How to Capture Mouse Highlighter with Window Capture?

[drodi]

Hey everyone,

I tried several mouse highlighter tools like Pen Attention 11, "Cursor Highlighter 2.2.ahk," and the PowerToys Mouse Highlighter. these work perfectly when I use Display Capture in obs, but they don’t show up when I use Window Capture for a specific app.

I kinda understadn that this happens because display capture records everything visible on my screen, including overlays, whereas Window Capture only grabs the app’s specific window layer, which excludes overlays like cursor highlights.

The issue is that I don’t want to use display capture because, during recording, I might bring other windows over the target app, and I don’t want those to appear in the recording. I need the clean isolation provided by window capture.

Is there any way to make the mouse highlighter overlay visible when using Window Capture mode in OBS?

Thanks in advance.

 

[koala]

It might perhaps help if you also capture the mouse highlighter app. If they paint the highlighting on an invisible window created by them, this could perhaps work.

 

[drodi]

@koala Hey mate, thanks for trying to help.... Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture any of the mouse highlighter apps as a separate layer in OBS. They don’t appear in Window Capture mode, even when I try to add them specifically.

Have you personally tried what you suggested or seen someone successfully achieve something similar?

 

[koala]

Sorry, no. Long time ago, I either used display capture for capturing the whole screen (app was fullscreen) or a custom mouse cursor replacer that replaced the physical mouse pointer with a more visible one, but the latter was not custom highlighting but just a different pointer. Windows 11 has native mouse pointer sizing, but this isn't highlighting of course.

 

[drodi]

Thanks for your help again.. So, if I understood correctly, the only way to make this work in OBS is by using display Capture instead of window Capture, right? Just wanted to confirm.

 

[koala]

As far as I see, yes.

 

[Suslik V]

There are scripts that can emulate cursor (change how it appears) in OBS recordings.

OBS Lua - cursor skin fx

Read setup and full description here: https://github.com/upgradeQ/cursor-skin-fx/blob/master/README.md

obsproject.com

Also, there was solution to record cursor movements separately and add corresponding animation in post-production:

OBS Python - OBS Cursor Recorder

cursor-recorder Records mouse movement to a file and opens it in After Effects. Use with OBS Studio as an external Python script or if you prefer a more manual approach, using the standalone Python script. Then use the After Effects script to...

obsproject.com

Edit: there was wrong Lua script. Maybe will update it later. Done.
Edit 2:
For example, attached .lua script for OBS moves any source from the same scene to the position of the cursor (effectively emulating cursor). Applies as new Filter for Window Capture source of OBS. Only for Windows OS. If it works for you - then it works, if not - then it doesn't. Algorithm uses references, thus under some conditions may crash OBS on exit (since v1.3a there is hope it do it less, but fingers crossed:). Actually, it is doing double job of Window Capture source that emulates cursor in OBS almost in the same way:

filter-draw-custom-cursor-for-window-capture_1_3a.zip, ~5KiB to download.
CRC of the zip archive MD5:CEC9F7B2D23E4E9FDC44ABA911F211EB

inside:
"filter-draw-custom-cursor-for-window-capture.lua" (~16 KiB)

 

[drodi]

There are scripts that can emulate cursor (change how it appears) in OBS recordings.

OBS Lua - cursor skin fx

Read setup and full description here: https://github.com/upgradeQ/cursor-skin-fx/blob/master/README.md

obsproject.com

Also, there was solution to record cursor movements separately and add corresponding animation in post-production:

OBS Python - OBS Cursor Recorder

cursor-recorder Records mouse movement to a file and opens it in After Effects. Use with OBS Studio as an external Python script or if you prefer a more manual approach, using the standalone Python script. Then use the After Effects script to...

obsproject.com

Edit: there was wrong Lua script. Maybe will update it later. Done.
Edit 2:
For example, attached .lua script for OBS moves any source from the same scene to the position of the cursor (effectively emulating cursor). Applies as new Filter for Window Capture source of OBS. Only for Windows OS. If it works for you - then it works, if not - then it doesn't. Algorithm uses references, thus under some conditions may crash OBS on exit (since v1.3a there is hope it do it less, but fingers crossed:). Actually, it is doing double job of Window Capture source that emulates cursor in OBS almost in the same way:

filter-draw-custom-cursor-for-window-capture_1_3a.zip, ~5KiB to download.
CRC of the zip archive MD5:CEC9F7B2D23E4E9FDC44ABA911F211EB

inside:
"filter-draw-custom-cursor-for-window-capture.lua" (~16 KiB)

@Suslik V , this is probably a late response from my side, but I needed some time to reflect, absorb the information, and fully understand it. What you provided is super helpful in the context of what I wanted to achieve. Thanks a lot ;)))