You Need Steam Deck Plugins in 2024: Here’s why

[@tysonmac77]

The reason some of your animations aren’t booting or suspending in full screen is because you need to download the plugin called ‘full suspend’ in CSS Loader. This will then expand those animations to fill the screen instead. Highly recommend!

[@imaninja4]

Thanks Chad

[@GreenvilleGuy]

Awesome - this works.

[@RedThr3e]

Hero!

[@DigitalVersionOfMe]

I still can’t get it sir? I press the power button after selecting my suspend and it doesn’t show it?

[@RedThr3e]

@@DigitalVersionOfMe you also have to enable animations in the default steam settings and set it to default.

[@alexkartaviy]

A small tip - you don't actually need to press Steam+X to open a keyboard in desktop mode, the combination is only needed in games. In desktop, just pressing X is enough. Figured that out mere four months after getting a deck :')

[@evshrug]

TIL

[@clydefrosch]

Is there a keyboard that displays what I type while I type? Because 9 out of 10 times, the keyboard insists of getting in the way

[@kurropt]

​​@@clydefroschpress the physical burger/side menu button on your deck. Above the X and Y. Which moves the keyboard to the top half or bottom half of the screen.

[@astaschak]

Oh nice, I've had mine almost a year and didn't figure that out lol

[@juansnow5897]

@@kurropti changed mine to always start at the top bc 99% of the time its where i need it and only switch to the bottom with that button every now and again, changing the font also can make the keyboard larger or shorter too btw

[@azmek]

Pro tip for 1:38. In order to scroll a page you actually need to do a clockwise or counter clockwise circle on the left track pad and it acts like a scroll wheel.

[@drmountainman2749]

its this kind of community support that makes the deck so cool. thanks to all who are making this such a cool experience.

[@gdpiscopo]

I didn't see Pause Games on here. It's my favorite one by far. Pause Games suspends the game in Linux and can help mitigate that annoying crackling audio issue on resuming a game after wake up, but what's even cooler is that you can use Pause Games to pause a game and then START ANOTHER GAME without closing the other paused game. supposedly it has no impact on performance but I've only ever tried it with a couple games at a time. Doesn't work great on multiplayer games, obviously

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

whoa thats actually really cool imma check it out

[@NE0fight]

I've had my Steam Deck for quite a while, but I've only just started to tinker with it. This video was a great place to start customizing my Deck. Thanks!

[@sabagecabage7828]

It a great introduction to messing with your first pc. 20 times easier in comparison. But you then feel comfortable diving into further addons

[@Adonis_Quinn]

This video was awesome. I haven’t dipped my toe into Decky yet and your video made it look painless. Thanks!

[@DDosAndDonts]

dude what are you doing with that thumbnail? shitendo will come after you

[@OmegaChase1002]

Aint nobody scared if sloptendo. They cant sue ALL of us

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

dont say the name 😱

[@Deminogg]

“Shitendo” lmao I can’t. I love these type of comments

[@tysonmac77]

@@OmegaChase1002 Nintendo lawyer reading this: “hold my beer”

[@WittyBit13]

Too late, they probably got him already

[@undead_ARTIST]

My wife just purchased the white Steam Deck OLED and started customizing it, so I did some customizing myself and found this video! Extremely helpful and make the Steam Deck so much more fun outside of just playing games. Thank you and GREAT video!

[@jconklin789]

If you press the proton badge it will actually take you to that games proton page. Will give you more info about if you need to tweak anything for the game.

[@PorkMVS]

This is a fantastic guide and I wish this video was uploaded sooner lol. They're was no decent guide about plugins or decky/CSS loader until yours :) love the unscripted casual tone, very easy to listen to, keep doing guides bro

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

Appreciate that, glad it's helpful! thanks for this man, means a lot to me

[@gb99xbear]

You missed Playtime to track Non Steam Game Playtime.

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

ohhhh i hadn't hearrd of it, thanks!

[@gb99xbear]

@@sam.alexander.reviews yes, being able to track non steam game playtime is a must for me. The word no playtime is triggering me.

[@WickedKillaYT]

I haven't been able to use playtime tracker in so long because its broken with steam beta 😭 (I'm on steam beta for the family sharing)

[@timsimmons4078]

@@WickedKillaYTim on stable and it still hasn't worked in weeks. Idk what to do

[@Maedhrossss]

Playtime is not available on the decky store anymore. Since it broke after some Steam update.

[@TheyCallMeReo420]

great video thought id share to my knowledge vibrantdeck is no longer needed as they added a vibrancy slider in the settings of steam os

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

good point!

[@TheBrotherGrim]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it in the comments yet, but to get full screen suspend animations you just need to install a plugin for it from the decky shop.

[@gamesharbor23]

Profile Variant setting inside PowerTools plugin is very nice to have. Thanks!

[@_2ndliferetro]

Man I can’t wait to get a steam deck again! So much has changed since they released! Great vid!

[@3dtheking]

What made you not keep the steam deck you had before?

[@_2ndliferetro]

@@3dtheking I had a friend that really wanted one, he offered to buy it and I needed the cash at the time, been wanting one again ever since

[@continental_consumer]

​@@3dthekingI actually had one second hand from a second hand shop but it was broken and they gave me a refund and im saving for a higher model (The 512 OLED model)

[@Deminogg]

@@_2ndliferetrojust wait for news of the steam deck 2

[@3dtheking]

@@continental_consumer get the 1TB steam deck I got it for 629 it's sites that sell it for cheaper I'm still learning Linux being from Windows an also I'm still learning plugins an just learning to get the best out of my steam deck you know the feeling when you had a psp an customizing the whole thing its like that but this time its a PC in your hands just the other day i applied a skin on the steam deck an it was some trials and errors shit but a learning experience

[@adravil_sunderland]

Never used a CSS Loader. Maaaan, now I will! Thanks for the recommendation! ❤

[@jinchoung]

have they fixed the thing where after every steam deck upgrade, the decky plugin disappears? i got tired of reinstalling the damn thing over and over again.

[@inanefool8781]

Its unfortunately the nature of the immutable OS the steam deck uses that changes that leave "user space" will get removed when the OS upgrades. It's not a bug, sadly.

[@BokuNoDaddy]

I'm finding most of my.plugins for deck straight up won't work any more. I just get error messages on boot up and my custom menu music is gone 😢

[@shaundelorez7956]

What's the trade-off for performance? Is it safe to assume more mods = fewer resources available for gaming?

[@itchieBs]

Damn. Best SD plugins suggestions video I came across. Keep this up brother! *subbed*

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

Thanks for the sub! Glad you liked it!

[@162Gio]

My steam deck oled comes in 2 days this video came in clutch now I do have a question. For the boot up options, can you add your own from your pc?

[@EDW4RD249]

If you say Nintendo tree times, something happens...

[@errorone937]

Amazing video, helped me a lot, thank you.

[@ockyguru]

After a few updates I noticed my decky plugin disappeared. Should I just re do these steps?

[@caringnickel2403]

I mean, the Wattage regulator for the tdp setting already does basically the same than the core setting, just in other ways, so it's a bit overkill

[@newblood62988]

What if these aren’t in my plugin store?

[@RogerJoseph]

"These aren't the plugins you're looking for" - Could not resist saying it.

[@Dr.Akakia]

TimeStamps?!

[@Contopaxi]

When I paired my AirPods I can hear the steam sounds but in game I get no audio. Any fix for this?

[@TheFeri]

Sadly most of my favorites just don't work anymore, The one that gave theme music to games when you open thier page is still there but it's not working. The one that counted non-steam games playtime is just flat out gone.

[@Daan-xi3gj]

Awesome vid man 🔥🔥🧙‍♂️ Does GridDB work for emulated games?

[@messerschmitt_bf109]

Yes GridDB plug-in works for emulated games

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

you bet

[@Meowflow]

13:26 "Lil prnhub one" you earned a sub

[@donkalinga3059]

Wow.. you a legend for this.. I had decky loader all this time and never explored pass vibrant deck

[@iamtheegreatcornholio]

Can anyone help me please? I used a plugin (i can't remember what one), and now all text is stuck in lower case.

[@iamtheegreatcornholio]

Found it 🤦‍♂️😂

[@yardboydeuceoao3489]

Sorry to bump an old vid. Is it actually a 512/256 gb card? Seems pretty cheap for the price. Sites like that usually spoof the card memory info. Thanks in advance

[@DareMeGreen]

When I download one now after downloading 2 it won’t show up?

[@FBracht]

I’m not saying Decky is bad or Cryoutilities is bad; but my Deck almost bricked recently, and I’m entirely sure it was because of one or both of these tools. It took me almost a week of researching and asking around on communities and Discords to get it back from the dead. The solution involved having to perform a full Factory Reset, but even after that my Deck never went back to normal - it still sometimes boots into the bios for no reason and/or restarts to the non-updated version after I perform a system update. These tools are excellent and I miss their functionality, but I decided to never install them again (at least not on this particular machine). I’d rather miss out on their functionality than risk having to go through that ordeal and stress again.

[@einsteinx2]

Sounds like you have defective hardware…

[@FBracht]

@ Defective in which way? It really feels to me like the whole issue is/was software, but maybe you know more than I do

[@einsteinx2]

@@FBracht I mean you said you did a complete factory reset which would remove all traces of that software and now you’re getting issues like it booting into the bios for no reason. The software you’re blaming doesn’t even run until SteamOS is booted so it can’t be causing that problem. Some people have had stability issues from Decky like crashes in SteamOS, but uninstalling it and especially performing a factory reset completely resolves those issues. It sounds like you have a hardware defect that started happening around the time you used Decky and you’re blaming it on that software. If you still have warranty coverage on your Deck you should send it in for a replacement.

[@ryanmontenegro84]

Can someone recommend a Vibrant Deck alternative? I loved having really saturated colors on my steamdeck LCD.

[@BcnEggNChz_]

awesome video, definitely downloaded some of those animations

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

Glad you like them!

[@nadeemalherbawi353]

i tried it and i must say it is cool but has performance impact on my steam deck. i notice that it become slower in response after installing just 2 or 3 plugins and start heavier. i only install the two of the most popular and recommended ones

[@alamo1873]

How come nothing else is showing up in decks? Just css loader

[@ChopsDV8]

Thank you for this!

[@MrDeer850]

I'm new to Steam Deck and it will be my first handheld PC and I'm planning on doing dual boot with windows on it. Does customizing my SteamOS settings and adding plug-ins affect how Windows will function after dual booting it?

[@shastamcnasty2159]

Nothing much but memory, when you boot in windows non of the steam OS plugins matter.

[@retrom8442]

Thanks for this video, it was excellent and very useful, I learned a lot from watching this.

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

Glad it was helpful!

[@michaelcloutier2225]

If you turn off pixels on the screen with that one feature the pixels that are turned on are more likely to wear out with screen burn, Depending. on How static you keep your system? when they're off, you're also saving their longevity because they do wear out overtime And if you're running a lot of pixels and certain areas are pure black, they're not burning their time. So they'll stay bright while the often illuminated areas become dim. The more random the pexils are lighted the less likely to get screen burn in.

[@krypticsz4154]

Most likely won't be an issue. It's already been tested. Some guy tried it & had to leave the display on the same screen for 1500 hours for some _minor_ burn in. Literally should not be an issue.

[@jamiecal11]

Am I the only one to find Decky a bit buggy? Half the time when I turn my deck on its telling me error for this that and the other plug in.

[@benedictpayot]

Indeed. There was this one time that it broke during an update and made the unit unusable. I stopped using it after that

[@optimusphill6377]

is Cryutilites still worth having dude?

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

for sure!

[@EcksGamer]

Half the things i find people doesn't really need it is just things that are kind of cool but doesn't really impact the games.

[@norbertnagy4468]

Do you know about any way i can manually add plugins manually outside of their store? (Yes i am talking about nonsteamlaunchers)

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

yeah! i have a video about how to add non steam launchers, check it out :)

[@Monkemations-m4m]

Animation changer is not working for me can anyone help? (edit my suspend animation only works)

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

try a full restart first, then if you have more details i can try to help

[@clydefrosch]

Is there a plug in that improves the abhorrent keyboard? Like, it's 2024,how in the world does the system not move whatever text field into view so I can see what I type while I type?

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

i hear this so loud, i haven't found one yet, and i have the same problem

[@UnratedNetflix_]

I found one yesterday that makes your keyboard way smaller so you can actually see I just typed “digital keyboard”

[@thekidako]

When the steam deck is plugged into a monitor, does it look bad for you guys? I never want to play docked because almost all games look so bad.

[@m00tmike]

I think that makes sense. You are running a system intended for a small screen on a much bigger screen. When I play docked on my tv it looks like trash but that's because everything is blown up so I can see more detail.

[@Flob2359]

obsidian is a game changer it looks amazing on the oled. I had an lcd and sold it a bit ago bc i didnt use it that much and obsidian was nice but on my new oled its amazing.

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

totally agree

[@signa8]

What if im satisfied with the UI? Seems like all these "must have" plugins are just for changing the appearance and doesn't make it do anything new. Even those proton badges are just an icon and not something that improves the Deck. Some games on ProtonDB need some extra config to get that rating. One of the batman games tells me its gold but it always crashes on launch.

[@FBracht]

Yeah, I agree with you. I used to have all sorts of plugins on my Deck, but then I had a real scare when I thought I had bricked it. Factory Reset and never installed them again. I miss some of the customizations, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. I trade customizations away in favor of having peace of mind.

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

yeah a are for aesthetics, but there are tools also, like fan controls, voltage controllers, overclocking, undervolting, etc etc

[@rumplmuffin]

Cant add suspend animations for some reason

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

Hmm weird, maybe just reinstall

[@fanta104]

Cant even get in due to Sudo/admin password. Tried resetting the password and still nothing

[@OkraPlutonium]

I've been looking for the charge limit setting forever and somehow kept missing it. Thanks dude!

[@Downgrade13]

Great video. Thank you

[@bboy_33]

Be careful overdoing it on the plug-ins. I love using these plugins, but I had to uninstall some of them because some were causing problems and glitches. I had to remove Animation Changer cause it once prevented my screen from booting up. Had to download files from my computer to fix it. It was awful. It was one year ago however, still I don’t want to take any chances so for now the plug-in is uninstalled (sadly). I hope it’s better now but y’all be careful using too many plug-ins. :l

[@FBracht]

Same. Just posted another comment here to this effect. Not trying to discourage anyone, but I won’t be downloading these tools again.

[@wittymchitty]

Oh trust me, I'd love to use Decky and all of their cool customization tools if it weren't for it crashing and not working every single time that steam updates itself with happens a lot

[@SevenMilliFrog]

doesn't decky break a lot when there's a new steam deck update

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

i haven't noticed that, but it does sometimes happen

[@emerson-biggons7078]

Dude, those guys behind the fallout theme are pretty badass. Would love to meet'm :p

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

I wish! They're really talented.

[@aaronvasseur6559]

I would use them if the current stable updates allowed them every time I download the adon app on emudeck and return to game mode they don’t show up

[@VIRACYTV]

I was on board with this whole video until the 13 minute mark and this man straight takes a drink from his cup and I had to turn it off for an entire day before coming back. I got the ick real bad.

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

:(

[@shyrory]

Everytime in the past I've installed any deckyloader mods, my steamdeck has become unstable and unreliable and I've ended up reinstalling steamOS

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I've had a pretty stable experience, but i dont put a ton of mods on

[@buckethead420]

i have tons of mods. stable over a year without any reinstalls. weird

[@iamadiduzz]

These are all neat but will these make my SD run slower? I think the battery will be affected also.

[@Jpegfabio]

Nice rings fellow silver/stainless wearer

[@suryaya441]

How are you enjoying SM2 at 24fps. Just insanity

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

i hear ya, different preferences. just for reference, most consoles were 30 fps for years and it was totally normal, i know times have changed but its just a reference

[@suryaya441]

@@sam.alexander.reviews Yeah ik but SM2 struggles to reach 30fps on this game. Would love you to review the game on the steam deck when the frame generation that will be added in the next patch comes out

[@fehizororakotoniaina292]

Want things like this for Windows PC

[@gaz_1984]

You don't need vibrant deck anymore!! !!! Go to settings, display, adjust display colours I have found that the deck dies faster with vibrantdeck

[@lpnp9477]

The built in color profile slider does not go far enough when playing games from the 360 era. Vibrant deck is necessary to make those games visually palatable.

[@thegreendank1]

Are you native american or johnny depp? Thats a shit ton of rings to wear🤣 just fucking with you, good vid 👍

[@dracconus619]

Be careful Nintendo is in full takedown mode for anything that infringes

[@horticultural261]

can do more rog ally videos

[@DeanEnlow]

Do you suffer from some hand problems

[@Gravesyte]

Step one: save up money little by to buy a steam deck

[@jonx187x]

His thumb looks his other fingers

[@WindowsPlaysFPS]

lol

[@vraptork181]

Lololol

[@taytaygang9635]

Is he using his feet?

[@josephsosa776]

Challenge: Do a video for the best games on an original 64gb LCD Steam Deck.

[@JONNovak-c4p]

CSS loader is gone….

[@miked2662]

I didn’t buy a steam deck for a PC gaming experience. I bought it for a handheld console experience. It comes fine straight out of the box.

[@RogerJoseph]

Yes that might be true but a Desk is 90% pc 10% console. Having owned many of the previous devices (Ps vita, multiple switches, ROG Ally) the deck is a Pc in a portable format. Mentally you need to think of the world as it is and not as you want it to be. The PC nature is why a video like this demonstrates the strength. As a day one Deck 512GB Owner loved my OG LED and now this xmas just got my new White OLED and excited to unwrap. The deck is not a Switch (console) competitor (for your gaming time yes). Knowing this will set expectations' when things don't work or break.

[@rspy24]

CROISSAAANT

[@godtiermullet]

Nah, I don't.

[@nayibmc5437]

Coassont

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

COASSONT

[@miserablebrian]

This dude got 2 right hands?

[@sam.alexander.reviews]

mostly

[@lofijedi]

Useless

[@PaidFamCap]

Decky is the first of you like to use Beta but decky still is the worst in general.

[@William-y7z9z]

Of course you do lmao imagine just being able to play games out the box, not on the SD 😂 shit is ass and steam deck bros are coping so hard with this trash

[@stephenbirks3177]

No chapters & no timestamps. Not interested in scouring a video of rehashed content for maybe something new. Not Liked, Not Subscribed.... byeeee

[@thevoid5117]

Brain rot 0 attention span