Battery tracker is a new plugin that seems pretty useful. Gives a chart of tracked battery levels, but more importantly it tracks the average power draw of the different games you run.
Some games draw wildly different amounts of power depending on area/etc, so getting average numbers for your total play session will be really useful for getting real battery use numbers.
To install, you need to first have decky loader installed, and you should find it in the decky store. You don’t need to be in the testing branch of the store or anything, just the normal channel.
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I am really icky about plugins that need full system access. I do understand this plugin needing it.
Understandable, but the beauty of open source is the code is available for review if you’re concerned.
This looks awesome. I’m not ready to load third-party software on my Steam Deck, especially stuff that’s bleeding edge like this. I do think this is extremely useful and I wish they built it into the Steam Deck software.
Nothing can happen using Decky Loader and you don’t have to load the bleeding edge plugins if you don’t want to. It all up to you which plugins you use. It’s one of the most useful tools for the Deck. The plugins you use could be really basic, like helping you change icons on the games, reach menu for Bluetooth without going into settings, getting HowLongToBeat stats on your game info, etc. It’s all very handy and extremely easy to set up. YouTube is your friend on this one.
You should also check out CryoUtilities. It’s not going to be for you if you don’t wanna use third party apps right now. But at least check out his youtube video explaining the tool anyway. You will find it interesting and learn quite a lot even of you don’t install the software.
I’ll check it out and how officially supported the plugin system is. If it’s not supported I don’t really want to do it because I want things to be very stable for when I test games in development. I also don’t want something to break and create hassle.
Nothing about Decky will be an issue. It’s been around for very long. It’s never crashed, always worked and never created any hassle for me. And I’ve used it for about 6-7 months. Hell it might have released just weeks after the Deck was, I’m not sure.
I was daunted by it at first as well when I got my hands on my deck. I didn’t want to break anything. But I tried it at some point and can’t recommend it enough! There are plenty of good tutorials on YouTube (that take just 5 minutes) and they also made the process of installing easier since when I did it. So if you’re on the fence, I’d recommend just to go for it, it’s not as techy as you might think.
I’m worried it’s going to turn into a time sink. I want my deck to be a care free game playing device. I’m very technical minded on software and Linux. I just avoid doing so to things I don’t want to turn into hobbies.
I think we all share your opinions. And Decky loader really is grandmother-safe. The Bluetooth plugin is the one I like the most since my headset sometimes doesn’t connect automatically. So I can turn BT off and on again, and reconnect very easily. I also like the plugin where I can see recommended settings on games and apply them manually if I want to. Stuff like that. I don’t go deeper at all.
Those all sound really useful. You’ve convinced me to give it a try
Yeah it really is a good plugin manager.
