QuickLook DDS

The plugin integrates with macOS Finder to generate thumbnails, previews, and metadata for DirectDraw Surface (DDS) texture files. When a DDS file is selected, the Quick Look window shows the image, its dimensions, and relevant information such as format and compression type. It also adds entries to the Get Info pane, allowing users to inspect texture details without opening external tools.

Target users are developers, artists, and technical artists who work with DirectX texture assets on macOS. The tool supports a range of DDS variants, including DirectX 8/9 and DirectX 10 formats, cubemaps, and common encodings such as DXT1/BC1, DXT5/BC3, ATI1/BC4, ATI2/BC5, and uncompressed RGB/A data. Limitations include lack of support for palettized, floating‑point, and newer DXGI encodings like BC6/BC7, as well as specific conventions for normal‑map channel handling.

Installation is performed via a standard macOS package installer; after installation Finder may need to be relaunched and Spotlight will re‑index DDS files, temporarily increasing CPU and disk activity. The plugin can be removed with a simple terminal command that deletes its support files. It is released under GPL 2 or later and requires macOS 10.6 or newer.