I WAS WRONG about Steam Deck PLUGINS! 

My arcade cabinet is powered by a Steam Deck - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m5wdlvOYaXc.html

My wife laughs at me because I spend hours tinkering my Steam Deck on Saturdays, then when I finish I’m too tired to play anything 😂

I totally agree. 20-25 years ago I was a lot more nerdy and DIY. Now I just want it to work for 90% of the time.

I notice that I often hear that it's easier with a mouse and keyboard. It seems very few mention the alternative of using SteamLink. I have it on my desktop and while I don't use it to play games (I just find it to slow) it's perfect to remote desktop into the steam deck and have a desktop. If I only need a shell I use SSH, but for full desktop experience SteamLink works perfectly.

Something worth noting on the PROTON DB plugging where the proton badge is for the specific game you can select it and it takes you to the website that specifically tells you in detail why it has the platinum or gold badge and what steps if any need to be taken for it to run. So no need to pull up the website on your phone and search for the game

One thing that always comforts me when tinkering with my PC or Steamdeck. I have windows on a thumb drive, and the Steamdeck has a factory reset feature. What's the worst that can happen? You start over.

I'm waiting for a plugin to better manage shader cache and compatibility data. I want the ability to delete unnecessary files, or move them to the SD card where the corresponding game is installed so it doesn't hog my internal 64gb drive. That would be the holiest of plugins for 64gb deck owners.

I love the Steam Deck for all of this. So great to have such a versatile machine. I won't be doing most of the tweaking but I am just glad that I can. It's like when i buy tons of games, I might barely play a lot of them but it makes me feel good knowing I have the ability to.

I’m with you on just wanting things to work. I didn’t know I was missing out on so many cool things when it comes to plugins

Something that you didn't mention about Protondb badges is that the icon that appears is actually clickable. It's a link that takes you to that game's page where you can usually find user comments that will help you setup the game and/or tell you how to save battery life.

Great video! I was also hesitant about messing with plugins on my Deck but this video convinced me to give it a shot. And you were right, it really does improve the experience. I find the ProtonDB and HLTB integration especially useful but I've also installed the other plugins you mentioned because I can definitely see them coming in handy eventually.

I absolutely love all the cool things you can do with Decky. Animation changer, Vibrant Deck, and the GameFAQs plugins were my favorite. I would definitely rock the HLTB one as well. However I had to reinstall SteamOS and remove Decky because it interfering with Elden Rings EAC and I wasn't able to play Elden Ring at all. But looking forward to reinstalling it once I'm done with Elden Ring.

Quick note, if the plug tab in the quick access menu ever seems to vanish spontaneously it is in many cases enough to reboot the Steam Deck. Sometimes decky ceases to inject the necessary code but a reboot fixes it more often than not. Funnily enough I went back to the stable steam deck release channel after installing decky in order to minimize potential incompatabilities. Most plugin maintainers update their plugins pretty quickly so when the stable update comes around I don't have to worry that it breaks.

I was the same way! I avoided Decky Loader until about two weeks ago. ...I can't imagine using a Steam Deck without it now. Especially if you're doing emulation! Change the SMT cores from 8 to 4 via Powertools for Switch games and just look at the difference.

I just started using Decky Loader last week. I'm definitely a tinkerer, but I've had so many thing to enjoy on the deck that it's been fine the way it is. I'm not going back after this though. I installed Vibrant Deck and Power Tools (Does need root access). The power tools are amazing, because while Steam allows you to lower overall TDP of the APU (the CPU and GPU combined) and they even let you reduce the GPU clock, they don't let you play with the CPU clock. Power tools lets you do that. While playing GhostBusters Remastered, I found I could drop the CPU from 3.5ghz to 2.5ghz, and still maintain a flat line 40fps, but the power consumption went from 5.9W down to 1.9W, basically a third. CPU power efficiency curves are like an engine power curve, there's a sweet spot in the middle, but as you get higher it needs more and more power to be stable.

You mentioned at the beginning of the video you have a mouse and keyboard that can connect to multiple pieces of hardware - that bought to mind something important I learned about those who put Windows on an SD card and dual boot. Do *not* cheap out if you want to use the same keyboard and mouse for both SteamOS and Windows. Because of the way Bluetooth works, each OS needs its own profile. However, when I bought a cheap Walmart keyboard, I discovered that the keyboard will erase other profiles (of the same hardware) if you try to pair it to the same hardware on more than one profile - even if it's a different OS. This meant that every time I booted to the other OS, I would have to go through the entire pairing process again. Eventually I decided it wasn't worth it and bought the MX Keys Mini from Logitech. I use it along with the MX Anywhere 3 mouse. Both of them switch properly and don't force me to go through the pairing process again whenever I boot to the other OS. . . . and yes, I'm typing this reply on the MX Keys Mini :).

I bought a 256gb model. After installing a few non-steam titles and Skyrim SE with many mods I haven't bothered to do anything else with it. Worried about installing big titles on my remaining space as I understand shaders take up a lot of room. I don't have any good size micro SDs or cash for a new SSD either.

Yes, some desktop PC gamers DO love to tinker, break, fix and test things, but generally a PC gamer is a person with a job too - everyone want's their PC to just work and be convenient. There is a cost to convenience though ... and this applies to playing on console too. Nintendo is notorious for shutting down their online stores, so it's only a matter of time until all those purchased digital Switch games disappear. Sony and MS lock online behind a paywall that adds up over time. All three consoles have exclusives that (unintentional or not) force you into buying all three consoles if you don't want to miss out. These things have become accepted and overlooked "necessary evils". Those "necessary evils" are the cost to convenience, and the weigh of these cost depend on the gamer. And yes I am aware that PC does come with it's own "cost of freedom" as well, however the bottom line is -many PC gamers go through the "tinkering" cost because all those necessary evils I listed can be remedied. They are doing it because (to them personally) cost of convenience outweigh the cost of freedom. Everyone want's things to just work. It's why the Steam deck (and eventually the Steam Console thing Valve is working on) is so interesting. It's trying to be the best of both worlds. The future looks bright for the Deck and it's successors.

The plugins are amazing , the Vibrant deck (i have mines at 135) makes it OLED ish style , the boot video uploader let's me use cool boot up animations & the other plugin i use makes my them feel Miami vice neon colored. So fresh 😎

I LOVE the music control plugin, playing music while playing a fighting game, feels like the good ol days with the XBOX 360!

PauseGames is another really good plugin that actually makes it feasible to be have multiple smaller games running at the same time on the Deck and be able to hot-swap between them without any real losses in performance, unless you cap out the RAM. Because even though the plugin is "pausing" the games, they are still actively running and using up RAM. Another feature of the PauseGames plugin is that it can potentially help with preventing the audio stuttering glitch that happens every once in a while when bringing the Deck out of sleep mode.

I'm still waiting for hardware plugins. OLED screens, better and quiet coolers. Stuff like that. I've seen shells and joysticks being available for a while, but those don't really peak my interest.

it's a good idea to reboot the steam deck after installing decky loader, while it'll work without a reboot there's some obscure problems that can crop up until after a reboot is done

Great vid. I’m a newbie as well. I played console games years ago, but stopped when everything seemed to get smaller on my tv screen (aging eyes). The Steam Deck has brought me back in. That being said, I don’t need any plugins to be satisfied with my unit. I’m afraid I’ll mess something up!

That red sweater seems super cozy, thanks for video!

Dear NerdNest: I wanted to comment, and let you know I like the things you make, you're a good speaker and you show preparation. You're in the top 5 of Steam Deck RU-vidrs I admire, along with Cryobyte33 and Fan the Deck (Let's share love with Deck Ready and LTT, though the latter is plenty famous enough XD), and I am glad to watch your videos. You have a good style and could not be more easy to relate to and learn from. I will say that your candid admission of not being a pro-user means your content is going to be a gentler introduction and a more pleasant learning curve. I appreciate that, and I hope you keep going.

I really do think if they just gave it a bit more beef in the hardware and drop the gyro gimic and just give you the bare Bones to navigate like a handheld but meant to be more of a universal mini PC They already have a steam controller so if they could work out the issues so they can sell it on the side so everyone can have these options. 1. Steam deck (all three variations) 2.steam deck but gutting the gyro and trackpad if necessary for less handheld and more of a universal travel size pc. I barely use it in handheld mode because I got crappy eye sight so and I've been more interested in tinkering. Just getting give people the option without severely creating another pool of users. If they could just gutt fancy trackpad and gyro for a cheaper and more hands on experience. Please

Color of Grey 0 seconds ago I love my Steam Deck, & plugins are great, but the Steam UI itself still really just doesn't work right, & I don't get why it gets glossed over so often. The Store, functionality & UI, anything community-related, I get why most Deck users don't do anything with Steam but for those of us that do (er, want to?), we're kinda stuck on the Deck. I have no idea why so few reviews even mention the Steam issues on the Deck, but that may be implicitly why Valve hasn't addressed it since I got a Deck at launch. This is a great video, for sure! But we all seem to gloss over how bad the Store & all Steam participation; wishlists, guides, reviews, anything community-related, mods (in spite of being supported on the Deck the Steam UI on the Deck limits mod functionality by nature), for some reason it never comes up "because the rest of the Deck is so good." It's true, but yeah, it's an inescapable outlier that likely & literally every Deck owner has experienced, yet nobody brings it up (or makes an excuse for it). Going over the UI in this video, for example, the Store experience on the Deck seems like a glaring omission---I'm not mad, just not sure what to do about it, know what I mean? It SEEMS like a fixable problem but nobody mentions it outright, which is the strangest thing to me. Still, the Store & Steam UI are both so often absolutely atrocious on the Deck & I don't know how or why it's still as bad after a full year except that nobody notices enough to mention it in spite of likely everyone having similar functional issues, including input presses being literally the opposite of the input, missing graphics, et al. Use a PC or phone or tablet or anything other than Steam's own Steam Deck to do anything Steam-related is my advice, I just wish it wasn't the case. Great video. Keep it up!

I do appreciate your identifying yourself as a Mac guy as I am not and the experience and expectations that go along with that mindset is not something that would relate to me and my experience. Some people want to be spoonfed their tech expereince and I am not that guy! Good luck not being a tinkerer and diving into Linux!

One thing i love abt the steam deck is how you're never forced to do anything that you dont want to. Trying to install something and having troubles? Well, just go back to gaming mode and finish the setup whenever you want (or never).

Proton DB has information on where it was played and how it performed, just not on the plugin but on the website itself.

The steam grid db plug in is so cool I wish I had that on Windows though I don't play on windows very much anymore.

I ignored this video on the past. I wasn’t interested. But I just watched it again and I decided to try it. So awesome! Thanks for the recommendation. ❤

That's an Ultima Online cloth map... Nice.

The first bit of the video explains getting older in a sentance... I feel the same, tend to run more of my tech stock now just for convenience

I excitedly pay express post so my Steam Deck would arrive in approx 48 hours, but when it arrived.. I got so busy with work, and only able to open it a week after... We do need things to just work LOL... As we grow from young gamer, now we are burdened with many responsibilities.. Adulting they say 😅

CSS loader is an nice plugin to change the look of the steam deck and if you want to change the startup animation there is animation changer

I used to have Linux as my desktop before I moved to mac years ago. I got tired of messing with it when I did that all day for work on web servers. Its really cool having an easy way to just pick up and game now and see all these people getting exposed to Linux that may not have been before.

Not a noob, but Im interested to hear your experience with plugins. Im waiting anxiously for a *working* screen capture plugin. Game mode seriously needs it. I just use desktop mode... which i really dont care for for gaming.

As a long time Linux user and SE, I'm often incredibly biased in my perception of how easy Linux is to use. I like watching these videos to give me a reality check, but also feel really excited about how accommodating the FOSS and SD community is to new Linux users!

I literally subscribed just because of your first comment haha I just want it to work. Moved everything over to Mac myself. But still found myself wanting steam deck plugins

I've literally did this to my deck like 2 days ago, and it's a big difference just watching another theme on the menu, but I don't wanna put too many plugins like some RU-vidrs making their menus so laggy I'm fine with vibrantdeck and some themes

My best guess for the map behind you is Norrath. I.E., EverQuest.

I was waiting for you to give in to deckyloader. I would argue one point. The steam deck screen is not bad or middle of the road. It’s actually fantastic. They just shipped it uncalibrated.

As someone who does tinker and build species and works in the industry and knows Linux and blah blah blah, I can say that even I in my non-professional life I'm going more towards that I just wanted to work mentality. Not because of a major change from me I wouldn't say, but because the stuff is just so good stock

Yeah... my videos folder in dolphin? Gone... yeah be careful lol. And I was just trying to add it to the desktop.. I worked it out in the end. But then it was all pointless because the recorder plug-in breaks the desktop... still loving my deck and it's plugins lol

"See that plug? That's where Decky lives" *acknowledges Decky's house* *never looks at plugs the same way again*

The last time I build my own PC was 2003, and no, that was not yesterday. I am just testing if SD is for me, wasting hours of my days tinkering.

I previously had decky loader. However , due to me being on the Beta updates, it actually removed my deck loader plug in completely.

Never felt so represented in a video! Thank you for this... As soon as my new SSD arrives I'm stalling all this plugins

I love the UO map! I played UO online for 5 years and sold my account for 500 bucks when I went to college. When I saw it I knew right away. Unless I am wrong then I apologize :)

I love the pipboy style via CSS loader, mixed with some other addons to it feels great, the only thing missing are pipboy sounds :)

I just got an iPhone at the request of my wife. I told her I was shocked that it just works and it works like every time. No tinkering or figuring out how to sync things. It just works.

The tweaker's curse. I want it customized exactly to my liking... but someone else can maintain it.

I'm new to your channel and doing a binge, loving it! Can I just say, you have a magnificent beard.

Great video. I had been toying with the idea of doing some of this stuff. You helped me make the decision to dive in.

I just wanted to comment and say this video was so clear and concise with great information and snappy demonstrations of the topics. As a new deck owner this literally has me feeling great about diving into the plug-in world Subscribing.

I may have to factory reset my steamdeck because updates have made the plug in interfaces dissappear, and I've waited for updates on both ends that might fix it and they haven't come.

been using decky since the beginning and it is a game changer it takes the steam deck to another level of awesomness

I feel like that's Lost treasure, the old Parker Brothers game.

The Decky1 password is temporary and removed after installation.

On ProtonDB: Ratings - I believe the Platinum/Gold/etc ratings are just based on an average of the Thumbs Up/Down ratings. They used to be as you explained, but that changed quite a while ago. Unless they changed it back when I wasn't looking anyway. Vs the "Deck Verified" program - Neither system is perfect, but I think as a rule of thumb ProtonDB users tend to give the Thumbs Up if they can get it to run decently at all no matter what lengths they had to go through to get there. Whereas Valve's program has much higher standards, arguably too high. Plugins: Honestly the only plugin I've heard about that really interests me is Vibrant Deck. But do I really want to install a whole plugin system just for that? Especially since it's pretty darn common to read "the newest SteamOS update broke Decky!" I don't mind tinkering, don't get me wrong. But the thing is, I like to tinker until something works and then leave it alone. I do not like having to fix things repeatedly. I really wish Valve would just integrate vkBasalt into SteamOS, I use it on my desktop and it's great.

I believe I had sharedeck-y installed on my SD but now I see something called "decksettings" instead?

Protip: VibrantDeck works the other way around as well. If you're in a weird mood and want to play a game in black and white for some reason, you can totally set saturation to zero and do that.

I think that when you install decky loader through the installer without a password, he will set the password but after finishing with the installation it will automatically remove the password. He just set the password to be able do the installation but then he will remove it, at least that is what I read

I switched to Beta and man, not having ProtonDB Badges just makes me lose soooo much time. I don't need anything else, but that one thing...

More advanced caution: do not run this command on Linux terminal: sudo chown deck -R /*

It's really weird, I don't subscribe to your channel, it's a GREAT channel, but I don't have a steamdeck and every time a video auto plays, it goes to your video, I wonder why.

What case are you using for your Steam Deck in this video? I checked the links in your description but don’t see it. I love how sleek and minimal it looks.

If you’re on stable. You need the latest release. If you are on preview(the beta os) you need the pre-release Edit. I didn’t know where the update was thanks!! 4:40

ProtonDB does actually indicate those things, as each game's listing is segregated, with steam deck results first and other linux users listed after that

You really want a mouse and keyboard. I stubbornly tried to do installs without it, and it is needlessly frustrating.

I've had decky loader installed on my deck before, but one of the updates must have removed it again.. that's something that makes me want to skip on the plugins.

My main concern is security. We're turning on developer settings and running code downloaded from the internet. Are plugins signed? How do I know they don't contain keyloggers? I've never seen it discussed and that bothers me.

The one mistake they made with this decky install, is setting the password to "Decky!", it should've been "admin"

Interesting Share deck isn't in the plug in store

My Steam Deck looks mad and organised. I don't even use the emudeck launchers anymore I just play each game like normal games

I wish there was a little box with the game name in your videos. I seen some games that look interesting but have no idea what it was.

I tried Vibrant Deck and it just sucked the battery life to quickly out of the Deck unfortunately.

If you have an Android phone then using Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse app with Hacker Keyboard works great in a pinch

Share Decky doesnt seem to be on the decky marketplace.

Hello.I am new to the Steam Deck and have had it for a few months now. I came across your video while trying to find how to install discord after it needed an update (still trying to figure that one out by the way.) Anyways, I was curious if you might know or heard of any issues or a fix for why my steam deck would be freezing up on me during gameplay. It will go just completely stop all sounds, not even the fan running and I will have to force restart it. This is my second one. I did an RMA on my last one after tech support said it was a faulty machine. I had only had that one since July. I just got the new one they sent about a week and a half ago and it still does the same thing. I have the second highest GB and a 256gb SD card for it and a dock with a cooling fan. Any advice you can give or help with is much appreciated. Thank you so much.

I want to download Plugins but I have read lots of post on Forms and such That say after updating certain Games or Steam OS it’s ruins everything and you have to redownload all plug-ins again manually how True are These claims???

Just saying, for those who want it to just work... A gaming PC is going to be a lot of work for the user, but also opens up customization options (which kinda isn't "just work" anymore...) Call me lazy, but I'm getting rid of all my desktops and laptops because of how well steam deck works, so much less headaches, tweaks, and other maddening stuff that Microsoft suddenly decides to be mandatory. Especially when the steam deck works great on desktop mode, i find that there's less and less reason to use Windows, and that's just great. I used to think i want the highest fidelity in graphics, but with the graphics technology improving, my requirement seems to be lagging behind current technology. Steam Deck is good enough is most cases, and I'm thankful that valve made that abundantly clear to me. (PS4 hinted that to me for a long time....)

Your videos are awesome. I've watched your videos when I first got my Deck and Learned a lot. Thank you. :)

0:30 - Name what game? There is no game on screen here. Do you mean the one 10 seconds later?

Just like the discover store were everything is also free.

I don’t bother messing with any tech that’s expensive anymore. That includes the steam deck. But I might add plug ins.

I Just use Barrier with my cheap 20dls keyboard and old 10dls Mouse

Emudeck installer now installs decky loader too

These plugins are awesome I didn't even know this was a thing

Dude on my budget I just bought the cheapest Bluetooth mouse and mini keyboard I could get on Amazon, i’m glad I did that because I can’t even afford a steam deck yet

This is me. I bought the steam deck so I could just pick it up and game but then I treat it like my other computers and tinker

@nerdnest - timestamps? 🙏

sorry for the dumb question, what's that WoW looking game you're playing at 3:49 ? is it some kind of wow with plugins to be more controller friendly? if so, what plugins are? i'm HIGLY interested.

@nerdnest I actually have a k4 keyboard purchased before steamdeck. initially connecting the bluetooth is spotty. In other words, when I switch between devices, steam deck has issues connecting. You have to try multiple times before it connects. have you experienced this? Is there a fix?

Is the map behind your head Ultima Online? Looks a lot like the map from Ultima IV...

what game is at the end around 11:34 that you are changing the scenery for?

what if i forgot my steamdeck password ?

Where can we get that sweater? Looks nice.