You Need Steam Deck Plugins In Your Life! Easy Decky Loader Install

[@emerson-biggons7078]

Hey dude, I'm a co-creator of the Pip-Boy theme. Worked directly with the guy who made CSS Loader in the first place to make it! I'm very glad you are showcasing his amazing creation!!!

[@SkyistheReason]

A Pip-Boy theme?! I can't wait to get my deck in the mail. I'm definitely checking that out!

[@emerson-biggons7078]

@@SkyistheReason Easily the best theme too (⁠ ⁠´⁠◡⁠‿⁠ゝ⁠◡⁠`⁠)

[@HUYI1]

i'm using it now actually! great job i love the theme 👍

[@JoePicksLocksport]

I love using the pip-boy theme! Great job!!

[@LuckIsNifty]

recently been getting into fallout, plan on grabbing 4 soon, and my steam deck is coming soon def will use the pipboy theme

[@eddyhg8098]

It's actually insane how user friendly this is! Props to the Decky devs and the plugins devs too

[@ZombieZifiction]

its a computer lol

[@eggfase]

@@ZombieZifiction hey kid, I’m a computa!

[@matcraftou]

Thanks to all of them AND Valve for allowing and maybe even promoting this!

[@blueish5063]

@xamindar that sucks because I've been seeing alot of reports about how some plugins or Decky itself can sometimes cause the deck to crash due to new system updates

[@c4-750]

@@blueish5063 doubt it

[@Alex-nk8bw]

I mentioned this elsewhere already: reducing CPU clocks is a huge deal! It has very little impact on performance, as most modern games are rather GPU limited. But you can lower your temperatures down from >80° to around 65-70°C. This also means that the fan will stay silent, and it even works with performance hungry games like Cyberpunk 2077 (2000-2400 MHz works well).

[@Cheese-ho2ui]

Amazing thank you

[@Lovndabeats]

How do you reduce cpu clocks? Thank you so much!!

[@TheL1arL1ar]

I’ve been using my deck full blast in portable mode and it does get freaking hot and kinda loud….

[@Alex-nk8bw]

@@TheL1arL1ar I haven't played a single game with more than 10-12W TDP yet. Cyberpunk runs great at 10W for example at around 65°C, not even Hogwarts Legacy needed more than 12W. That really helps to keep the fan in check.

[@TheL1arL1ar]

@@Alex-nk8bw oh yes definitely I’m aware of that stuff…..Clock lowering and 30fps lock etc…..which increases battery. I always keep my games in steam overlay 60(separate profiles)and with fsr enabled, you can notice it on my 55 inch 4K Even red dead 2….I keep at 60 all medium…and reduced the in game taa sharpener to medium and extended the grass draw distance. It still looks freaking great and it hovers closer to the 40’s . I’ll take a little more fluidness plus even if the game is just 30 I’ll keep it at 60. And there is nothing wrong with 30fps my switch and deck are the only thing docked in my living room . That being said some games just don’t play nice with the deck….like 2 weeks ago I purchased undisputed early acess build, it’s literally fight night so boxing…the game is freaking awesome , but the deck couldn’t handle it….even ar 720p everything low and it really looks bad…I think I hit 15 fps…just saying some games are engineered better…luckily i installed it on my gaming laptop…it can do 1080P 60 with a combination of med and high….also with 800p…it’s easier to not really notice screen tearing…since it occurs mostly at the top….and red dead has barely any tearing if any…and I’m still using the 800p image on my tv with fsr1 . .and madden 23…default settings which is medium…looks pretty damm great at 720P on the tv and small screen…you can really notice it during the main menu and toggling it and. Seeing the Jerzy become more cleared and defined instantly and same with the player models.

[@ily9718]

I live in a country where the deck is not available, but I was recently visiting the US and wanted to get one, and to order one you must need an American account which requires an American credit card. The way I got past that is I sent my American friend 400 (+taxes) dollars in gift cards and she ordered it for me. I now have a deck and I absolutely love this thing, I hope this could maybe help anyone who's trying to buy a deck outside valve's official distribution.

[@sotosmatthew3046]

I helped an African prince by sending him gift cards few years ago.

[@ily9718]

@@sotosmatthew3046 we were constantly joking about that just because it was so shady haha

[@sotosmatthew3046]

@@ily9718 lol,well at least in my case i didnt find it shady at all. Guess who is gonna take his place once he dies? Well not me,but somebody will.Pretty sure.

[@Dracossaint]

Good on your friend and enjoy

[@kevinbbadd]

no offense but that is wire fraud

[@Later_Nerd]

Most people recommend 130 Saturation on VibrantDeck from what I've read. I played with it and also landed on 130 being the sweetspot. I really can't go without it. Had to factory reset my steam deck when I upgraded the SSD and was missing that saturation boost. It definitely does give it a look that's a bit more similar to an OLED. Obvious not exactly, but a nice and notable change that just makes everything pop a bit more.

[@thesuperzfamilyvlog6607]

I love the added saturation. I agree the color was a bit dull, but this brings the screen alive.

[@alexanderwright5246]

I agree! I just got the deck and was kinda disappointed with the display. Setting the saturation to 140 like he did and it’s perfect now imo!

[@shrek2andgoku]

Night and day difference in Batman Arkham Asylum, game goes from dull and drab to vibrant

[@RE4PER]

This completely transformed the UI of my Steam Deck and I couldn't be happier! I made pretty much my own theme with more modern features such as rounded corners, gradients on the top and bottom bars, an elegant font, and custom colors for icons and menus.

[@CrystallineLore]

Just a note, Decky is apparently having a lot of problems with Steam Beta updates (two times in a row now) so it's best if you keep to stable SteamOS if you plan on using this.

[@gerboog]

Can confirm this.

[@icky_thump]

Ahhh, would that explain why its straight up not showing up for me after following these steps? I'm on the Beta branch.

[@CrystallineLore]

@@icky_thump That's right, you might have to install it again but it should show up if you swap to stable branch. It doesn't work with Crankshaft either so make sure to uninstall that first if you have it.

[@BadBillyJack]

I was curious because i haven't been able to get it working since the last two updates.

[@MrSupersonic2012]

Oof, I've been on the Preview channel for the last couple months. Guess I'll have to drop down to stable if I decide to use this. I'll probably wait until I upgrade my SSD since I'd just have to reinstall it.

[@MyGreatCreation]

Dude yes I need more videos like this. It's probably just because I can follow along and it's not just like a benchmarking or testing video it's like a tutorial that I can just vibe with. I love it.

[@allhandsonsteamdeck1440]

Well this is the wrong channel for tutorials this guy usually does benchmarks and testing of video games frames per second and even with cool video games he only shows charts he doesn't show actual gameplay so you better look elsewhere if you want tutorials especially anything on the steam deck

[@MyGreatCreation]

@@allhandsonsteamdeck1440 I know that's why I mentioned it.

[@McLoovviinn]

I love how Steam Deck is open for community, look like everybody is contributing for a better product, like steam in the future can get this plugins and put as native in future releases, it is really good

[@nasimfaheemalquadir]

Yeah since anyone can install SteamOS I decided to install it on my modded Nintendo Switch and its really good.

[@Dudewitbow]

I think a killer feature for powertools would be a subscription to game specific configs. If users can essentially optimize battery life without performance loss over several games just by clicking a subscribe to some community pool of configs per game basis, that would be an awesome feature.

[@TheZerok666]

Or simply having a per-game profile at all, even if you're making it yourself.

[@TheOfficialOriginalChad]

Powertools doesn’t really save energy.

[@anthonywalker-browning4432]

@@TheZerok666 is that not already a feature on the deck?

[@TheZerok666]

@@anthonywalker-browning4432 yes, but not in powertools

[@PePe-kv2se]

@@TheZerok666 That's not true, you just have to enable it in powertools as well as the standard battery settings on the Deck. I have different profiles for different emulators.

[@versusforward]

Been using decky loader for a few weeks now - the saturation plugin alone is by itself worth installing. Makes the deck feel nearly OLED-esque when cranked up to 140% or so. Games just pop now.

[@goestheboom5211]

Never be near oled no matter how hard you try

[@Smogmopster]

I love power tools. It really helped with my performance on a lot of emulator games. I was able to get Jetset radio to not lag out when there was large crowd. Definitely worth grabbing that one!

[@terryterryd]

This is the best showcase I have seen on Decky. Cheers ETA

[@icky_thump]

I've been curious to add plugins for a while, but always been put off about the requirement to enable Dev mode. With this method bypassing that entirely, i'm sold. Gonna give this a go tonight.

[@alfwaibel4773]

Thank you sooooo much, @ETA Prime! - I saw this Decky Loader thing in another vid a few days ago, but this one was the version with manual install, which scared me a bit. With this script, all works totally fine, and I moved one more step to the personalization of MY Deck. Installed vibrantDeck, Bluetooth, CSS Loader and Power Tools. I chose the "Obsidian" theme background, which looks, together with the vibrantDeck setting on 140 saturation, absolutely incredible. I always hated the so called black background of handheld consoles, which is always some kind of dark grey, and looked washed out. Now, with this popping colors and the better saturation, the Deck screen looks like an OLED screen. With so much saturation, it´s even possible to turn down brightness much more, which could help in battery life - maybe not much, but some. Games look incredible!!!

[@Crash_endo]

You almost gave me a heart attack when you started to point with the screwdriver! I was like: don't scratch it, please! XD

[@CatTheRoundEarther]

Two that I love are "Animation Changer" and "Pause Games" Animation changer is kind of boring it just allows you to change the loading intro, I have the matrix one. But Pause Games is interesting it allows you to put games to sleep, say you have two games open or even a game and a browser, you can have the game sleep whenever the other is focused, they're still taking up ram but not CPU/GPU usage. Also this is why I love the steam deck and Valve's take on selling hardware, I didn't have to jailbreak my deck in order to do any of this and now I can customize it to an insane amount.

[@theprocraftinator9814]

I just wanted to thank you for this step by step video of how to install decky loader. Yours was the 3rd video I looked at on how to install that. I others were had to follow making you copy and paste instead of just clicking the download button. I just got my Steam deck today so I was not sure on how to copy and paste. Thank you for making it so easy to follow along with you.

[@l.e.b.3803]

Thanks!

[@TravisTraps]

I now have a Pip Deck, with a custom PipBoy boot animation, the PipBoy UI, and the PipBoy sounds.

[@Emulation_Inflation]

So I just got a steam deck 64gb upgraded to 1 tb and you are my main source! Iv noticed alot of ppl don't put covers on the steam deck. I want a case and dock that supports a case.

[@johnboy4955]

thank you so much for this video i have been searching all over to try and figure this out and i couldnt find it anywhere until i got to your video so thank you again for blessing me with this

[@Beastw1ck]

Should note that in order for Decky Loader to work you must be on the STABLE version of Steam OS. Took me a while to figure that out.

[@TheHazarduz]

Pin this comment ETA!

[@nigelkmiller]

The saturation control makes the screen look so much better. 150 should be the default. Thank you for making this video!

[@Saif0412]

Been using Vibrant Deck plugin for quite some time, can't do without it, makes such a huge difference to the display.

[@seanmoist5418]

I couldn’t play gta 4 without it

[@WMan37]

I just started using Deckyloader like 2 days ago, and for me the plugin I simply cannot do without is the transparent keyboard. I love how you can customize HOW transparent it is, and what _specific parts_ are transparent, all leading to an essential feature that was perfectly implemented via this plugin.

[@OfficeMonkey]

@@WMan37 what's the name of the plugin? I can't find it.

[@WMan37]

@@OfficeMonkey Sure. It's a theme element for CSS loader called Transparent Keyboard by Wormss9. The reason it's probably hard to find is because it's packed in with full system themes, that was my bad for calling it a standalone plugin and not a theme element for CSS Loader.

[@OfficeMonkey]

@@WMan37 Thanks bud!

[@aspizak]

VibrantDeck is a must, but I would def not go over 150% saturation as it burns (bleeds out) contrast and many subtle elements will be outblown and not visible. Some games work fine with over 150, but def would recommended per game profile.

[@taylon5200]

I say 125-135 at the most is the perfect amount. Depends on how your screen comes from Factory, some are better at 135 and some better at 125. A good middle ground, is the perfect 130!

[@thepirateswirled]

Powertools seems very interesting, especially in combination with undervolting, it's amazing what you can do with the steam deck, I have the oled one btw.

[@samstrolia]

Its helpful to know that with powertools, sometimes disabling SMT on certain emulated games can help with performance for whatever reason. I noticed this when running the PCSX2 version of SSX3 a while back. Good Video!

[@ChuckDGard]

Turning off smt works better sometimes because some emulators work better with fewer faster cpu cores instead of many slower cpu cores. Turning off smt allows the cores to spend voltage more on clock speeds instead of hyperthreadiny

[@me77111]

This is actually an AMD software glitch. Apparently AMD has fixed it and Valve is releasing the fix for the Deck with the next major update coming soon

[@samstrolia]

@@me77111 well that would explain why the pc pcsx2 emulator is fine :p

[@me77111]

@@samstrolia depending on what you are running on your PC, it could happen there. If you use an AMD CPU and a desktop Linux distro with an old kernel that doesn't have the update, you'd run into the same problem.

[@samstrolia]

@@me77111 Im on windows but good to know

[@CasepbX]

Been using Decky since I had my Deck in August, very cool tool. I don't use many CSS Loader tools though because some slow down the menu I found. The only ones I have are Faster Transition animations and Switch Like Home.

[@terryterryd]

Without completing the video, my first hunch is "themes could be laggy" - thanks for confirming

[@Natzawa]

So is it just the CSS loader that lags up / slows down the deck? Anything else that does that? Because I’d rather not deal with any perf losses or menu issues.

[@ukyoize]

Thread limiter seems like a great feature that needs to be in steamdeck officially.

[@oscarlandrum2384]

just upgraded the ssd in my steam deck. had to come back for your instructions after all these months

[@TheScripflipNetwork]

Those menu colors look delicious

[@plume...]

This looks great! Good run down of the features too, thanks.

[@OblivionPrime]

This is actually amazing it reminds me of the ps vita plugins great stuff!

[@Railer61]

I got this on my deck and love I found CSS loader, got a Pip-Boy theme for my Deck now, will need to tinker around with powertools

[@geekd_up]

My wife is set to get me a Deck for my birthday next month. Can't wait to try this and other fun things!

[@VanzSolo]

Thanks brother have been meaning to install this for a minute and your video just prompted me to with a nice guide

[@David_K_C]

Thank you so very much for this, vibrant deck sounds great. Looking forward to install when I get home from work

[@tnarg5320]

Idk how I didnt know there were more plugins, considering I have emudeck and that auto downloads decky. This is so awesome. Love the new saturation and sound effects I can add to the homescreen!!!!

[@bleskie]

You always find great stuff to review! Thanks for this!

[@mordekaiser_1312]

powertools also allows you to squeeze more performance on dolphin (with games like f-zero for example) disable smt, set cores to 3, cpu clock to 1200, easy

[@sataniccrow82]

this is literally mind blowing: thanks for sharing this!

[@land_walker]

I think you should have mentioned two points: 1: Is that Decky is included with Emudeck, so if you have emudeck you have Decky 2: Make sure you stay on the Stable build of SteamOS. The other branches will break Decky every time they update.

[@SaimesierP]

I don't think it's included with emudeck you have to choose to install it. but stable is correct I was on preview and it would cash after install and cause reboot

[@ryanbrancel]

Unless EmuDeck is bundling Decky now (?), they are two separate projects. I had to install separately as well.

[@bonkgameing]

I was on stable and updated one time a while back, decky just vanished (I didn’t check twitter or any source before updating to see if decky was affected :/) is there a simple way to get decky back up and running or do you have to do a full reinstall? Thank you in advance

[@NothingHereForYou]

Literally worth it for vibrant alone

[@m2kaay]

I totally need this. I cannot wait to customize

[@GentMAB]

I honestly never installed it directly, just let PowerTools install it from EmuDeck and then updated everything once that was done, thank you for covering CSS Loader though b/c I did not know what it was and love that Outrun theme!!

[@emudeck3499]

This :)

[@JayleePlanz]

Thank you for this video! I found some really cute themes.

[@IYF86]

This is a very cool and easy guide to follow thank you🥳👍

[@dusk_clan384]

Great explanation helped me out a lot thanks

[@Hugo_Prolovski]

Valve using linux is so nice. its the reason i bought a deck instead of lenovo legion go last week

[@discotecc]

proton is awesome in general. Thanks Valve

[@robertcase6475]

Two questions, does this affect battery life running these extra plug ins? And If I don't like this is it easy to just uninstall everything?

[@gleam6370]

I’d like to know too

[@gamers-generation]

Thanks for another one ETA!

[@Megadoomable]

One thing you forgot to mention that I noticed. By default, it will go straight to installing. However, if you have a sudo password set (likely if you followed a Windows dual-boot tutorial where you need to set the password to install rEFInd) the program will ask for the sudo password before it begins the install.

[@qbrt4050]

I do in fact need these in my life!!

[@qbrt4050]

I did in fact put these in my life!!

[@Spydie1124]

thank you for this . i love the themes

[@itsdtxjd]

I love my big black deck!

[@JoFriVa92]

Very nice video, you really get what you need

[@Rizzlyricist]

I will use this device to CONQUER THE WOOOOOORRRLLLDD......on the go lol

[@oveddepaz5700]

Bro how can i use this option in gpd wm4 which boton could be ( the one in the back and how) help me please 🙏

[@darkbloodgt6577]

Thanks bro this video really help me

[@Natzawa]

I haven’t bothered with decky loader since I just use reshade on games anyways, but the power tools thing looks cool. I get good performance in most games just knocking the tdp and gpu MHz down. I try to upscale most games using FSR in windows mode as well. That makes a huge difference. Most older games I get about 5-7w. Even with Persona 5 Royale at max settings with FSR about 7-8w. Maybe I’ll give it a try though.

[@CasepbX]

My god setting up reshade on every game I play would be a huge time sink.

[@Natzawa]

@@CasepbX It’s not too bad, but yeah it can be time consuming lol. I was reading up that some people’s decks were getting bricked or decky would lag up the deck so I didn’t bother with it. Not sure if certain plugins contribute to the lag / slowness but yeah.

[@heyjeySigma]

@@Natzawa Decks getting bricked? how? with reshades or u mean with Decky loader stuff? havent tried neither

[@Natzawa]

@@heyjeySigma Definitely not with reshade otherwise I wouldn’t be using that lol. Which is why I haven’t tried decky yet. Some people were reporting bricks / SteamOS reinstalls in the past with decky. But unsure of the exact cause. Could have been a specific plugin who knows.

[@heyjeySigma]

@@Natzawa yea ok thanks for replying ! i definitely wana install reshade for Elden ring on my deck but i was hesitant on performance and if itll even work.. ill see how that goes later. reshade on elden ring makes it look soo much better. Well on most games lol

[@gamingonlinux]

You know .desktop files don't need to be on the desktop right? It's a file type, not a required location ;)

[@neorobin1833]

I would just tap on that to start it from the Dowloads tab

[@ScorpionF1RE_USA]

vibrant deck is a MUST.

[@SideshowBob44]

If you have Emudeck installed go to Tools and Stuff section and can install from there as well which is easier.

[@FreakBob871]

for some reason the power tools and decky would go away after updates i turned off cores before it disappeared and after the reinstall it still didn't have working cores i just needed to press the defaults button and fixed it. thank you for the straight up install instructions these videos are vary helpfull

[@mrjuan234]

The Steam Deck is so Awesome!

[@lemonscampi]

Decky Loader hgas become an essential install at this point.

[@kingkhxlil]

Worked perfectly. Now I can install power tools for dolphin emulation (Pokémon XD)

[@ark804]

Wow, this is amazing.. Thanks!

[@aendzo]

my decky loader doesnt come out, how come? i followed every step. before i install decky loader on the desktop mode, theres a password prompt too.

[@evolutional7135]

same

[@aendzo]

@@evolutional7135 it's okay now, just try to restart your deck

[@WelloMeJello]

I did everything correctly I did even the old methods from 7 months ago and restarted my deck after the install just to see if it needed it and nothing any thoughts?

[@theprada2126]

Wow amazing stuff Thanks

[@brandonsummers6360]

I feel like SteamOS just changed the colour accuracy, I reinstalled steamos when I got a new SSD yesterday and my screen wasnt as washed out. I still added Decky loader back and vibrant deck to 120 and now it seems a bit oversaturated.

[@hismajesty3366]

What is the application you use to run the installer ? Mine pops up a window and ask to choose a program

[@kortpr]

Did you ever figure this out?

[@Ebok]

Does decky loader affect performance at all?

[@contytub]

This is giving me psp/ps3 vibes. Awesome

[@johnnysolami]

Is there a plug-in that let's you set custom presets and save them for each individual game?

[@CacheMeOutside97]

My deck keeps getting "lost" by Fedex. Im going to go through with valve spending out another replacement, but my original order shipped in November, and I still dont have one.

[@ryanbrancel]

This has been remarked in other forums that Valve needs to not clearly broadcast that it is a Steam Deck on the packaging.

[@RandommBoyo]

Meanwhile Switch users still being limited to a boring gray/white theme with only being able to change a profile picture to one of very few premade ones. God I love Deck

[@mrjuan234]

I pre order it in 2021 almost had to wait about a half year but it was worth it

[@akapeegly6463]

Sorry for dumb question but do themes drain battery life? I wanna custumize mine but if ima have to lose battery or performsnce i rather not

[@Amackk0307]

Does anyone else have to re download this every couple months, it always disappears from my steam deck

[@PhyuckYiu2]

@@Amackk0307 Mine just disappeared and I came back to this video to get it back. I’ve had my SD since January and this is the first time it’s happened.

[@giovannilozano4961]

This has happened to me where it disappeared but restarting the steam deck fixed it for me

[@BlackMesa322]

I use the 3 you mentioned on top of Clean Gameplay (with blur and steam cloud) and also Colored toggles (deck gradient). I set the outrun theme to cyan in both which lets colored toggles add a pop of color without it being too much imo.

[@rickbone3906]

Saw you have cyper punk on steam deck. How is it? Been on the fence since it had issues at launch

[@rickbone3906]

Also love your content. What are your thoughts on putting a windows os on the steam deck? Wanting to play destiny 2 (for some reason lol) and have been told that is the only way around to play it 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@donkeyrattle]

What TMNT game is on your desktop? Props

[@ADreamingTraveler]

Actually amazing

[@lunaria33games]

When I tried installing decky loader it said I haven’t set up an admin password. what is that for and where do I set it up? 👀

[@MythicalMimikyu]

should be "Decky!"

[@Rhiorrha]

So...if I were to play, say, Resident Evil 5 and increase saturation, would that basically be the same as the "true color" mod?

[@kostasvapo69]

I saw a video of steamdeck in windows11 with plugins for tdp switch and different hz.

[@AtiCrossfireX]

Power tools is my favorite

[@pillington1338]

I wish the Powertools settings could be per-game, I tend not to turn down the settings on Powertools because I forget about it when switching games and that causes performance issues.

[@cari_iii]

thank you so much for this! finally getting my deck tomorrow! does anyone know of a total beginners guide to the settings on power tools? thread count etc went completely over my head, i have no idea what that stuff means.. so not sure how to adjust these settings to better my game performance! thanks!

[@Chronotri]

So I logged on the steam deck and the Decky plugin disappeared 😮. After trying multiple installs and resets all that worked for me was to redownload Deckyloader and install again. It worked

[@sybsygstgstsgysg5330]

First I need a steam deck in my life

[@Soraviel]

Yeah, I'm about to add (install it).

[@nastyline9693]

Hi, I'm a very newcomers when it come to PC. question is, once I download everything, can I delete the files on my desktop? the installer I meant

[@brellyjelly4539]

I thought there was some type password you have to create in order to use decky? I've seen in another video or you don't have to?

[@pokefriends3]

This isn't working for me. I click to load "install Decky" on my desktop, and after I hit "continue", it opens the " ~ : sh - Konsole " window, but inside the text reads "rm: cannot remove '/tmp/user_install_script.sh' : No such file or directory " instead of asking me what branch to install.

[@משהראובן-ע2נ]

thank you ❤