general 3d acceleration question

[volumetricsteve]

I'm working on a project where I'm hoping to set up an arcade-style system to play a game.  Above all else, my first goal is to try and nail down how you interface with the system.  Like you would expect from an arcade cabinet, you power it on and you might see a quick diagnostic check, then it goes directly into the game.  Previously, when I'd done this with windows XP, you could replace the windows shell with a game (let's say quake 2) and it would just boot right into that game.  Granted, this is still loading GUI libraries even if it's not loading explorer.exe.

When I got more involved with linux, I started to wonder if I could have it boot from the bootloader, to command line, then directly into the game of choice without first loading X, Gnome, KDE or the like.  Is 3d acceleration in linux built-into or dependent upon those windowing systems?  If a windowing environment is required for 3d acceleration...what would be the smallest one to start with?

Thanks for your feedback!

[curaga]

Games generally require X, but a window manager is not required. You can replace the WM with your game for a similar boot as your Windows example.

[volumetricsteve]

I was just chatting with a friend who suggested the same thing.  I'm not entirely sure what terms I should google for; just basic X setup?  Thanks!

[mocore]

I'm not entirely sure what terms I should google for; just basic X setup?  Thanks!

A good start might be
wiki.tinycorelinux :the_boot_process#summaryscripts_sequence
or even http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_startup_process
http://files.kroah.com/lkn/lkn_pdf/ch09.pdf - 'Kernel Boot Command-Line Parameter Reference'