I am making a sidescroller where the user has a pistol as a primary weapon. I have a few questions about guns in games and whatnot, how they function operate etc.. Im thinking a glock here... When a pistol is fired, how fast does a bullet travel? Would there be a noticable delay, or is it almost instant from a gunshot to being hit by a bullet? When a pistol is fired, how much force comes back at the user? Is it enough to make the aim slightly off, or is it very controllable? How many bulets are in a clip? Realisticaly, would it frustrate a user to loose bullets, if you prematurely reload? i.e. You fire off 3, and you reload, you drop the clip, so the bullets in the clip are not recoverable, so every time you reload it eats 8 bullets lets say, or if you run out, it will reload automatically. How fast and a glock fire? IS there a huge delay between shots? or just a small one, or almost none? I know i have more questions too, but cant think of any.

Is this a game or a simulation? Look at existing side scrollers. None have realistic pistols/bullet speeds because it doesn't make for fun gameplay.

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Original post by justinrwalsh When a pistol is fired, how fast does a bullet travel?

I'm assuming you're up close and personal when you're shooting it, so it'd be pertty much instantaneous as far as you're concerned. But if you want a breakdown, here's a site that breaks down different .45 caliber velocities.

click

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Original post by justinrwalsh Would there be a noticable delay, or is it almost instant from a gunshot to being hit by a bullet?

It's pretty much instant. Unless you're shooting at something a ways out there, at which point, it's pretty inaccurate.

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Original post by justinrwalsh When a pistol is fired, how much force comes back at the user? Is it enough to make the aim slightly off, or is it very controllable?

This all depends on bullet size, and which gun you're firing. A heavier pistol will have less kick. Also, rigid steel frames (like revolvers) will have more kick than a glock, which is build with special polymers to absorb the shock.

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Original post by justinrwalsh How many bulets are in a clip?

Again, this all depends on the gun.
Here's some glock pistols you can look at to figure out what they can hold.

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Original post by justinrwalsh Realisticaly, would it frustrate a user to loose bullets, if you prematurely reload? i.e. You fire off 3, and you reload, you drop the clip, so the bullets in the clip are not recoverable, so every time you reload it eats 8 bullets lets say, or if you run out, it will reload automatically.

Maybe you could come back to a partially emptied clip? Like when you reload your last clip, it cycles back to the first, or any other clip you have that has bullets in it?

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Original post by justinrwalsh How fast and a glock fire? IS there a huge delay between shots? or just a small one, or almost none?

As fast as you can pull the trigger ;-) I've shot quite a few glocks as well as quite a few different hand guns, and this is always the case. Although, with double action pistols IE most revolvers, you lose alot of accuracy when you do this, since you have a longer trigger pull. But you really shouldn't worry about that in a game.

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Original post by justinrwalsh I know i have more questions too, but cant think of any.

Sounds like you just need to get some guns and hit a range. ;-) Or if you're in the US the NRA offers pistol classes in some towns that you could take. They teach safety as well as marksmanship. (Which wouldn't be a bad idea if you've never shot before).

Hope this helps!

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Original post by Obscure Is this a game or a simulation? Look at existing side scrollers. None have realistic pistols/bullet speeds because it doesn't make for fun gameplay.

I agree. In fact, I remember games like Netwar, Fireteam, and Infantry where you were, in a lot of ways, fighting in "bullet time". Clip sizes, firing rates, bullet speeds, etc. weren't realistic, but darn fun!

I only say this because side scrollers aren't known for realism (in Scooby Doo, I always wondered why they were caught when someone came from the left and right; why not just run at the viewer?). However, feel free to make this bit realistic.

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Original post by justinrwalsh Realisticaly, would it frustrate a user to loose bullets, if you prematurely reload? i.e. You fire off 3, and you reload, you drop the clip, so the bullets in the clip are not recoverable, so every time you reload it eats 8 bullets lets say, or if you run out, it will reload automatically.

This is how the ammo system works in the brilliant(in my opinion) Quake 3 mod Urban Terror. If you reload before you use all the ammo in your clip you lose the remaining. Takes a bit to get used to but makes it a much better game in my opinion.

From the point of view of the target, he gets hit before he even hears the gunshot as in a lot of cases the bullet travels faster than the speed of sound.

Realistic guns/bullet speed can still be fun in 3D because it is quite easy to miss the target. You can code the AI to miss the first couple of shots or just wing the player, thus giving them a chance to spot the enemy and return fire. This is something they forgot to do in the sniper level of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. The result was a very tedious level where you look around a corner and the AI enemy killed you immediately.

Transfer to a 2D (side veiw) game and it becomes almost impossible to miss. With players and bullets limited to a 2D plane of existence the only way to miss would be to shoot over the players head, at the ground infront of their feet or if there was an object in the way.

What model of glock are we talking. THe most recognized Glock is the 18C which is in counter strike except it is slightlu modified. In CS it has burst fire and semi auto in reality it actually has Auto and semi auto with a 20 round clip. It uses 5.7mm rounds which is the same as a p90. It would be sweet to make a somewhat realistic side scroller where you could use a P90 and a glock 18C. I think it would be cool to lose bullets if you reload prematurely that way if you were running low on rounds in your clip while there was a horde of enemies attacking you could switch to the glock and kill the rest then stop and reload. It would also be nice to have a shotgun but thats stretching the original concept. Will this game use old school graphics or 3d models?

Edit: I'm not personally a coder but what does it take to code a game like this. The only reason I'm here is because I'm interested in game design. I've had some experience in the past programming in basic and HTML but HTML really isn't the same and my basic coding was years ago. I can look at code and understand it partially just because technical things make sense to me and I understand logic behind the code but looking at source code from quake is beyond me but this doesn't seem like it would be nearly that complex.

Fastolfe:

The game is set to use a mix between a few graphics style's but mostly a hand drawn or sprited pixel look. the "Arcade" look.

As for multiple weapons, i was actually thinking of the main character as a psitol toeting vigilante, and he only used a pistol, pstol whipped, and kicked people as attaks.

To code a 2d sidescroller, that of wich i have never done before, i would suggest... (This is what i am doing)...

C++ as the language (I'm a whore for classes)
OpenGL for a graphics API
and either SDL, or win32/DirectX for audio, windowing, input, etc.

Then just think of the things you will need to code...
A map or tile system, a sprite system, in my case a particle system. Then try coding small things, like a scrolling map demo, a walking sprite demo, etc.. until you get where you feel good enough to start a big project.


Obscure:

I would say in a 2d game you could still miss, even if you target the guy... Lets say you implement something like, the further away from a baddie you are, the greater a chance to fire off a shot that misses. so you could be shooting and 17/20 shots could hit him, even if he is just sitting there, then maybe consider a moving target harder to hit and increase the miss factor.

Everyone else...

Thanks for your help.