Raspberry Pi 3 as a tiny VJ platform

[Newk]

Hi,
I'm very new at this (programming and shaders) so please bear with me.
I am very fond of the compact form-factor of the RasPi and am having this idea to experiment on it with visual effects and 3d shapes that i could control over TCP/UDP. This could be hooked to a beamer to accompany a live-set of music (with automation directly from the music software) or other arty presentations.

Now i found this wonderfull thing GeeXLab and thought this could be it.
Because Urho3D and Panda3D are full game engines and seemed too overkill for the idea and harder to learn as a programming beginner.

Only with Pure Data i had a fairly easy programming experience.. but i'm willing to get into python for GeeXLab (ofc usefull skill  in general). GEM is a visual expansion on PureData but it does not work for RasPi and is severely dated  .

My first questions about GeeXLab are:
Can it run without the windows manager? (no XWindows, directly from terminal)
Can the whole screen resolution show nothing but the visual programmed? i looked at the demos and they all had descriptions on screen

Thank you!

Newk

[JeGX]

Can it run without the windows manager? (no XWindows, directly from terminal)
screen

I don't understand what do you mean. Do you mean you can start GeeXLab from the command line (with options)?

Can the whole screen resolution show nothing but the visual programmed? i looked at the demos and they all had descriptions on screen

Yes absolutely. All descriptions you can see on demos are just for information. You can control their rendering by code. Actually, you have to code the display of information, because GeeXLab does not do it for you. GeeXLab renders exactly what you have coded. It does not render things that you didn't code. Some demos use frameworks (like the kx framework) to make demos coding easier. But you are not forced to use them. You can code with the low level GeeXLab API (lua and python) or create your own framework/lib. You are free!
 

[Newk]

Without the windows manger, meaning to start your raspberry pi into command-line without doing "startx"
starting things over ssh and so..
or does geeXLab need windows and cannot display directly onto the framebuffer?
Because without would free up some resources running in the background that are not needed for a show.

good to know that it"s output is all up to the creator of the visuals 

[JeGX]

or does geeXLab need windows and cannot display directly onto the framebuffer?

GeeXLab for RPi exists in two versions: one with OpenGL 2.1 and one with OpenGL ES 2.0. GeeXLab with OpenGL 2.1 requires X11. GeeXLab for OpenGL ES 2.0 does not use a window manager, it renders the scene  directly in the framebuffer. Maybe you can try this version, and start GeeXLab and load scenes via command line.

In the code sample pack, you will find OpenGL ES 2.0 demos in the gles-20/ folder.