QuickLook DDS

This package allows OSX Finder to display thumbnails, previews and metadata for "DirectDraw Surface" (DDS) texture files.

Installation

• Download the .pkg file of the latest release.
• Double-click on it.
• The Installer app will walk you through the installation process.
• To see thumbnails you may need to relaunch Finder (ctrl-⌥-click on the Finder icon in the Dock and choose Relaunch) or log out and back in again.
• You may experience high CPU and disk usage for a few minutes after installation while Spotlight re-indexes all of your DDS files.

Screenshots

Supported file formats

• DirectX 8/9 DDS
• DirectX 10 DDS extensions
• Cubemaps

Supported encodings

• DXT1 / BC1
• DXT2
• DXT3 / BC2
• DXT4
• DXT5 / BC3
• ATI1 / BC4 / LATC luminance
• ATI2 / BC5 / RGTC normal map
• Uncompressed RGB, RGBA, RGBX, Luminance & Luminance + Alpha
• Uncompressed RG normal map

Uninstall

• Run the Terminal app (found in Applications → Utilities).
• Copy the following and paste into the Terminal app:

sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/QLdds" "/Library/QuickLook/QLdds.qlgenerator" "/Library/Spotlight/DDS.mdimporter"

• Press Enter.
• Type your password and press Enter.

Limitations

• There's some disagreement on how normal maps are stored. This plugin assumes the DirectX10 BC5 and OpenGL COMPRESSED_RG_RGTC2 convention that R=X,G=Y. Note: this is called "ATI2N (Alternate XY Swizzle)" in some tools.
• There's some disagreement on how the Blue/Z channel in a normal map is reconstructed. This plugin assumes the Blender convention that Blue:[0, 255] maps to Z:[0.0, 1.0]. Note: this is different from the Doom3 convention.
• Palettized and floating point encodings are not supported.
• DirectX 10/11 DXGI encodings other than those listed above are not supported - specifically BC6 / BC7 BPTC encodings.
• Requires OSX 10.6 or later.

Acknowledgements

• Packaged using Packages.
• Nyx0uf for the idea of adding image dimensions to the preview title.

License

Copyright © 2012-2016 Jonathan Harris.

Licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL) version 2 or later.