20 GAME-CHANGING Tips & Tricks For Steam Deck!

[@Kirky64]

3 dots plus up/down to change brightness is going to be a game changer for me. For some reason my auto brightness doesn't want to work correctly, and now I can change the brightness for day/night play easier!

[@cryobyte33]

I'm glad to hear it, I use it all the time and hope that you get just as much use out of it! Thanks for watching!

[@mrw8769]

I have the exact same problem it's honestly kinda annoying

[@omerpockard7212]

I knew about doing it via the Steam button, but three dot button is so much more convenient for use with the left stick. Good tip.

[@GSBarlev]

I'm honestly surprised that more operating systems don't have chord cheat-sheets. elementaryOS (my bae) does, and it really seems like macOS and Windows would benefit from a pop-up showing users what they can do with the super key.

[@cryobyte33]

@@GSBarlev I'm not sure about Windows, but on MacOS I use "CheatSheet" from brew: formulae.brew.sh/cask/cheatsheet

[@SnafuYT]

Glad to see you back more actively again. Your videos always are great and you are a blessing to the deck and overall linux community. Thank you!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, I'm happy to help!

[@Ferno209]

The brightness shortcut is definitely a must-know! Didn’t know it existed till watching this video! The button combo reminds me of my old Nintendo DSi where holding Select & Volume buttons adjusted the screen, so remembering this one is easy! Thank you!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching and letting me know it was helpful! It's so much easier than getting to the right pane in the QAM and being blind for 10+ seconds lol.

[@ardendolas]

Your SD videos are always full of great info! I always recommend them to friends who get one, especially Cryoutilities! Can't wait for the BG3 settings vid, I'm very curious how well you'll get the game to run!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you so much for watching and recommending my videos and CU, I can't thank you enough! I'm still trying to get to act 3 so I can give you the best info 🙂

[@XxfieryfirexX]

​@@cryobyte33yuppy. Amazed to hear it. Can't wait for the bg3 video

[@powerfulaura5166]

1:16 is that so? I was always told you should leave FPS capping _&_ v-sync to SteamOS.

[@Luke-fx9gw]

A fellow old school RuneScape enjoyer I see 😊

[@cryobyte33]

Damn right! I haven't had time to play in a few months, but I'm hoping to pick it up again and get back to questing soon 🙂 Thanks for watching!

[@wizardpajamas6405]

Another tip: You can download games with the screen off. You have to go into desktop mode, then the power settings, and set the display to fall asleep after a short time (lowest is 1 minute). But if you don't schedule sleep then the rest of the system will stay active even after the screen turns off. Just install your games with the desktop Steam client there and they'll be ready when you switch back to gaming mode (which still doesn't have this feature unfortunately).

[@Madblaster6]

This! Especially on an OLED model for a large game.

[@Kennosuke88]

This is amazing but what I really want to see is a complete explanation of everything in the gamescope overlay. There's still not any videos explaining any of the digits like the gpu mhz of the frametime,fps input latency etc. Iknow most of it is self explanatory but I think most console gamers which don't have a clue would really benefit it especially for emulation & what to look out for in gamescope etc.

[@cryobyte33]

This is a great idea that I never considered, so thank you so much for the comment! I'll see if I can get a video going for that, since I believe it'd be an amazing thing to clarify.

[@Geoffles1890]

the brightness shortcut is AWESOME, as somebody who loves to adjust brightness to be as low as possible in any lighting :D

[@CubanFireball81]

Thanks for all the tips and tricks. I am new to the Steam Deck and just picked up my OLED version. This video has helped me get my Steam Deck setup to be "perfect" for me. Thanks again!

[@76sagman]

Good to see you back. Thanks for the content.

[@cryobyte33]

Thanks for watching, glad to be back!

[@rang3r551]

I’m begging you to please make a video on the fsr 3 mod that’s released recently. The frame generation makes some games that run rough on the deck look beautiful. All the guides on KZbin that I’ve found do not go into nearly as much detail as I’m sure you would and I’m a visual learner who needs that sort of stuff to really grasp what I’m doing. You’d be helping me, and I’m sure lots of others who have had similar issues!

[@arghpee]

Got my Steam Deck back from repair for some dead pixels, wasn't sure what to expect but United Radio and Valve did an excellent job replacing the screen, and went a step above by replacing my audio board and rear cover. Now I can fall in love with my Steam Deck again (after 3 months of RMA hell)

[@kaellau5346]

Thanks for the tips! Especially Quick Brightness Adjustment!

[@Keque]

Damn, I already know most of them. This is an amazing guide, either way. Thanks for making this, Steam Deck Messiah

[@gregharder2765]

Really appreciate the Brightness shortcut, that's one that I'll use often!

[@RealziesCuts]

Thank you for this Kyle ✊💥 527 days No Alcohol 🥇🚀

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, I'm proud of you for staying sober! ❤️🫂

[@Leddo]

RuneScape music... I'm sold

[@SoulRollerFIN]

That brightness toggle and the quick actions HUD are brilliant!

[@waffle2913]

Great tips, I'll use those I didn't know about. Thank you!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, I'm happy to have helped!

[@brianbaugusmusic]

Thank you for all your hard work! You and Russ specifically have made the deck so fun for me to use!

[@bland9876]

1:50 why is this not just on by default without an option to turn it off? Even my phone had to be toggled on like wtf. Also let's not forget that one time when I installed Linux on a laptop and I had to go into a setting to even turn on a battery indicator all together.

[@aslant3740]

Gotta say I love your luscious locks :P

[@thomaszinecker1785]

The hair is top tier. Hair is more manly than not. Throughout history short hair has been a symbol of slavery. In the forces? Shaved. In prison? Shaved. Etc Samson strength.

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you so much, I've really enjoyed growing it out! Thanks for watching!

[@aslant3740]

@@cryobyte33 I've been growing mine too! You look great bud 👌

[@XxfieryfirexX]

Amazing video bro. Any luck on Baldur's gate optimization on steamdeck

[@cryobyte33]

I mention at the end that I'm still working on it, so stay tuned 🙂 Thanks for watching!

[@KevinMartinez-xs8nl]

Love the video man! Thank you!

[@Madblaster6]

You can also hold start in Desktop mode and it'll switch the controls to condoler mode. So you can play your games right from there or set up your controller in an app.

[@Swagvadar]

Excellent choice of music :)

[@mjbyrne1153]

Thank you for putting this together. You have a calm and informative approach without the KZbin persona stuff. I appreciate it. :)

[@vergil3656]

do we need to run the trim action manually or does SteamOS this automaticly?

[@shigutso]

Great video! One small detail: tip 17 at 4:34 is not needed. If in gamemode, the Steam Deck will not go to sleep if there are downloads in progress.

[@cryobyte33]

I've actually found that this depends on deck! 2 of my decks DO fall asleep during downloads, but 1 does not. For me it seems to be correlated to hardware iteration. Thanks for watching!

[@shigutso]

@@cryobyte33 there's an old tweet from Plagman2 saying that if the Deck is charging it should not sleep if there are downloads running... 🤔 maybe something else wrong with your unit?

[@WideOldDan]

Is that music from Runescape Tutorial Island?

[@ThomasYoutubeKanal]

the battery icon on the sidebar (3 dots Button) also gone! ? whats happened ?

[@dannywade6218]

Brilliant! There were a few things that I didn't know that I will definitely be using.

[@NerdZap]

Great tips, thank you! 🙌

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching!

[@Crealgood]

what is the game featured at the beginning?

[@SteakOSaurier]

That was great, learned so much! I was asking myself, wouldn't the steamdeck be the perfect oldschool machine for LAN Parties? It's super portable, pretty sure it could run Unreal Tournament 2004, Half Life 1, CS 1.6, Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne (old one, not remaster), Serious Sam etc pretty well even when hooked up to a monitor with mouse and keyboard? Oh that would be one hell of a nostalgia trip.. and I'm all here for it!😂

[@cryobyte33]

You're right on the money, and I'd LOVE to be able to showcase that someday! Starcraft, Baldur's Gate and Quake 3 LAN were my childhood and I'd love to spotlight how the Deck can be perfect for those 😁 Thank you for watching!

[@SteakOSaurier]

​@@cryobyte33I would love to see that! Also showcasing how to establish a LAN connection in linux if it's any different from windows (I only ever had LAN parties with windows PCs). Oh I really want to try it out now🤩

[@Parth1713]

The frame limiter option, I don't see it in my steam deck. Is it for OLED version? (I'm used the LCD variant)

[@Hobokhaki]

Any tips about absolver expirience?

[@IshmaelSimpson]

Wow, that OSRS music takes me back. What was the name for the first song you used? Also, thanks for the tips!

[@IshmaelSimpson]

Never mind, found it! It's Baroque for anyone that wants to know.

[@QstLine]

Loved the OSRS Music! gave me a lot of good memories. thank yoy Jesu....Cryo!

[@joephan3708]

Much respect for the OSRS BGM!!!!

[@Evercade_Effect]

This was a great video. Setting a host name would be extremely useful so I'm going to do that. I didn't know about the quick brightness and such.

[@briand9687]

The display change with QAM is awesome. Didn’t know that

[@cryobyte33]

I'm glad to have helped, I use that every day! Thanks for watching!

[@jayy2676]

Could you do this with the rog ally please mainly to improve performance?

[@ve1ychko]

I’ve discovered brightness change by myself long ago:) Thanks a lot for other tips

[@VegitoBlackityBlack]

I need a tip that fixes whatever made my desktop mode stop letting me shutdown, restart and return to gaming mode. 😢

[@cryobyte33]

Could you clarify what you mean by that? I'd be happy to help you in the Discord if you're a member there, or email if you prefer that!

[@VegitoBlackityBlack]

@@cryobyte33 It's deleting my comment.

[@cryobyte33]

@@VegitoBlackityBlack I don't see it being held for review, so it must be on KZbin's end. If you're trying to use a URL then that's likely why

[@VegitoBlackityBlack]

@@cryobyte33 tried giving u my email. But the issue is "Return to gaming mode" does nothing. Same with Shut Down or the other settings. I have to hard press the power button for a shutdown from desktop mode.

[@edewar6004]

The cheat sheet is useful for me, thank you!

[@alaskabrah2365]

Awesome tips bro. As soon as I saw you I knew I better pay attention

[@nyaa104]

Idk if you remember, but because of your videos I ended up buying a second hand steam deck. No regrets. Keep up the good work.

[@martine8057]

Can you do videos on the rog ally? Would be nice to get the same content you make for the SD on the ally!

[@ockyguru]

I had my steam deck for about 2 years now . I had many miserable attempts regarding emulation. I was able to get the games I want but only in desktop mode… I would like for them to show up in SteamOS as well

[@crowland3358]

Excellent video as always i always learn new things from you. Thank you my friend.

[@cryobyte33]

Thanks for watching, man! Happy to be helping out 🙂

[@thomas9290]

Exactly when I just purchased mine… thanks !

[@cryobyte33]

Thanks for watching, I hope this helps you get more out of your new Deck!

[@muizzsiddique]

All shortcuts done with holding down the the STEAM button can be done with the 3 DOTS button, and vice-versa.

[@the100ways6]

I thought in-game frame limiter and vsync is worse than from steamOS overlay ? Or what is the best case to use?

[@cryobyte33]

It depends on your goal, although I wish the answer was more straightforward. - If you want the best frame pacing, use in-game V-Sync - If you want the best input latency, use none and disable the frame limit in overlay - If you want a combo of good latency and decent pacing, use overlay v-sync - If you want the best combo of both, you need to use MangoHUD's frame limit config options, which I plan to include in a future video. Thank you for watching, I hope this answers your question a bit!

[@the100ways6]

@@cryobyte33 Sounds complicated xD sounds interesting I'm hyped for the new video !

[@soiltek2015]

Great video, Kyle!

[@Glitchoone]

They killed Vibrant deck what will we do about saturation?

[@keheliya]

Thanks for all the hard work you're doing with cryoutilities and these helpful videos!

[@imadudeokay]

how do you make it run windows?

[@killercrocgeorge]

Yeah my man! Cryobytes is uploading videos 👏👏👏

[@maxslo3863]

Hello, another very nice video from You! Thanks!

[@novitrix9671]

Your smile at the end was what made sure my day is great

[@okllo]

how can I achieve such nice and fluffy hair such as yours? genuinely asking

[@darkempire4182]

Thanks for tips and tricks!? Are you working on new software cry 3.0 or something? :)

[@Cleric1372]

Great tips!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@IronbugVR]

Great video. I am new to Steam Deck and didn't know any of the short cuts.

[@cryobyte33]

Available shortcuts are an underappreciated part of any device IMO, so I'm happy to have made your experience a little easier 🙂 Thank you for watching!

[@osidiusemphatic]

A tip if you share your library with anyone, and want to play their games while offline: set to airplane mode, not offline mode. In the three games I've tested, Steam booted fine in airplane mode, but flagged that I wasn't online to validate in offline mode.

[@donaldolafaurie]

Great video. More of this please. I love my LCD version. Any advice for longevity? I see a weird light on the top right side of my steam deck display

[@cryobyte33]

I have a few more of these queued up while I work on BG3, thank you for letting me know that you enjoyed it! As for longevity, aside from taking general care of the Deck I recommend: - Run storage device maintenance tasks monthly - Clean the vents out once in a while - If you're comfortable with it, swap the thermal paste out for some PTM7950, since it's immune to drying up and much better thermally (more in my thermal modding video) For the backlight in the upper right, I've heard that some displays are mounted at different tensions in different corners, and that taking the screen out and re-gluing it could help, but that's a nightmare. RMAs are always an option, if you want to go that route. Lastly, I don't necessarily recommend it, but the video here might help for a more immediate fix: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2nWkJ-hm9ucmKM Thank you for watching, and I hope this helps!

[@nicolaszelaya1345]

Is cryo utilities basically obsolete now? Whenever I use sync game data when my cache is building up it says everything is synced and doesn't do anything

[@cryobyte33]

It's not obsolete, but that is a known issue that I'm attempting to fix with a new version. Essentially, SteamOS 3.5 changed the SD card pathing, but the library cache VDF never got properly updated. I read that file to know where games are installed, so it's complicated the feature a bit and I need time to work it out 😅 Sorry for that, I hope to have it fixed soon enough, but all the other features of CU are still applicable!

[@kode-man23]

Well I didn’t know most of those, so thank you once again.

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you so much for watching, I'm happy to have helped!

[@JonArbuckle066]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge 👍

[@sgc1991]

Thank you for another informative vid!

[@JigglypuffTutorials]

Did not know the brightness shortcut even if I knew the rest! Wow!

[@Ruckusism]

Why did he stop making videos ?

[@videogames8261]

i didnt know the vibrancy slider one, very cool!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, I'm happy to have helped!

[@deputyswine]

Nice tunes! Immediately recognizable lol Also does anybody know what game is playing in the background? Looks alot like necesse

[@bgclara]

comment for engagement. thanks for the video :)

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching and commenting, it really helps boost the video in the algo 🙂

[@tastybutspicy453]

what is that game in the background

[@deputyswine]

I'm wondering that too. Have you heard of necesse? Really solid game that looks really similar to that, definitely recomend

[@tastybutspicy453]

@@deputyswine i think i found it! i think its "forager"

[@Fheral360]

I'm kinda new here but no Cryoutilities for the OLED deck? btw cool video

[@cryobyte33]

It already works for the OLED, I have a disclaimer at the top of the github page and am working on an update for both the video and CU itself 🙂 Thanks for watching, and being interested in CU!

[@Fheral360]

That's awesome! thank you for your work and dedication, lots of us appreciate it 😁 @@cryobyte33

[@bagasnugraha1804]

Great tips! Big help on changing the brightness button! Btw, any tricks to use keyboard input so you can type in game ? Can't join multiplayer server in palworld lately and frustated me a lot :(

[@Kohega]

Steam + Button X

[@Clarkzer0]

To add to the Steam + X above, which will bring up the on screen keyboard, at any time you can hold the Steam key and use the right trackpad to manipulate the mouse. Great for popups/game launchers.

[@TheExFatal]

Is there a way to configure low battery notification? I think 5% is too low, I would've loved a notification at 10 or 15 percent instead

[@zacparker8681]

It does.. theres a warning at 20%, 10% and 5%

[@cryobyte33]

I believe there are several warnings, at least 1 at 10% and 1 at 5%, but there may be a 20% as well. I don't think there's a way to configure them, though. Thanks for watching!

[@DEPORT--TIME__ATHEIST]

Using in-game V-Sync was a game-changer, I didn't know. Thank you! Please look into how to edit the huge baked-in trigger deadzones.

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, and I'm happy to have helped! As for the trigger deadzones, I'll try to take a look, thank you for the suggestion 🙂

[@gutlesswarrior]

CAN'T WAIT FOR YORU BG3 VID!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, I'm chugging away at it!

[@MrRolnicek]

Unfortunate, I did know all of them. Though I guess people who don't use KDE daily probably aren't familiar with the features it has extra compared to Windows. Could have mentioned KDE connect here as well. Probably the most hassle-free way to do a lot of extra things.

[@cryobyte33]

Sorry that you knew all of them! I'm going from "generally more beginner friendly" to "generally more technical/niche, so I hope you give future videos a watch, too. KDE stuff will be shown and explained, but I don't want to bunch too many KDE tips up. I do plan on making a "How to KDE" video sometime, though 🙂 Thanks for watching!

[@ricardopires4838]

Another great video Kyle. I now have a few more tricks on my sleeve for my deck. One quick question... Do you plan to do any work on measuring the performance of your utilities on the OLED model? I had them installed on my LCD model but I am sitting on more information before installing them on the OLED. Keep the great work as always!

[@cryobyte33]

That video is in the works now, but I also want to release it alongside another CU update with bugfixes and some new stuff, so stay tuned 😁 In the meantime, rest assured that it still functions on the OLED Deck, still benefits performance, and I use it daily.

[@ZodiakSL]

Showing Nested Desktop from gaming mode would have been a nice tip to include 🙂

[@cryobyte33]

Good idea for the future! I have a few more of these queued up and have a LOT more to share, I'm just trying to keep them bite-sized for now 🙂 Thanks for watching, and for the idea!

[@johnduffy1337]

thank you for all of your contribution's

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, I hope it helped you out!

[@bagfleet]

Great video, thanks!

[@cryobyte33]

Thank you for watching, I hope it helped!

[@cngzhn8188]

When will u modify ur desk oled? Would be great if u could modify it by hard- and software... by the way great content as usual👏

[@cryobyte33]

I'm not sure yet, I might want to get another so I don't sully the limited edition, but time will tell 🙂 For now, I need it "stock" so I can give accurate comparisons of LCD vs OLED in some upcoming content. Thank you for watching!

[@prasiddhshah5957]

Which game is that in the first few minutes of the video?

[@TinkerTaverns]

A good selection of tips, unfortunately I happened to know them all, but great video nonetheless

[@cryobyte33]

Thanks for watching! This video trends toward beginner, but I'll have some more in the future that are more advanced.

[@TinkerTaverns]

@@cryobyte33 Makes sense, lots of people getting introduced to steam deck/linux gaming so intro videos are extremely valuable

[@IrisNebula7023]

Damn, I knew all of these, we need a hard mode one, too 😂 Jokes aside, I'd like to add on point 19 that, in game mode, if you have your Deck plugged in to the power adapter or dock and setup multiple downloads, it will not go to sleep before finishing them all up, even if it reaches the sleep time idle limit, so you don't need to do anything. You do need the tricks here if you want to run your downloads on battery though!

[@cryobyte33]

Ah darn, well hopefully you won't know all of them in the next one. Congrats on your Deck knowledge! The deck not sleeping when downloading on dock is both new and seems to be limited to some firmware. My OLED and modded Decks both follow the behavior you said, but my original mid-2022 Deck doesn't. Thanks for watching, and for the comment!

[@IrisNebula7023]

@cryobyte33 Oh, that's really interesting. Mine works like this since that feature was added. It is from May 2022, came in with an old SteamOS snapshot build from Nov 2021 and BIOS 102, has been on and off several betas and is currently on the stable channel with BIOS 119. Was never factory-reset or re-installed, so anything that could have dragged on since the early versions, has done so. I'm curious why it wouldn't work on yours as it sounds like a purely software based thing. PS: Ok, that's ridiculous: I thought to test it before I answer to be sure, and then thought I'd test it on battery too while I typed my answer since it was already there. I doesn't go to sleep while downloading in game mode even if unplugged, it's set to sleep in 5min, it's over 8 minutes and still on and downloading (I checked to make sure, the dim timeout is included in, not added to, sleep timeout as it should-and it was set to 1min anyway). That wasn't supposed to be a feature 🤣 I'm confused now!

[@cryobyte33]

@@IrisNebula7023 Me too! Consistently inconsistent, it seems 😂

[@AlexTheStampede]

Ah! I know one that’s useful! 18 allows you to download lots of stuff without the Deck powering down, BUT there’s (imo) a better way to do that: go to the download screen. That’s it. The Deck will download and install all the games and updates it has to, and only then go back suspend.

[@thomaszinecker1785]

Wait there's lcd and led models of steam deck?

[@cryobyte33]

There's a small correction in the upper left, I meant LCD vs OLED 🙂 Sorry for that, thank you for watching!

[@Kohega]

Thank you, I already knew the 20 tips

[@cryobyte33]

Darn, well I hope in the next few I get 1 you didn't know! I'm going from "generally more beginner friendly" to "generally more technical/niche, so I hope you give future videos a watch, too!

[@ricky_pigeon]

Did you know you can get a Steam deck dock to dock your Steam deck into a dock like position and that it sounds like word spaghetti when you say it?

[@Kohega]

@ricky_pigeon Today I learnt 😂

[@batman3981]

Can you make a video on, what games can you play outside steam, for example valorant or league of legends, and how to setup ur steam deck the best way possible?

[@masugetz]

unfortunately valorant and league of legends are not playable on linux, due to vanguard being implemented in both

[@IsmaelGarcia-sz1lc]

what game is this? 0:55

[@death_primer32]

@@IsmaelGarcia-sz1lc forager

[@MaxFunTube]

Thanks for your good video's. Please help us to fix connect v2ray VPN on steam os . No v2ray VPN work on steam

[@BendySendy]

came for the deck hacks, stayed for the most majestic hair i have ever seen

[@emiliosanchez4610]

Was that a Run-D.M.C reference in the intro? haha Seems I pretty much knew all these already but this is no doubt gonna help new Deck users, keep up the great work man!

[@cryobyte33]

You're the first one to have pointed it out, congrats! 😉 As for the tips, I'm going from "generally more beginner friendly" to "generally more technical/niche, so I hope you give future videos a watch, too. Thanks for watching!

[@emiliosanchez4610]

@@cryobyte33 That’s awesome!! And I will keep an eye out! I have no doubt you know some cool stuff that I’ve overlooked ✌️