Black background when playblasting in standalone (Maya)

Coding
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#1

Hello everyone!
I’m programming a tool that helps me playblast files in standalone.
It queries the cams in the scene, prompts the user for settings, etc…

Everything works except for the background. It renders black. I tried to use cmds.displayRGBColor() to change the colour of the background but it didn’t work. The weird thing is that if i use cmds.displayPref(dgr=1) which usually sets the background to have a gradient, it works and is no longer black. That being said i don’t want the maya gradient but the dark grey default so i don’t know what to do…

Thanks in advance!
Elio

#2

the hotkey to change BG color in a viewport is Alt+B
with echo all commands on in the script editor, we see it calls the MEL cycleBackgroundColor;
using mel whatIs("cycleBackgroundColor") we see it points to
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2022/scripts/others/cycleBackgroundColor.mel
opening that, we see the mel code that changes the BG color:


// ===========================================================================
// Copyright 2021 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
//
// Use of this software is subject to the terms of the Autodesk license
// agreement provided at the time of installation or download, or which
// otherwise accompanies this software in either electronic or hard copy form.
// ===========================================================================
//  Description:
//      Cycles the background color of viewports, and then to gradient display
//
//  Return Value:
//      None.
//
global proc cycleBackgroundColor(){

	// query bg color
	float $rgb[3] = `displayRGBColor -query background`;

	int $gradOn = `displayPref -q -displayGradient`;
	if ($gradOn)
	{
		displayRGBColor background 0 0 0;
		displayPref -displayGradient 0;
	}
	else
	{
		if ($rgb[0] == 0)
		{	
			displayRGBColor background 0.36 0.36 0.36;//default color
		}
		else if ($rgb[0] < 0.5)
		{
			displayRGBColor background 0.631 0.631 0.631;
		}
		else
		{
			displayPref -displayGradient 1;
		}
	}

	optionVar -intValue "displayViewportGradient" `displayPref -query -displayGradient`;
}

the mel call that sets default grey is

displayRGBColor background 0.36 0.36 0.36;//default color

so add that line to your tool

disclaimer: I do not know if this works in standalone

#3

Hey there!
I had already tried this. It doesn’t work, same as setting the attribute .backgroundColor of the camera shape.
I think this issue has to do with the fact that there is no real viewport since it is in standalone mode, causing the issue. I still don’t really know how to fix it.