Core Impact Framework (CIF)

The Core Impact Framework (CIF) is an advanced and modular overhaul of Skyrim's impact system, offering deep customization for effects related to weapons, spells, and their resulting actions. Through a hierarchical system of fully configurable filters and modifiers, CIF grants full control over impacts, taking into account criteria such as armor type, weapon used, target state, and more.

The framework enriches combat and immersion by introducing, for example, dynamic blood splatters and context-sensitive visual, sound, and physical effects. Each modder can fine-tune these interactions using the provided filters and modifiers.

Fully integrated into the game engine, CIF operates without plugins or scripts, ensuring optimal compatibility with all other mods. Comprehensive documentation is available to help you take full advantage of everything this framework has to offer.

Before diving into the Core Impact Framework's features, it's important to understand how Skyrim's default impact system works. The first diagram outlines this basic logic: when a hit lands, the game applies a standard impact effect based on the actor's material and weapon parameters, without much contextual consideration. This simple system allows no customization or situational adaptation.

The second diagram illustrates the CIF's logic in comparison. This framework introduces a complex and modular pipeline where each impact is analyzed through a series of hierarchical filters. These filters consider many parameters such as weapon type, armor, target state and more. Once the filters are validated, modifiers are applied to generate fully customized visual, sound, and physical effects.

This system provides unprecedented richness and precision in how impact effects are handled, giving modders total freedom to create dynamic, unique, and coherent (or not, your choice) combat experiences. While most filters and modifiers are presented in the diagram, modders are free to define only what they need. There is no requirement to fill them all in.

Besides the core features mentioned above, the Core Impact Framework includes a couple of bugfixes that you'll likely appreciate. These fixes are applied automatically when the framework is installed and do not require any JSON configuration or extra patches, unlike the customizable filter/modifier system mentioned earlier. There are two such fixes:

[*]Blood splatter texture fix: In vanilla Skyrim, blood splatter textures often suffer from UV mapping issues (incorrect sizing, abrupt cuts) and poor transparency ha