible to make a mistake when identifying it. Is there some more glow map , which determines which areas of the texture will glow and which will not, has a marker _g. And also, exclusively for Skyrim, introduced new map- gloss mask, has a marker _m, determines, when used (that is, if it is not added, then there will be no gloss anywhere on the model), which part of the texture will reflect the environment and to what extent. The Oblivion engine itself finds and loads correctly labeled maps, but for Skyrim you need to force all the maps into the model, and each one into its own special slot. That, in general, is all.
Tools:
1. Adobe Photoshop
2. A plugin for Photoshop from Nvidia for working with the .dds format and creating normal maps.
3. Some kind of unpacker for .bsa archives. For example [b]BSA Browser by Fawzib Rojas .
4. Important! Straight arms.
5. Know a little English language. A little bit.
Practice:
It is assumed that Photoshop is already installed, and we can communicate with it more or less tolerably.
Install the NVidia plugin
, it will add the ability for Photoshop to work with the .dds format and an item in the menu Filter -> NVIDIA Tools -> NormalMapFilter.
To extract texture from BSA archive
, open the downloaded BSA Browser, in it we will open (Menu -> File -> Open...) the BSA archive we need (Path to the folder Skyrim\Skyrim\Data\ Skyrim - Textures.bsa), select the files we need and extract them. This unpacker offers two extraction options: to a random folder (Menu -> Action -> Extract To ...) or directly to Data folder(Menu -> Action -> Extract). A folder hierarchy, in both cases, will be created automatically.
Open the texture in Photoshop.
When opened, the plugin will ask for reading settings in the following window:
It is better to mark everything as in the image, except for the last checkbox, here it is at your discretion: if you want to see this window every time, leave the checkbox, if you don’t want to, remove it. Paragraph Load MIP Maps is responsible for opening all or one texture size, I recommend turning it off. We don't need to open all the sizes; they will be automatically generated when the texture is saved.
Changing the texture. I will not expand this item now, we are only interested in the settings.
Now save
. Here a slightly more complicated window will pop up:
Let's look at it in more detail:
The top drop-down list contains optimization settings and the presence/absence of an alpha channel and its type. We are not interested in all points, only 4
DXT1 RGB- select it for all textures without an alpha channel
DXT5 ARGB- for all textures with alpha channel
8.8.8 RGB- saving without compression and alpha channel
8.8.8.8 ARGB- no compression with alpha channel
The last 2 points are not particularly worth exploiting, because the weight of the texture will be much greater; they are justified for textures with very smooth color transitions over large areas (for example, a normal map for faces, if saved with compression, then ugly artifacts will appear on the characters’ faces)
Generate MIP Maps- with additional size (most common option)
Use Existing MIP Maps- select additional sizes by yourself
No MIP Maps- without additional sizes
When saving with additional generation. sizes can be selected in the drop-down list next to: All (all possible) or specify the desired quantity. I always put All.
If you are not in the mood for experiments, we leave everything else as in the image attached above; for our purposes it does not need adjustment.