DirectDraw Surface (.dds)

DDS abbreviated from DirectDraw Surface is a container file format developed by Microsoft for storing compressed and uncompressed bitmap formats. It is often used for texturing video game unit models and storing digital photos and desktop backgrounds. Microsoft introduced the DDS format with DirectX 7.0 in March 2000 and has since introduced various improvements, including support for volume textures, arrays of textures, new Direct3D texture formats, and variable rate shading.