Guidelines for modeling weapons

#1 If anything, weapons modelling is probably one of the most prolific subjects in terms of 3D modelling tutorials. Do a google search, and you're likely to find more weapons tutorials than you can shake a stick at.

#2 A weapon can look like anything you want, can be any size you want. If you want to make a gun shaped like an Elephant, which shoots peanuts from its trunk, you can. There's no rule for size or shape... only the other day, I had the Torque Ork running around with a tank sized turret on his arm.. looked kindof funny, but possible. One of my weapons for my game is over 700 polys, hoping to reduce it somewheat for LOD, but there won't be too many of these in game, so I'm spending my time in other areas..

For it to function as a weapon, it needs nodes creating with specific names.

MuzzlePoint (where the ammo comes out)
MountPoint (where the player will hold the weapon) If ommited, defaults to 0,0,0 on the model.

There's an EjectPoint (where spent shells fly out.)

You can have (although I don't think they're required) animation sequences for weapons.
Fire, Activate, Reload, Deactivate, NoAmmo.

Loads of useful info about weapon nodes and others can be found here.
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=4273

Each weapon will need a script, I basically copied Crossbow.cs and modified it to suit.

Hope this helps.

#3 Thank you all very much for your help. I was doing this weapon ( www.itu.dk/people/annalize/polys_146.jpg ) the other day and i was told that the mesh was poorly made. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to how i can make it better?

Thanx, again :-)

#4 Well, at first glance, I'd say you have too many extrusions made to make what seems like a very simple shape. Technically, there's nothing wrong with that mesh, but there are far too many ploys used for what it is. You could reduce the amount of polygons used there by a lot.

I wouldn't get too upset about the model though, see if you can make it progressively better. Best way to learn.

What are you modelling in? Max? Blender?

#5 I'm modeling in Max 6.

#6 Oooh.. It's been a while since I did any 3Ds, your best bet I think is to find some on-line tutorials for modelling low poly meshes..

Bear in mind that unless your model is going to be in active view for a decent amount of time, all those polygons for details will be wasted.. Your best bet will be to make sure the outline of the model has the details you're interested in and texture the rest... otherwise, you end up with a massive model that when fitted to your army of soldiers, drags the whole game down to a snails pace.

If you were really pushing it, you could make a pistol model with about 20 faces... but it'd be the lowest resolution model you've ever seen.. essentially, 12 Vertices. Won't have a trigger or anything, but is it important? Could you get away with a flat surface with a texture of a trigger?..
24 faces and an extra 4 vertices..

Not good for the FPS close up mode but stuff to think about maybe.


Personally, I've found that Milkshape lets me make really low poly models easily.. just my tool of choice but it's good at what it does. Doesn't do all the stuff that MAX does, but then again, I don't need all the stuff that MAX does. ;-)

#7 Annelise that weapon looks kinda cool. Maybe what they would have used in Egypt if guns were invented back in the day.
-Ajari-

#8 Okay, so your guidelines would be:
- Keep the poly count as low as possible
- Make your details in the texture
- Make the silhouette as detailed as needed for the specific weapon (take in to consideration how much the weapon will be seen in game)

Am i correct?

#9 Basically..

Low poly as possible will keep the rendering speed high. You could include Levels of Detail if you wanted a more detailed version for close up work but for in the distance, it gets reduced to a much lower poly version.. That's all included in the exporter and there are tutorials on how do to that on the site.

Keep Details in the texture, Absolutely. There's little point in having every ridge and nut modelled.. Sure it'll look fantastic, but a good modeller can make a model look just as cool with decent textures.

I've read it on this very site from someone and they're right.. The eye is a clever bit of kit, it's good at working out what something is from its silhouette, the rest is just detail. So if something protrudes from the object, and is important for the recognition of the item, you have to build it into the model.. somehow.. it doesn't have to be a high poly protruding thingy.. just has to be the same shape.


If you can cheat, Cheat. If you can't get away with cheating, cheat as much as you can then add detail.

If the detail looks cooler in geometry than in textures and the detail is important, put it in the geometery, but remember, polys are expensive.. make sure they're worth it.

#10 Thanx, Ajari :-) And thanx for the tips Jason :-) I'll work on that .

#11 The problem isn't that you're using too many polygons (this doesn't look that bad to me, in that regard, you can probably use a couple more without any noticable issues). The problem is that you're using them in the wrong places, resulting in an awfully blocky looking model. If that was what you were going for I suppose that's fine (but in that case there are as others have said, a lot of polygons that really aren't needed).

Go look at some photos of guns, they of course won't look like YOUR gun, but it will give you an idea of how guns look in general. To me it feels a bit like this was modelled without that much thought put into it so I would suggest you spend some time "designing" your gun and really thinking about what all the varous parts are for, how the gun is held, etc. Everything just automatically gets better if it makes sense. This is true for any piece of art by the way.

Just some friendly pointers. In either case, good luck.

#12 Thanx, you've got some good points there. I'll try to do that :-)