It’s an interesting thread, but I’m not following this. If the chops are material based, do you mean that the cut created on the tree trunk is (similar to) a position offset created in the material itself? Then what about showing the insides of the tree?
I’d probably make a tree model out of parts (all the parts that can be chopped puzzled together). Then on the tree actor, when the tree is hit I’d measure which mesh part should be removed. Then when X parts are removed, “drop the tree” using a single bone on a skeletal mesh.
If the tree is going to be replaced, shouldn’t it be inexpensive to have only the replacing actor spawn using a skeletal mesh?
I’m thinking of that game “The Forest”. You can chop trees and at some points (say, you just detect X amount of hits) half the tree falls, in the direction the character is facing. When the tree hits the ground, Y amount of logs are spawned. Seems to me like a skeletal mesh is the way to go for a single tree instead of a physics based (static mesh) solution which can glitch more easily?