I would like to see the implementation of certain materials such as plastic engine covers and such being able to shatter into pieces upon intense and dramatic stress. such as hitting a tree at speed or a wall. Notice how many bits and pieces of shattered plastic and glass materials scatter from this impact If you guys can manage to implement these physics somehow, I believe it would help secure the popularity of this game for years to come.
I'm sorry to tell it, but it's too complicated and would use way too much compute power. Imagine simulating this millions of bits 2000 times per sec etc. This may be visually improved by particles system but not as much as this. But personally I like it the way it is, I can admire crashes in 100slow-mo without particles covering all the scene as example from past.
Perhaps it would be possible to have wood that can crack/split at random places upon impact. How the cracks would form could depend on how the object is hit, from where, how much force is involved. . . At the moment, all materials behave very much like metal, so if there were ever a wooden prop, a random fragmentation system would be cool to simulate splintering. Probably too much CPU strain to have dozens of fractured pieces, but 3 or four pieces might be possible. I don't know if any of that is possible, but it would add some nice realism.
That, i'd suggest, is something best done with a 'crack' texture being applied, and perhaps a bump-map. the way it's applied can trick into thinking it's random.
The shattering is going to have to be faked for the sake of performance. It could be faked using a particle system and transparent hole textures on the car. Also paint scratches would add to the effect.
