Weapons for Games

My weapons aren’t actually suitable for game use (except maybe for something like Escape From Tarkov, which focuses heavily on the mechanisms inside of weapons) because I model all the internals and break up parts for better exploded displays. For most games, you will never see the insides so it’s important that you only build what the player can see, and plug holes that give visibility into unimportant parts of the inside of the weapon.

Triangle count will vary between studio to studio; I use 30,000 tris as an upper bound for a first-person weapon and aim for 20,000. This is a tricount I have seen at several studios, but I have also seen ones that go far higher and far lower. Lower triangle counts are sometimes for efficiency on multiple platforms, and sometimes because the weapon can have many attachments which themselves add a large number of triangles.

Readability is accomplished in much the same way as it is in any other design process. A strong hierarchy of forms, colors, and values is important to make the design easier to read to the human brain. I don’t focus on this a lot with my real-life firearms, but for my design work, I focus on it heavily. A good way to learn these principles is to study graphic design and typography. All of the same rules apply, but it’s easier to learn on a 2D plane.

Authenticity is accomplished by understanding your source material. If you are designing a weapon for a normal human body, it’s important to understand how weapons work, and why they are designed the way they are. This includes layout and ergonomics. If you design a weapon that is too big to be easily held, cannot be aimed correctly or has proportions out of line with its size/type it will feel wrong.

I really like what the futuristic Call of Duty weapons have been doing for authenticity. They feel believable, even if they have bonkers functionality. One example that I really like is the laser rifle that can be split into two pistols from Infinite Warfare.

The only animator I have ever worked with on firearms is myself, so I can’t really speak to production stuff like that.