Feature Request: Remember window capture permissions for OBS (even if the window isn't open yet) #276
Description
Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Hey everyone! I've run into a pretty frustrating UX issue when using OBS Studio on Wayland via the PipeWire portal, and I'm hoping the Cosmic team might be able to help champion a fix for it.
Right now, if I have an OBS scene set up to capture a specific window, that target window has to be open and running before I launch OBS. If it's not, the portal fails to restore the session token. Because of this, I have to manually re-select the window and re-grant permissions every single time I stream or record. It hurts the UX really badly for content creators.
Describe the solution you'd like
It would be amazing if the portal could remember previously approved window captures, even if the target window isn't open the exact moment OBS launches. Ideally, the portal would hold onto that permission state so that when the window finally does open, OBS can just hook into it seamlessly without hitting the user with another permission prompt.
Describe alternatives you've considered
I actually brought this up with the OBS developers on Discord, hoping there was a fix on their end. They explained that OBS has no control over this. According to them:
- Saving tokens after a failed attempt isn't implemented in any desktop portal yet (GNOME, KDE, Hyprland, etc.).
- The base portal standard (
xdg-desktop-portal) hasn't figured out how they want to handle this yet.
Additional context
I know fixing this is kind of a "boss fight" involving the upstream xdg-desktop-portal standard. But the OBS devs noted that pushing for this change as a single app often gets dismissed as a "special case."
They strongly suggested that a push from a Desktop Environment perspective would carry way more weight upstream. Since System76 and the Cosmic team are building such a great, creator-focused desktop, I was really hoping you might be willing to look into this. Could the Cosmic team potentially help figure out a solution here, and maybe help champion this standard upstream so the whole Linux ecosystem can finally get seamless window capture?