Im not sure if this is already intended but their it would be a good quality for the game engine if it could bend items and duplicate the mesh and texture of objects to make it seem as though an ingame object was broken. Like cloning small rocks from part of a rock that recives a certain amount of collison force and the mesh being damaged so it bends inwards.

This would be good for ingame mining features of rpg's and destroying walls and homes to make it seem better. If it interupts the game then it is possible to auto load the territory or broken object when the player leaves the area to undo the damage after a time so it seems as though a town has been rebuilt.

Not sure if its a good idea but it could also brake the top off a tree? so that it is no longer defined as a tree but a tump with the top lying beside it.

Although this may be difficult, I am not an experienced programmer (not even amauter yet!) as it may involve a lot of work.

i really like destructable environments maybe some research should be done into how to do this, rather not replacing objects with another object but actually making an object group that has a destructable variable and then setting up parent and child objects within that group..

Maybe?
What do you think?

engine provide lots of control into the objects, and general freedom

for example you can make a destructable house using multiple house parts (Actors) combined with Joints and break force set.

you can replace textures simply

meshes too

if you need specific features please write a little more details about it.

do you think you could come up with a tutorial on how to change a mesh..

e.g hitting a box and it breaks into pieces, after x amount of punches...

changing a mesh is simple, it just needs reassigning objects mesh with another

obj.mesh=Meshs("other mesh.mesh")

but if you want to break an object into pieces, you can just delete the object, and in place of it create several new object "pieces of the box"

i will try it then post an update

i am not an expert but i think that lucifer1101 is right about having a group of meshs, and then give it a durability variable or such, or a variable that determines how much force that should be aplied to the object before it takes damage...
then if it is hit by the amount of force that is needed, take the peaces from eachother and let physics handle each of them individually.

or even simpler: you could just make a breaking animation to play, when the object gets hit, or shot at...
of cause this wouldnt apply any physics to the objects :/

but i know its imlpemented in the new Cry engine, so its definitly possible...

im sorry Esenthel but i dont even know where to start, im kinda new to programming.