yah it would be a mess to support 'dynamic seperation'. splitting mesh triangles by a plane is simple enough in theory, but u wouldn't be able to pre-compute any of the interpolated texture and normal coordinates for the split triangles. it would take quite a while to do real-time.

also, if u have other engine elements such as skeletal animation it would be a nightmare to dynamically choose with bones to assign new triangles to (or point weighting for soft skinning).

thought of a possibility: detect the entry and departure points of the cutting object, then calculate the nearest point with one of the coordinates an integer(x,y,or x) for each. Then use a few more of these semi-integral points and add one more in the middle, then connect them like this

0
0 - 0
- -0
0 i
0 0

and so on, just making triangles with those points and the center, animation is a moot point because the guy will be dead, with limbs I can use one of the mentioned methods

A plane slice would not be that bad. But unless you don't care about detail, the inside "guts" will be a nightmare. You could just simply generate polys over the holes and slap an "organ" texture on it, but it would probably be difficult to make it look decent. Or, slack off detail and just paint it red / black.

Unfortunately, my zombies can still animate after they get torn up. I was thinking of just making about 2-3 splice points on each arm / leg, and have "guts" props standing by. When a peice gets torn, just lock a gut prop to the bone that should control it, and avoid rendering the material id of the sliced off section afterwards. It may be possible to make a quick mesh-copy of the material to allow it to bounce around the room, or I could just model seperate limbs.

Fortunately, I'm not going "Return of the Living Dead" on it, and I don't have to worry about arms trying to come after the player :)

sort of want it to look like kill bill, was just planning to slap a texture on it and do a good job with the particle system

game will be a sword based game, so all cuts will pretty much be plane cuts

Have you played Blade of Darkness? Its like 5-10 bux at most stores now and is a vastly underrated game of this type. It has the features you mention, though I think the cut points were pre-set.

Highly recommended game though. And remember, the Knight w/ elven sword is best.