Two weapons, two arms, sync and async firing, best approach?

this is more of a methodology or conceptual question.

im making a fps character model (hands for holding guns) in 3ds max, i want the player to be able to hold two different weapons at once, i want the left weapon to fire when left mouse click, and right weapon to fire on right mouse click. both weapons can be fired independetly of each other but could also be playing at the same time.

each arm ‘could’ be recoiling at different rates and even using different animations.

what is the best approach for making the skeletal mesh for this? should i make one skeletal mesh for both arms or one for each arm? is it more intensive to have two instead of one?

I actually do this in my game (not dual weapons, but each arm is independent of the other one).

I just use a Layered Blend per Bone. This way, I can have independent animations but just disable it with blend alpha when I want a single animation for both arms.

I have an Anim Slot for each arm and another one at the end for animations that use both arms. The problem with having two different meshes is that it might be hard to sync animations if you ever decide to use them together unless you use a master skeleton and child skeleton, which just kills the idea of two different meshes.

For simplicity I’d go with seperate arms. It makes it easier to play stuff like anim montages and other stuff, but you need to set up double. You can set it up with them combined, but you would need to do it differently. It all depends on your skillevel and workflow.