Looking for laser show software that can drive a video projector

[Horseflesh]

I want to do rear projection laser effects at my karaoke parties, but I don't yet have a laser, and frankly my home probably cannot be set up to safely operate one anyway. So, I want to start by using a video projector just to get a taste.

The kinds of things I want to do are exactly what Pangolin QuickShow does... Easy graphics and text design plus the ability to mash a button and play a queue. But I don't think QuickShow can output to a video projector. I believe Pangolin Beyond can, but it's $1000, which is more than I want to spend for an experiment.

If anyone knows of show software that can drive a monitor, I would love a pointer.

There must be something out there... It doesn't even need to be laser-specific, that's just the only starting point I can think of.

[swamidog]

the neon captain radiator can output directly to a video projector. it can also convert ilda signals from pangolin's quickly or beyond into hdmi video in real time. (disclaimer: i'm one of the creators, and sorry if this feels like spam)

there are a lot of other cool tools to drive video effects. on the software side there's synesthesia and resolume. on the hardware side, sleepy circuits hypno is really awesome as an effects processor. there's probably also some cool free or free-ish raspberry pi aps.

I want to do rear projection laser effects at my karaoke parties, but I don't yet have a laser, and frankly my home probably cannot be set up to safely operate one anyway. So, I want to start by using a video projector just to get a taste.

The kinds of things I want to do are exactly what Pangolin QuickShow does... Easy graphics and text design plus the ability to mash a button and play a queue. But I don't think QuickShow can output to a video projector. I believe Pangolin Beyond can, but it's $1000, which is more than I want to spend for an experiment.

If anyone knows of show software that can drive a monitor, I would love a pointer.

There must be something out there... It doesn't even need to be laser-specific, that's just the only starting point I can think of.

[Horseflesh]

Spam is great, I am looking for ideas! I'll check out all this stuff, thanks.

Hardware is probably not the right solution, though: what I really need most is just a way to push a button on a laptop or MIDI device, and for the projector to show "up next... Sandy!" That's actually much more important than visual effects, because I have some other lights already. But if VFX are available, I'll happily use them.

I can do that by just playing video clips, but I'm hoping to find software that will compose nice looking queues for me, and play them on command. I don't want to have to render all the videos myself, that's yet another hobby to learn. That's why show software like QuickShow seems like a good place to look.

[CountFunkula]

... what I really need most is just a way to push a button on a laptop or MIDI device, and for the projector to show "up next... Sandy!" That's actually much more important than visual effects, because I have some other lights already. But if VFX are available, I'll happily use them.

I can do that by just playing video clips, but I'm hoping to find software that will compose nice looking queues for me, and play them on command. I don't want to have to render all the videos myself, that's yet another hobby to learn. That's why show software like QuickShow seems like a good place to look.

It sounds a lot more like VJ-oriented software suits your needs rather than forcing vector art in an expensive, roundabout way with laser show-specific tools.
Any laser show application that has a dockable preview window can potentially send the output of that preview window to a video projector as if it were a monitor. Beyond's "emulaser" feature is oriented towards using a video projector to simulate audience scanning effects while actual laser is located in the safety zone.

Something like resolume would suit your needs right out of the box. You can pretty much bang together a rad queue with text/video/stills/whatever and tons of effects in seconds. You can assign them to a trigger grid and have at it! Resolume is a bit on the spendy side, but completely worth it if you're doing live video effects in any kind of professional capacity.

There are other commercial VJ packages out there, but you've also got the DIY route

Touch Designer/Quartz Composer/PureData/VVVVV and the like are all modular visual dataflow programming environments for multimedia. You can build whatever crazy triggered generative Audio/Video/DMX/OSC/Laser effect machine you can imagine and implement. The learning curve is much steeper than something like resolume, but you'll learn a lot and it costs only time and effort...except for Touch Designer when you hit the "i'm actually making money with this!" level- then the commercial level licensing kicks in over the free one.

[Horseflesh]

"VJ software" sounds like my next keyword search.

I just spent the last hour with Synesthesia and it's not exactly what I was imagining, but it may be serviceable. I can make PNGs of whatever text I want, and overlay them on scenes that give them some life. The mix is often pretty ugly but there are some scenes in the defaults that work out pretty well.

I guess I was focused on vector software just because laser projectors were my first interest in the field overall, and what I saw of QuickShow looked super easy to use.