DDS texture thumbnails in Windows Explorer

What you see

• All DDS block formats, BC1 through BC7 and BC6H HDR, are decoded natively, with no plug-in or texture tool installed.
• Image info shows a texture's real compression (BC1 to BC7, signed variants named as such) and its mip-level count.
• Valve Source-engine textures (.vtf) and Khronos KTX 1 textures (.ktx) get thumbnails too.

Limits

• KTX files in the mobile ETC and ASTC formats are not read. KTX 1 files using S3TC, RGTC, BPTC or plain RGB and RGBA are.
• In OneDrive and other synced folders, files stored on the PC get thumbnails as anywhere else. Online-only files are left to the cloud app, since nothing is downloaded just to draw a thumbnail.

More you can do

• The Convert dialog can write DDS, and turn DDS textures into PNG, TGA and other formats.

Extensions this covers

See every format SageThumbs 2K supports or browse all format guides.

Thumbnails not showing?

• Windows caches thumbnails, and a file it failed on once stays failed. In SageThumbs, Settings ▸ Advanced ▸ Rebuild thumbnail cache clears the cache and restarts Explorer.
• Make sure File Explorer's "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option is off, and that the format is ticked in SageThumbs Settings ▸ File types.
• Run st2k doctor in a terminal. It only reads, checks the whole chain, and prints a fix under anything that is wrong.

Related guides

• TGATarga images, including transparent and very large ones.
• OpenEXRHDR renders and plates, tone-mapped for the screen.
• Radiance HDRHDRI environment maps and Radiance images, tone-mapped.