How to Install the 10 Best Steam Deck Plugins:
With the Steam Deck, you can play your games wherever you want. There are a lot of tools in the system that make it possible to do this, but everyone understands that plugins enable it to go more smoothly and look better.
If you are aware of where to look, Steam Deck has a number of add-ons that make it work better. Here are a few of the finest Steam Deck plugins that users can use right now.
Decky Loader Is A Launcher For Steam Deck:
The Steam Deck already serves as a wonderful handheld games console, but you can add software like Decky Loader to give it even more features. If you haven’t heard of Decky Loader before, it’s a launcher for the Steam Deck that makes it easy to browse and install different plugins.
By installing it, consumers will have the ability to use the Quick Access menu to find plugins. Once you download & install this, you’ll wanted to know how you ever lived without it, especially now that it’s easier for beginners to install.
Plugins Can Change The Way Your Console Works:
Just like Steam Deck shortcuts, plugins could indeed make using Valve’s handheld console a lot easier. These plugins would then help you get more out of Steam, seek new games to enjoy, change the way your console works, and do a lot more.
List Of Plugins:
Decky Loader:
Decky Loader is the best way to use the Steam Deck to download plugins. Most of the plugins in this guide are easy to install, and all you need to do to install them is install this plugin first. Some even need this plugin to work.
Decky Loader lets you change the look of your menus, change your system sounds, change the saturation of your screen, change other system settings, as well as install and keep an eye on more plugins.
To put Decky Loader on your Steam Deck, download it from github using Desktop Mode. Start the installer & either use your admin password or a temporary one to move forward. Choose between the latest version and a pre-release version, then go back to Gaming Mode.
Deck Settings:
Decksettings is a handy little program that lets you look through Steam Deck game settings to improve how well they run. It tells you what settings are recommended for use on the Steam Deck and can let you know when you open a game that has reported settings.
This plugin will let you look at reports for any Steam game in your library, and it will eventually let you search for games outside of your library. The developers also prefer that the app figure out on its own which settings are best for each game you open.
Install Decky Loader & open its store before installing Deck Settings. You can add it to your plugins by pressing the Steam Deck menu button, opening Decky Loader, searching for it in the store, and then clicking “Install.”
How Many Beats:
How Long to Beat is a plugin that tells you how long each game in your Steam Library takes to play. Above the play button on your games, you can see how long it will take to finish the game. This time varies based on the goals you want to reach.
The plugin can even guess how much longer it will take to beat your current game, and it lets you compare your times with those of other players. The addon has sections for the main story, the main story plus extras, as well as the time it takes to complete the main story.
Download How Long to Beat from the How Long to Beat website to set it up. The easiest way to set it up is to install Decky Loader first and use its store. Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for it in the store.
CSS Loader:
Have you ever looked at the Steam Deck’s user interface and thought it could look better? CSS Loader is an add-on that lets you change how the Steam Deck UI looks. You can change fonts, colour combinations, and a lot of other settings with this add-on.
To put CSS Loader on your computer, download it from Github using the Desktop Mode. The easiest way to set it up is to install Decky Loader first and use its store.
Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for it in the store. You could now install themes by going to the menus and clicking on Manage themes.
Tools For Controlling:
Controller Tools is a useful plugin that shows you how your controllers are connected to the Steam Deck, how much power they have left, and whether or not they are charging.
It works with almost every major controller, including PlayStation, Xbox, as well as the Nintendo Switch Pro controller. It will eventually be able to change the LEDs on supported controllers, turn off controllers from a distance, and turn vibration on and off for controllers.
To get Controller Tools, go to Desktop Mode on Github and download it. The easiest way to set it up is to install Decky Loader first and use its store. Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for it in the store.
Decky Recorder:
Decky Recorder is an add-on for players who wish to keep track of their play sessions. It lets you pause and resume a live recording of your existing screen with audio from the Steam Deck. It is based on the Crankshaft plugin manager’s Recapture-Plugin.
Remember that this plugin continues to be worked on. Recordings longer than 30 minutes don’t save correctly, and if you start a recording while your deck is docked & outputting to a 4k monitor, it will crash.
To set up Decky Recorder, get it from Github and use Desktop Mode to install it. The easiest way to set it up is to install Decky Loader first and use its store. Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for it in the store.
SteamGridDB
SteamGridDB is a plugin for Steam Deck that lets you change the artwork of all the games in your Steam Library without going into Desktop Mode. Most games on Steam have icons, pictures, and banners that are already set.
This addon gives each game in the library a button to “change artwork,” which lets you search for different images to change how each game looks.
To use the method for installing SteamGridDB, you need to first install Decky Loader and use its store. Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for the item in the store.
DeckFAQs
GameFAQs may not be the best way to find game guides these days, but it is still a useful tool. On the GameFAQs website, you can look at game guides for both Steam & non-Steam games that you own.
It works with both rich-text & plain-text guides and is very helpful when you get stuck in a game and can’t figure out how to get past a spot you’ve been stuck on for a while.
To use the method for installing DeckFAQs, you need to first install Decky Loader and use its store. Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for it in the store.
Audio Loader:
This is the right plugin for you if you want to be able to change the sound effects on your Steam Deck. With Audio Loader, you can replace the sounds in the Steam user interface with your own audio files. This lets you change what you hear to be anything you want.
Place music or sound pack.json files in the /home/deck/homebrew/themes folder to give the plugin options. You can use a Pack manager to get packs from the plugin, or you can add them to the folder by hand, though the developers don’t recommend this.
To install Audio Loader, get it from Github and use Desktop Mode to install it. The easiest way to set it up is to install Decky Loader first and use its store. Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for it in the store.
ProtonDB Badges:
The ProtonDB Badges plugin adds a rank from the ProtonDB website to the Steam Deck for each game in the Steam store. The rating system will tell you if a game is too bad to meet the official Steam Deck compatibility requirements.
It will also explain why each game got the rating it did and tell you what to watch out for if you still want to enjoy it on your Steam Deck.
To use the method for installing ProtonDB Badges, you must first install Decky Loader and use its store. Just press the menu button on the Steam Deck, open Decky Loader, and look for it in the store.
Indicator from ProtonDB:
The Steam Deck compatibility rating from the ProtonDB website will be added to the top of each game in the Steam store by ProtonDB Indicator. From best to worst, here are the various compatibility ratings you will see.
- Platinum: It works great right out of the box
- Gold: After some tweaks, it works perfectly.
- Silver: Runs with a few problems, but can be played most of the time.
- Bronze: It works, but it often crashes or has problems that make it hard to play comfortably.
- Borked: Either won’t start or is so broken that it can’t be played.
This plugin is very helpful because it tells you which games will work on your console & which ones won’t. Also, the action-adventure game Returnal, which has been praised by critics, is coming soon to Steam. Go to ProtonDB to see if Returnal on Steam Deck is compatible.
How To Start Off:
Before you start this tutorial, make sure to back up any critical data just in case something goes wrong. Even though the installation is fairly easy, you never know what could go wrong. To get started, go to the Settings menu and tap “Enable Developer Mode.”
- Press the Steam button, scroll to the bottom to the Settings menu, and choose it.
- navigate to the System settings after you’ve entered the Settings menu.
- You’ll see an option that says “Enable Developer Mode” that you can turn on or off.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings menu to locate the newly added Developer menu option.
- Turn on the CEF Remote Debugging setting in the Developer menu.
- Once you choose this, the Steam Deck would then tell you that you need to reboot the console for the changes to take effect.
You have to switch to Desktop mode after the restart.
- Press the button labelled Steam.
- Scroll down until you see “Power.”
- Find the option that says “Switch to Desktop” and click on it.
Would you Like To Create A Plugin?
There is no documentation for developers, but the Plugin Template can help you get started. You will need to know Python and HTML. You can put your plugin under any license you want when you publish it.
What’s A Plugin?
A plugin is an extra piece of software that can be added to a program to make it do more. If you wished to enjoy a video on a website, for example, you might need a plugin. If you don’t have the plug-in, your browser won’t be able to play the video.
