Any Ideas for the floating weapon icons killing the immersion?

I've been getting a lot of feedback on moddb about the weapon Icon that floats above the dropped weapon kills immersion to the authentic, Future war experience. The original intent for the Icon is to prevent the player spending five minutes looking for a dropped weapon in a pile of skulls or rubble. But I have been getting complaints about the effect causing issue to presentation. do any of you guys have an Idea for a solution. do you want to waste minutes digging through rubble to find that sweet weapon. or do you want funny icons floating in the battlefield. or do you have an Idea that solves both. I have an Idea to solve both, but I want to hear what you guys think.

Do that thing where dropped weapons just fall but have a sort of white shine that flows over them every second or so just to highlight where they are. I think GoW might do it but I can't remember any games that use the system off the top of my head.

Alternatively just make sure the gun texture isn't too similar to the ground (e.g. guns are actually black, ground is a sort of cracked tar or dirt) and have it so the physical form is easy to see then just let them fall and leave 'em.

Well, you could do the GOW style weapon shine. But you could also sell out and put the obligatory sci fi LEDS on all the weapons.

BUT Maybe there's a way you could integrate that floating icon into reality? Or execute it in a more believable fashion? Maybe there could be a hud button you hold and an Aliens marine style eye piece comes down and tells you your ammo count, equipment, and a marker for all the weapons on the ground. It would be nice to change the pace if you had to stop and look (but not hard) for dropped weapons. Another way could be to have a hologram projector miraculously built into every pick up in the game like the armor abilities in Halo Reach.