Storing file in script after using WriteAllBytes

Unity Engine
,
1

Hello, I am working on a game with a camera that can take and save pictures. A few tutorials I saw pointed me towards System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes and byte arrays as a way to save the images I take at runtime, and this works just fine, but there are 2 things I’m trying to do that I can’t figure out
1 I want to be able to store the pictures I take into a list that doesn’t get erased when I stop playing. The best way I thought to do this was using a scriptable object with a Texture2D list which can store all images for easy access. This doesn’t seem to work though, when taking more than one picture I get a TypeMismatch error on the list in the inspector, and when I stop playing it says all textures are missing, despite the fact they are present in my folder window. I suspect this is because I’m trying to add the temporary texture2d I create in script to make the final png rather than the actual png. I’m not sure how to to keep a reference after using WriteAllBytes, and I’d like to know if this is possible. Any other methods of storing all my images would also be helpful.
2 I want to be able to set the texture importer settings when I take the picture. I tried using OnPreprocessTexture(), but this seems to apply to my entire project, which isn’t what I want. I also tried using presets, but I’m not sure how to apply it to the final png since I’m not sure how to reference it after creating it as I mentioned in point 1.

        public void SaveCameraView()
        {
            //Render image from camera view
            RenderTexture screenTexture = new RenderTexture(_pictureLength, _pictureHeight, 32);
            RenderCamera.targetTexture = screenTexture;
            RenderTexture.active = screenTexture;
            RenderCamera.Render();

            //Apply rendered image to texture
            Texture2D renderedTexture = new Texture2D(_pictureLength, _pictureHeight);
            renderedTexture.ReadPixels(new Rect(0, 0, _pictureLength, _pictureHeight), 0, 0);
            renderedTexture.Apply();
            RenderTexture.active = null;
            PictureCompressionSettings.ApplyTo(renderedTexture); //Attempt to apply presets

            //Save image to PNG file
            byte[] byteArray = renderedTexture.EncodeToPNG();
            string savePath = $"/Captures/{CaptureVault.name}/cameracapture{CaptureVault.Captures.Count}.png";
            System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes(Application.dataPath + savePath, byteArray);
            AssetDatabase.Refresh();

            //Add image to gallery scriptable object
            CaptureVault.Captures.Add(renderedTexture);
        }
2

Unity’s editor will apply changes to any ScriptableObjects modified in play mode if the ScriptableObject exists as an asset in the project, but that doesn’t apply to builds. When playing builds you need to serialize the ScriptableObject to a file if you want to save anything stored in it.

WriteAllBytes saves to disk. It doesn’t save to a variable. If you want to keep the data elsewhere you simply store the contents of the byteArray.