New version still no DDS support

[Breat]

Hi,

We were many to ask the DDS support (import/export) mostly export and no new format support.

This without counting only MSIX. We are many too to block spy functions in Windows.

If Serif continue to ignore customers and lick GAFAM's boots (to be polite) I'll switch to an alternative and I won't be the only one.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Breat

[Tia Lapis]

What is DDS?

[m.vlad]

30 minutes ago, Tia Lapis said:

What is DDS?

File format commonly used in game development.

[myclay]

To add to m.vlads comment, DDS- DirectDraw Surface is a common and standard file format which massively can compress files.
When compared to a texture with 32-bits per color, a block-compressed texture can be up to 75 percent smaller. Applications usually see a performance increase when using block compression because of the smaller memory footprint.

There are different Versions of compression available with like  BC1,BC2... - BC7.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/texture-block-compression-in-direct3d-11

The Layout information of how a DDS file should look like is freely available.
Potential patent issues for the S3 Texture compression technology are waved and gone since 2018.

Serif could implement it, here a layout guide for the fileformat; https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3ddds/dx-graphics-dds-pguide

[Tia Lapis]

I see. It’s a Windows specific format. That’s why I never heard of it. 
 

That may be the reason why it’s missing, too. As far as I remember the Affinity suite is developed leading on Mac/iOS. 

[myclay]

It might have been back in the past but DDS can be also used within vulcan so its usage is more broad covering games and application development.

[Breat]

i create mods for games and need this format.

I don't know if a "reader" is include in games but that work on linux too (probably with vulcan like you said.

it's damage to need use various software just because the retouch image software don't support 1 format.

[Fossil]

This has been a topic since ... when? ... 2017 at least, maybe earlier.

The OP hits the key word here still ... Affinity have known about DDS and the markets it could open for them for years. However, it seems the forum posts are a couple of hundred complaints short of what it would take them to act. That so much effort went into something arguably far more niche (astronomical photo handling) is baffling.

But at least we got .webp, right? Though, not with animation support as far as I can see - though export persona seems like it would be a useful way to support saving web animations - they could even support GIF properly - but that whole area of Affinity is lacking love and attention. I have exports for sprite games with multiple hundreds of images in them and there's a lot that could ease my workflow.

A more pressing question is why DDS can't be solved with a third-party plugin?

Adding good support for third-party exporters (or importers) would take the load off Affinity and make adding their own imports and exports easier too. It's an area where Affinity totally lacks parity with that other program.

[DigitalTux]

HUGE +1 for .DDS support either natively or via plugin, don't care at this point. Would rather not have to open the other program or GIMP just to complete this task.

[DigitalTux]

On 11/11/2022 at 8:28 PM, Breat said:

Hi,

We were many to ask the DDS support (import/export) mostly export and no new format support.

This without counting only MSIX. We are many too to block spy functions in Windows.

If Serif continue to ignore customers and lick GAFAM's boots (to be polite) I'll switch to an alternative and I won't be the only one.

And yes for me as well, MSIX is not suitable for our PC's... Waiting for exe/msi. Or V2 is useless for us.