DDS
@loaders.gl/textures- loaders.gl implementationCompressedTextureLoader- reads DDS containers
DDS, short for DirectDraw Surface, is a Microsoft texture container format widely used to store GPU texture data, especially in Direct3D-oriented pipelines.
Although the name comes from an older Microsoft graphics API, the format remains common in asset pipelines because it can store compressed texture payloads and mipmaps in a single file.
Why It Is Used
DDS is often used for:
- precomputed mip chains
- BC / DXT-family compressed textures
- older desktop-oriented real-time rendering pipelines
loaders.gl Support
| Format Feature | loaders.gl Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DDS container parsing | Yes | Supported by CompressedTextureLoader. |
| Mip level extraction | Yes | Returned as TextureLevel[]. |
| Common compressed texture formats | Yes | loaders.gl maps known DDS texture formats to canonical texture format identifiers. |
| Direct GPU upload workflows | Yes | Output is designed for GPU upload by consuming frameworks and applications. |