alphabetical list of extensions

File extension .DDS

File description

The DirectDraw Surface or the DDS file extension has been developed by the Microsoft Corporation. It is more like a standard format for storing the data that has been compressed with the help of the S3TC (lossy S3 Texture Compression) algorithm. This can later be decompressed in hardware by consoles and GPUs such as Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable.

With this file format, users can store cubic enviornment maps, graphics textures as a data file and both can be uncompressed and compressed. The DDS file format is also used for saving backgrounds or desktop wallpapers in Windows as well.

Description of the problem

If you have on your computer a .DDS file that you cannot open, you are in exactly the same situation as thousands of other people who have similar problems with this or any other unknown file.

There may be several reasons why you cannot open the file with .DDS extension. Directly on this website you can find a solution of the most common problem with the .DDS file – that you do not have on your computer the appropriate program to open the file.

Solution

From the list below, select the appropriate program, install it and double click on the icon of a file that did not want to open - the problem with the .DDS file extension should be solved. However, if this does not happen, go back to the website to learn about other possible causes of the error, which have been described at the bottom of the website.

Category

Raster Image Files

Developer

Microsoft

Popularity

File name: DirectDraw Surface

Programs that will open this file:

Windows

Adobe Photoshop

Battlefield 1942

Crysis

DDS Viewer

DirectX

DXTBmp

FastPictureViewer Professional

FPS Creator

GIMP

IrfanView

Need for Speed SHIFT

NVIDIA DDS Thumbnail Viewer

NVIDIA Texture Tools

Orbiter

Painkiller Overdose

Paint.NET

Stronghold 3

XnView

Mac OS

XnView

Linux

XnView

Remember!

The .DDS file extension can correspond to several not related file formats. If there is more than one file format with the .DDS extension, you will probably find most of them at this website. Remember that you need to download a program to support a particular file type. So first look through the entire contents of the website to select a program to support just the file you have.

Other possible reasons why your .DDS file does not want to open

In addition to the problem described above, i.e. the lack of the appropriate application to support the .DDS file, there may be several reasons that cause problems with opening and operation of the data format:

1. Incorrect version of the installed application

A quite common problem is the lack of application in the appropriate version. Even if you have an application, with the help of which you should open the .DDS file, you may have a problem with it because of its version. Perhaps in previous versions the application has not yet supported the .DDS file, so download the update and check again.

2. Incorrect .DDS file association with the program

If you have already installed the appropriate application, and it is the correct version, the file may not open correctly, because the operating system does not have information that this program supports the file. So you need to "show" which program the computer should use. To do this:

Right-click the .DDS file
Go to the "Open with" - then "Choose default program ..."
Locate the appropriate application
Click "OK"

3. The file is corrupt

It also happens that the file you want to open is corrupt and therefore there is no such possibility. In this situation, you should find its different version, or ask a person from whom you got, to send it again.