DDS

= DDS = DDS is a texture file format, it stands for Direct Draw Surface.

DDS is a versatile container format that can contain compressed or uncompressed images, in a variety of bit depths, optionally with mip maps, and using 2D or 3D or CubeMap layouts.

The DXT compression format can be used inside a DDS file. This form of compression is widely supported on current graphics hardware, meaning it will stay compressed in video memory, allowing the artist to use more or larger textures.