Dismemberment and VATS:

I used the W coordinate of the UVW to designate which verts were drawn when a body was dismembered. Limbs were created as contiguous mesh surfaces with internal 'meat caps' extruded internally at the line of separation. On limb removal 2 havok meshes were then generated; body with meatcap but no limb and limb with meatcap but no body. To simplify animation, dismemberment equalled death. Additionally, the W coordinates were used to designate which parts of the mesh were highlighted when limbs were targeted.