Guidelines for shattering FX

What are the main techniques used for shattering geometry like walls or ceilings in Unity?

Can you pre-record a simulation of a wall shattering inside Unity?

Or do you bake a fancy simulation in Max/Maya and export your animation?

You could just add rigidbodies and detach shattered pieces of a ceiling from a gameobject with a trigger. Or use particles.

If you need it to smash into procedually generated bits, here’s a maths paper on it!