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Image MIME Reference
DDS

DirectDraw Surface

image/vnd.ms-dds
VS

JPEG 2000 Image Sequence (Obsolete)

image/hsj2
HSJ2

A complete technical comparison of DirectDraw Surface and JPEG 2000 Image Sequence (Obsolete) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature DDS HSJ2
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No Yes
Progressive Loading ✕ No Yes
HDR Support Yes Yes
EXIF Metadata ✕ No Yes
ICC Color Profile ✕ No Yes
DirectDraw Surface
image/vnd.ms-dds
Extension
.dds
Container DirectDraw Surface
Compression Block Compression (BC1-BC7) / DXTC / S3TC / Uncompressed (RGBA, Floating-Point)
Algorithm
DXT1-DXT5BC1-BC7ASTC / ETC2 (Extended)
Color Depth 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit (RGBA), 16-bit/32-bit Floating Point (HDR)
Developed by Microsoft Corporation
Released 1999
Magic Bytes
44 44 53 20
Full DDS reference →
JPEG 2000 Image Sequence (Obsolete)
image/hsj2
Extension
.hsj2
Container HEIF / ISOBMFF (ISO/IEC 15444-16 Obsolete)
Compression Lossy / Lossless
Algorithm
Motion JPEG 2000 (ISO/IEC 15444-3)
Color Depth 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, 16-bit
Developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1 / ITU-T
Released 2019
Magic Bytes
XX XX XX XX 66 74 79 70 68 73 6A 32
Full HSJ2 reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser DDS HSJ2
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
DDS

DDS Strengths

  • Massively reduces VRAM footprint and memory bandwidth usage because the GPU decodes the block compression in hardware
  • Encapsulates complex texture arrays, volume textures, cubemaps, and entire mipmap chains within a single, highly structured file
  • Supports high-dynamic-range (HDR) floating-point data for modern physically based rendering (PBR)
Limitations
  • Block compression algorithms (like DXT) are lossy and can introduce ugly blocky artifacts, especially in smooth gradients or normal maps if not tuned properly
  • Files are generally larger on the physical hard drive than highly compressed formats like PNG or WebP
  • Zero support in web browsers or standard consumer image viewers
HSJ2

HSJ2 Strengths

  • Historically attempted to combine Motion JPEG 2000 sequences with the flexible metadata capabilities of the HEIF container
  • Supported mathematically lossless compression and scalable wavelet decoding
Limitations
  • Officially deprecated by the standardization body (ISO/IEC JTC 1)
  • Completely superseded by image/hej2k, rendering hsj2 files obsolete for any new development or archiving
  • Zero web browser compatibility and negligible modern software support

When to choose which format

DDS
Use DDS when…
  • Real-Time 3D Game Textures
  • DirectX and Vulkan Rendering Pipelines
  • Skyboxes and Environment Cubemaps
  • Volume Textures (3D Textures)
HSJ2
Use HSJ2 when…
  • Legacy Archival
  • Deprecated Workflows

More comparisons

DDS vs ACES → HSJ2 vs ACES → DDS vs APNG → HSJ2 vs APNG → DDS vs AVCI → HSJ2 vs AVCI → DDS vs AVCS → HSJ2 vs AVCS → DDS vs AVIF → HSJ2 vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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