DDS Image Viewer The Basic DDS Image Viewer is a very simple Windows utility used for viewing dds texture files. Typically these are from the various Bethesda games like Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout, Skyrim, and also Nexus texture mods.
v2.0 is now available: • Replaced the Image Library with Pfim which has excellent support for DDS textures.
Important Notes: Be sure to register the viewer as the default application for the .dds file extension.
Windows DDS File Type Setup:
Open Windows Explorer, and navigate to any location where you have .dds files.
Right-click on the .dds file, and select "Open With >" from the context menu.
Select "Choose another app".
Click on "More apps", and scroll all the way to the bottom of the list.
Click on "Look for another app on this PC."
Using the Open File dialog window, navigate to the location where you unzipped the image viewer.
Select "Basic DDS Image Viewer.exe", and click Open.
Make sure to check the option to "Always use this App to open .dds files", and click Ok.
This is Awesome! So helpful in trying to figure out what files correspond to what images. You have made my modding life a lot easier. Thanks for the great tool.
Looking at Bethesda DDS files it was so frustrating that some thumbnails were visible in the folder and some weren't. Not anymore! Awesome, glad to hear it!
How do you preview DDS image in windows explorer thumbnails? I set this program in open with, but the thumbnails are just this program icon, not an imagem
i really wish there was an element to this program that let you export the dds's in other filetypes. the dds's i'm working with seemingly don't open from any tool whatsoever, except for yours. any tools you can suggest? i got a lot of textures i need to convert
was looking for a dds image viewer for baldur's gate textures and this surprisingly worked! it obviously doesn't show up the same, but still very helpful, even if it's for buildings in skyrim. (: thank you!!
Unfortunately, the current support in this tool for DDS files is limited. Most DDS files from older Bethesda games like Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 4 should work though.
I found an updated DDS library which may provide improvements over what I'm currently using. However I need to look into this, so no ETA at this time.
Tried this because of how kind and responsive @mnelson999 was in the comments section. This is sweet! I'm new to file exploration for anything like this and was trying to find a way to see what textures might be called; needed an idea of what I want to try to swap in the Vortex file conflicts section. Thank you for the photo assistance in the description section; I would not have easily found the textures to view them without it.
v1.4 now has a new Debug Window (menu > Tool > Debug Window). On the Debug Window is a button called "Reset User Config". This should completely reset your local config file, and hopefully resolve the problem of the viewer not remembering it's last position.
Please let me know if this fixes the problem (or not).
It still does not remember window position and size. I believe it may have to do with the "fit to view" function, as the behaviour is different from "full size" but at any rate, the tool seems to have its own ideas of how big and where on the screen the window should be positioned. Btw, I also noticed it handles transparency very poorly, like when parts of the texture are tranparent and the dds is either uncompressed or DXT5 compressed. EDIT: I saw below that other users have already pointed this out. My bad.
========================================= DEBUG INFO START ========================================= Found User Config File Path: C:/Users/****/AppData/Local/BasicImageViewerWPF/Basic_DDS_Image_Viewer.ex_Url_gnh0ancdqxtsslou05zwjlhkp1e3uvph/1.0.0.0/user.config ========================================== DEBUG INFO END ========================================== ====================================== ENVIRONMENT INFO START ====================================== Basic DDS Viewer Version: v1.4 Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, v6.2.9200.0 Windows Culture: en-US Is Administrator: True Microsoft .NET Runtime Version: v4.0.30319 Microsoft .NET Latest Installed Version: v4.8.04084 ======================================= ENVIRONMENT INFO END ======================================= ======================================= USER SETTINGS START ======================================== Last Top: 50 pixels Last Left: 662 pixels Last Width: 1,237 pixels Last Height: 1,340 pixels Was Maximized: False Main Window Color: #FF333333 Text Color: #FFDDDDDD Last Known Theme Name: Dark Theme Last Known Theme Data: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?> <ArrayOfThemeDTO xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <ThemeDTO> <UniqueKey>0e57f31e-fd84-435f-8bfc-e7615974408f</UniqueKey> <ThemeType>System</ThemeType> <Name>Default</Name> <WindowColorType>UserValue</WindowColorType> <WindowColorValue>#FFFFFFFF</WindowColorValue> <TextColorType>UserValue</TextColorType> <TextColorValue>#FF000000</TextColorValue> </ThemeDTO> <ThemeDTO> <UniqueKey>6363d051-14d4-4a62-8f26-277e9fd882e7</UniqueKey> <ThemeType>System</ThemeType> <Name>Dark Theme</Name> <WindowColorType>UserValue</WindowColorType> <WindowColorValue>#333333</WindowColorValue> <TextColorType>UserValue</TextColorType> <TextColorValue>#DDDDDD</TextColorValue> </ThemeDTO> </ArrayOfThemeDTO> View Full Size: False ======================================== USER SETTINGS END =========================================
62 comments
The Basic DDS Image Viewer is a very simple Windows utility used for viewing dds texture files. Typically these are from the various Bethesda games like Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout, Skyrim, and also Nexus texture mods.
v2.0 is now available:
• Replaced the Image Library with Pfim which has excellent support for DDS textures.
Important Notes:
Be sure to register the viewer as the default application for the .dds file extension.
Windows DDS File Type Setup:
- Open Windows Explorer, and navigate to any location where you have .dds files.
- Right-click on the .dds file, and select "Open With >" from the context menu.
- Select "Choose another app".
- Click on "More apps", and scroll all the way to the bottom of the list.
- Click on "Look for another app on this PC."
- Using the Open File dialog window, navigate to the location where you unzipped the image viewer.
- Select "Basic DDS Image Viewer.exe", and click Open.
- Make sure to check the option to "Always use this App to open .dds files", and click Ok.
Other DDS Tools:• Skyrim DDS Image Viewer
• Fallout 4 DDS Image Viewer
Please let me know what you think, and Endorse if you find it useful.
Looking at Bethesda DDS files it was so frustrating that some thumbnails were visible in the folder and some weren't. Not anymore!
Works exactly as intended.
Looking at Bethesda DDS files it was so frustrating that some thumbnails were visible in the folder and some weren't. Not anymore!
Awesome, glad to hear it!
Unfortunately I'm not aware of tools that could do the conversion that you suggest (not a graphics person).
My best guess is to try searching via Google to see what's available.
Best Regards!
Which texture are you trying to view? Can you post the path name to it, so that I can try to view it also, please?
Best regards!
It just straight up crashes on some files.
^ Those are files I added to my DropBox for you to see if you can replicate the issue.
They're dds files for Starfield, but still. :(
Unfortunately, the current support in this tool for DDS files is limited. Most DDS files from older Bethesda games like Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 4 should work though.
I found an updated DDS library which may provide improvements over what I'm currently using. However I need to look into this, so no ETA at this time.
Best Regards!
Please try v2.0 and see if it able to view all of your DDS images.
Best Regards!
It does have build in support for that. It should remember window position, width, height, and whether it is maximized or not.
Can you try running it as Admin?
If that doesn't work, please try this:
- From the menu, select "Tools"
- Click on "Setup Options..."
- Click "Save", then exit and restart the app.
Please let me know if this works or now.
Best Regards!
Best Regards!
v1.4 now has a new Debug Window (menu > Tool > Debug Window). On the Debug Window is a button called "Reset User Config". This should completely reset your local config file, and hopefully resolve the problem of the viewer not remembering it's last position.
Please let me know if this fixes the problem (or not).
Best Regards!
Btw, I also noticed it handles transparency very poorly, like when parts of the texture are tranparent and the dds is either uncompressed or DXT5 compressed.
EDIT: I saw below that other users have already pointed this out. My bad.
On the Debug Window, click the "Copy to Notepad", then paste those details here. That will really help with the troubleshooting.
Best Regards!
========================================= DEBUG INFO START =========================================
Found User Config File Path: C:/Users/****/AppData/Local/BasicImageViewerWPF/Basic_DDS_Image_Viewer.ex_Url_gnh0ancdqxtsslou05zwjlhkp1e3uvph/1.0.0.0/user.config
========================================== DEBUG INFO END ==========================================
====================================== ENVIRONMENT INFO START ======================================
Basic DDS Viewer Version: v1.4
Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, v6.2.9200.0
Windows Culture: en-US
Is Administrator: True
Microsoft .NET Runtime Version: v4.0.30319
Microsoft .NET Latest Installed Version: v4.8.04084
======================================= ENVIRONMENT INFO END =======================================
======================================= USER SETTINGS START ========================================
Last Top: 50 pixels
Last Left: 662 pixels
Last Width: 1,237 pixels
Last Height: 1,340 pixels
Was Maximized: False
Main Window Color: #FF333333
Text Color: #FFDDDDDD
Last Known Theme Name: Dark Theme
Last Known Theme Data: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ArrayOfThemeDTO xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<ThemeDTO>
<UniqueKey>0e57f31e-fd84-435f-8bfc-e7615974408f</UniqueKey>
<ThemeType>System</ThemeType>
<Name>Default</Name>
<WindowColorType>UserValue</WindowColorType>
<WindowColorValue>#FFFFFFFF</WindowColorValue>
<TextColorType>UserValue</TextColorType>
<TextColorValue>#FF000000</TextColorValue>
</ThemeDTO>
<ThemeDTO>
<UniqueKey>6363d051-14d4-4a62-8f26-277e9fd882e7</UniqueKey>
<ThemeType>System</ThemeType>
<Name>Dark Theme</Name>
<WindowColorType>UserValue</WindowColorType>
<WindowColorValue>#333333</WindowColorValue>
<TextColorType>UserValue</TextColorType>
<TextColorValue>#DDDDDD</TextColorValue>
</ThemeDTO>
</ArrayOfThemeDTO>
View Full Size: False
======================================== USER SETTINGS END =========================================
Unfortunately I can't find anything wrong based on the contents - everything is looking correct.
Any chance you could post a few screenshots of the problem?