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I need an editor that can open, save and edit Microsoft DirectDraw Surface (.dds) files. I know Paint.NET can open them, but well, it's .NET, so...

GIMP doesn't seem to open them and I can't find a plug-in that works.

Note, I've tried sudo apt-get install gimp-dds, I get this error: 

Opening '/home/_____/Desktop/explorer/InjectPack/OutDDS/176.dds' failed:
Procedure 'file-dds-load' returned no return values

I'll accept anything that works. Thanks!

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  • 3
    .dds is an extension, what is their mimetype? What kind of files are them?
    – dadexix86
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:03
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    They're extracted from a game, and I'm trying to edit them. They're basically game textures.
    – Megalegacy
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:07
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    @dadexix86: i assume it is DirectDraw Surface...?
    – DJCrashdummy
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:24
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    Yeah it's DirectDraw Surface, sorry about not addressing that.
    – Megalegacy
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:29
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    @DJCrashdummy maybe, or maybe are some other file with just extension .dds... Without having more informations, it is only a wild guess :) EDIT: now that we know that it is DirectDraw Surface, it is not a guess anymore :)
    – dadexix86
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:29

3 Answers 3

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The good news is that the command line application ImageMagick can read, write and edit DDS (Microsoft Direct Draw Surface) files. Test your own copy of ImageMagick as follows:

andrew@ilium~$ identify -list format | grep 'Microsoft DirectDraw Surface'
      DDS* rw+   Microsoft DirectDraw Surface
     DXT1* rw+   Microsoft DirectDraw Surface
     DXT5* rw+   Microsoft DirectDraw Surface
andrew@ilium~$

The codes after DDS,DXT1 and DXT5 signify:

* native blob support
r read support
w write support
+ support for multiple images

And certainly on my system ImageMagick's convert utility easily produced the required DDS files and successfully converted DDS files to other formats such as jpg and png...

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  • Perfect, even has the formats I need. Testing now.
    – Megalegacy
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:10
  • My fingers are crossed :)
    – andrew.46 ♦
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:10
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    Works! Thank you! (Sorry for taking so long, was having some issues)
    – Megalegacy
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:29
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2019 Answer

Gimp 2.10 now supports DDS out of the box.

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1
  • Time moves on :)
    – andrew.46 ♦
    Oct 29, 2019 at 23:18
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Have you tried XnViewMP? It's known to work on some dds files, but some read errors have been reported too. You can't find it in official repositories, but here: http://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/#downloads. Don't worry, it's free, paid version is for Windows only.

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  • Thanks, I'll use this if I ever run into issues with ImageMagick but it probably won't happen
    – Megalegacy
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:33

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