Overview

.tif (Tagged Image File Format) – .tif files should be created from within Photoshop using the CryTif plugin. (Learn how to install the plug-in here.) A TIFF Tagged Image File Format) file is a high quality 2D raster image plus additional metadata used by the Resource Compiler (RC). The RC transforms the .tif format into the target file format of the platform being used. While TIFF images can use LZW image compression, it is lossless (as opposed to lossy JPEG compression).

.dds (DirectDraw Surface) – .dds files are texture files that are created by the RC from .tif source files. They can contain compressed and uncompressed data and are specifically optimized for each target platform. They are the optimal format for PC graphic cards.

.mtl (Material) – .mtl files are created within the Material Editor in the Sandbox and material description (internally an .xml file). They contain settings for shaders, surface types, and references to textures. A .mtl file is a text file which holds all the information for the in-game material library. The material library is a collection of sub materials which can be assigned to each face/polygon of a geometry. You can for example have different surfaces such as metal, plastic, human skin within different IDs of the asset. Each of these sub materials can use different shaders and textures.