TexInspect DDS Encoder/Decoder (VB.NET)

A lightweight, fully managed DDS encoder and decoder. TexInspect is a zero-dependency application for handling 2D DirectDraw Surface textures.

Features

• Tiny Footprint: Under 128KB, portable even if you use floppy disks.
• Compatibility: Only requires .NET 4.7.2, no extra redistributables. Compatible with Windows 7 SP1 - 11.
• Full LDR Support: Supports encoding and decoding BC1-5, Legacy DXT1-5, ATI1, ATI2, and BC7.
• MipMaps: Automated chain generation using Catmull-Rom downsampling.
• CubeMaps: Automated decoding and saving of CubeMap arrays.
• Normal Maps: Specialized alternative encoders for Normal Maps using DXT5n or BC7n.
• Quality Analysis: Supports assessing MSE, PSNR, and SSIM.
• Headers: Supports Legacy FourCC and modern DX10 (DXGI_Format) extended headers.
• Reporting: Capable of reading and validating DDS headers, and generating full reports.
• 3D CubeMap Previews: Full 3D previewing of CubeMaps with rotation (GUI Only).

System Requirements

Minimum

• Operating System: Windows 7 SP1 (x86) with .NET Framework 4.7.2
• Processor: Dual-Core CPU (e.g., AMD Athlon 64 X2 / Intel Core2 Duo)
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Storage: >128 KB available space
• Graphics: Integrated Graphics or any DirectX 9.0c compatible GPU with 128MB of VRAM

Recommended

• Operating System: Windows 10 / 11 (x64)
• Processor: Quad-Core CPU or better
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Storage: Any SSD (SATA or NVMe)
• Graphics: Any Dedicated GPU (e.g. GTX 600 Series with 1GB VRAM)

GPU requirements are recommended minimums for the OS. TexInspect is GPU-agnostic.

Performance

Comparison testing was done on a i9-9980HK (2019), strictly on the CPU. Results are taken from a 50-run average. Texconv was run with the "-bc q" flag; TexInspect uses an optimized single-pass BC7 algorithm, for fast, high-quality block compression.

Encoding

	TexInspect 4K	TexConv 4K	Delta
BC7 No Mips	246.78ms	23226.3ms	94.1x Faster
BC7 Full Mips	369.34ms	32747.8ms	88.7x Faster
BC5 No Mips	198.3ms	215.8ms	1.1x Faster
BC5 Full Mips	302.08ms	513.9ms	1.7x Faster
BC3 No Mips	208.92ms	428.0ms	2.0x Faster
BC3 Full Mips	311.14ms	790.5ms	2.5x Faster
BC1 No Mips	187.38ms	409.6ms	2.2x Faster
BC1 Full Mips	262.58ms	766.7ms	2.9x Faster

Decoding

	TexInspect 4K	TexConv 4K	Delta
BC7	63.74ms	1600.1ms	25.1x Faster
BC5	54.36ms	423.3ms	7.8x Faster
BC3	49.9ms	1380.4ms	27.7x Faster
BC1	35.26ms	1354.0ms	38.4x Faster

Quality

Kodak Lossless TrueColor Image Suite Benchmarks (24 Images)

MSE	TexConv BC7	TexInspect BC7	TexConv BC3	TexInspect BC3
Average	4.6653	4.2614	21.1078	31.0008
Worst-Case	10.1183	8.7888	47.2959	71.734

MSE Reference: 0 = Lossless | <2 = Indistinguishable | <20 = Excellent | <65 = Acceptable

PSNR	TexConv BC7	TexInspect BC7	TexConv BC3	TexInspect BC3
Average	41.9745 dB	42.3055 dB	35.3033 dB	33.7313 dB
Worst-Case	38.0797 dB	38.6915 dB	31.3826 dB	29.5736 dB

PSNR Reference: 128 = Lossless | >45 dB = Indistinguishable | >35 dB = Excellent | >30 dB = Acceptable

SSIM	TexConv BC7	TexInspect BC7	TexConv BC3	TexInspect BC3
Average	0.9909	0.9908	0.9608	0.9580
Worst-Case	0.9862	0.9830	0.9476	0.9398

SSIM Reference: 1.0 = Lossless | >0.98 = Indistinguishable | >0.95 = Excellent | >0.90 = Acceptable

CLI Usage

Usage: TexInspectCLI.exe <input_path> [options]

Options:
  -fmt <format>                  Target Format (e.g., BC7_UNORM, DXT1, ATI2). Default: BC7_UNORM_SRGB
  -m                             Generate Mipmaps
  -ndx, --nodx10                 Force legacy DDS header (Implicitly enabled for DXT/ATI formats)
  -o <path>                      Output file or directory
  -ext <extension>               Output extension for batch decoding (e.g., .jpg, .bmp). Default: .png
  -r, --recursive                Search subdirectories when processing a folder
  -f, --force                    Suppress warnings and overwrite files
  --info                         Show header info for the target file(s) without processing
  -q, --quality <path>           Compare input to reference path and print average MSE, PSNR, & SSIM
  -qv, --qualityverbose <path>   Compare input to reference path and print average & per-channel metrics

Examples:
  Encode PNG to BC7 DDS:
    TexInspectCLI.exe texture.png -fmt BC7_UNORM_SRGB -m

  Encode PNG to legacy DXT5 DDS:
    TexInspectCLI.exe texture.png -fmt DXT5

  Encode a folder of images to DDS into a specific output folder:
    TexInspectCLI.exe "C:\InputImages" -o "C:\OutputDDS" -fmt BC7_UNORM_SRGB -m -f

  Decode a folder of DDS files to JPEGs:
    TexInspectCLI.exe "C:\InputDDS" -o "C:\OutputJPEGs" -ext .jpg -f

  View header data of a specific file:
    TexInspectCLI.exe texture.dds --info

  Generate quality metrics between two files:
    TexInspectCLI.exe texture.dds -q texture.png

Class Usage

If you would like to use TexInspect's engine, usage is simple. Drop DDS_Common.vb, DDS_Encoder.vb, and/or DDS_Decoder.vb (or compile and add TexInspect.dll) into your project, and call it like this:

Encoding

'SourcePath, DXGI_Format, MipMaps, LegacySupport
Using Encoder As New DDS_Encoder("input.png", DXGI_Format.DXGI_FORMAT_BC7_UNORM, False, True)
    Encoder.Save("output.dds")
End Using

Decoding

Using Decoder As New DDS_Decoder("input.dds")
    Decoder.Save("output.png", ".png")
End Using