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DDS is the format GPUs actually understand. While PNG and JPG need to be decompressed into raw pixels before the GPU can use them, DDS stores textures in GPU-native compressed formats (BC1-BC7, also known as DXT1-DXT5) that the GPU reads directly from memory. This means faster loading, lower memory usage, and zero runtime decompression cost.
The format was introduced by Microsoft for DirectX and became the standard texture format for PC game development. A typical modern game ships thousands of DDS files — diffuse maps, normal maps, specular maps, environment maps — all in GPU-compressed formats that would look terrible if you opened them as regular images but look perfect when rendered on a 3D model.
DDS files also support mipmaps (pre-computed smaller versions of the texture for distance rendering), cube maps (six-face environment maps), and volume textures. For game modding, NVIDIA's DDS utilities or Intel's Texture Works plugin for Photoshop are the standard tools. GIMP can read DDS with a plugin. For viewing, Windows' built-in preview handles DDS in recent versions.