Photoshop to DDS¶

What is DDS?¶

For more information about the DDS format check out our info on DDS.

What do I need?¶

• Adobe Photoshop - a basic understanding of Photoshop is assumed.
• NVIDIA DDS plug - in available here.

Saving an Image as a DDS.¶

Before you saving your image you need to flatten your image.
To do this go to Layer > Flatten Image

Once your image has been flattened you can go File > Save As and select DDS as the file type.
Upon hitting Save the Nvidia DDS dialog box will appear and should look like this:

At first the interface can look a bit daunting, but for basic textures we only need to focus on two areas.
The first is the "Generate MIP Maps" check box to the right. If you want your texture to include MIP maps then you must have this box checked.

The second is the dropdown box at the very top of the dialog. When you click on this a huge list drops down that should look like the image below.

The dropdown contains a list of compression methods used by the plugin. You will want to use DirectX Texture Compression.

DirectX Texture Compression (Concerns DDS Files)¶

DXTC is a group of related lossy texture compression algorithms.
There are five variations of the DXTC algorithm (named DXT1 through DXT5), each designed for specific types of image data.

Name	Description	Alpha premultiplied?	Compression ratio	Texture Type
DXT1	1-bit Alpha	NA	8:1	Simple non-alpha
DXT2	Explicit alpha	Yes	4:1	Sharp alpha
DXT3	Explicit alpha	No	4:1	Sharp alpha
DXT4	Interpolated alpha	Yes	4:1	Gradient alpha
DXT5	Interpolated alpha	No	4:1	Gradient alpha

Use DXT1 textures as much as is possible, the greatest space savings can be had with them. If watching for rendering artifacts is not an option, DXT5 supports the most flexible alpha channels, while not increasing memory usage beyond that of a normal 8-bit palletized texture.

Now that you've selected your preferred compression method you can save your dds.