I just figured out how to turn off the Compass, it increases Immersion by 100% because you truly start NEEDING Roads and Signs and you dont automaticly know where the Enemys are coming from.

In order to turn your compass off go to Settings then Display and turn off your HUD.

Note: this will also make it so you can't see your Healthbar as well but i like it better this way anyway.

I also would like to point out how many people were Begging for Bethesda to give the players this Option.

I tried this, but to be honest it just annoyed me. I hope we don't go back to Morrowind, where you have to spend ages trying to find out where to go. Besides, subtitles and your attribute bars go with it, and it's even more annoying without them.

Bump if no one else replies i'll let it drown.

I always turn it off Best little inmersion tweak you can ever get.

A lot of people have figured out by now how much turning off the HUD improves the game.

In fact, it's such a huge improvement that i'd consider turning off the HUD a fix for a serious game flaw, rather than just an optional improvement. Bethesda should patch the game immediately so that the HUD is off by default, and a warning message should come up when you try to put it back on saying that doing so will be detrimental to the gaming experience.

lol you might be right, but i dont think all the Newbs would be able to handle Skyrim without a HUD, only hardcoe RPers who played Morrowind can dig it.

However i am frustrated no one told me i could turn off my HUD i mean i must have played hours with that ANNOYING COMPASS!

Also is there a way to turn off the combat music without turning off the Backround music?, i find it Immersion breaking to automaticly know somones Sniping me because of the Combat music, however i also dont want to turn off there awsome theme music.

"detrimental to the gaming experience." Really? Come on now, I agree that I like the compass off some of the time, but not everyone devotes as much time as others to "immerse themselves" into a game. Some people just want to have fun killing everything. It's all opinion, but you can't say that a compass is detrimental to everyone.

I would love this if it didn't take my reticle away as well. just makes sniping a pain in the a**. but I agree, it increases immersion tenfold when you're just roaming or anything non-combat oriented (IMO anyways)

They think they're 'elite' and 'a real hardcoe RPGer' because they play without their compass like the cool kids. Sigh ...

Wasn't going to put it quite so bluntly, but yeah, that's basically it.

Completely agree - disabling the compass greatly improves enjoyment of the game.

However, you don't need to turn off the HUD's health/magicka/stamina bars, which disappear anyways unless you are taking damage. Simply open SkyrimPrefs.ini and change "bShowCompass=1" to "bShowCompass=0"

Before I disabled the compass, I would often chase after any new black location icon that popped up. Now I find that exploration is much more enjoyable, and you can find your way to various locations by consulting your map before embarking and identifying landmarks and visual cues in the landscape such as rivers, hills, terrain, forts, etc. Huge improvement, especially when combined with http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=13685 and http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=13056

I would caution anyone trying this not to do this for the very first playthrough at least until after you find High Hrothgar. (Would have taken me ages to find it the very first time without the compass.)


It's not about being "elite" or super hardcoe - it simply makes the game a lot more fun, at least for me.

You need a lesson in HCI 101

Might try that! but methinks seekrath will "accidently" use the map

Turning off the compass does indeed do a lot to immersion and also rewards exploration a bit more then the current system do. My last playthrough was with compass off, the current one is with it on. Except for questmarkers those are disabled on the hud.

However I do see the advantage with having the compass on as it does make exploration easier if your goal is to have a playthrough where all places are found, there is still a good amount of areas that hasn't been put on the compass so you still have to explore to find some of the more interesting things. But it all boil down to personal preferences.

@skullmuncher: I used to put it a bit more subtly, but some people just get on my nerves that much. I'm fine with people saying 'it's nice without the HUD' or whatever, but people who go so far as to say 'You HAVE to play without the HUD, and Bethesda should warn you about how terrible the game is with it on' are just ... Argh!

@BootySweat: for most people it's not, but for some it is. Perhaps I was a little rude, I admit, but some people take it too far with this whole 'you have to play like me' thing.

Hmm, i can't say i agree but i see where your coming from.
I wish they could turn off individual stuff like in AC, but if i could ONLY turn off Compass i would.

And i don't think they would make it Off by default, so much little kids and newbies would complain, they just need to add individual HUD settings for immersive gamers.

I'm quite certain "most people" have not tried disabling the compass, so it would be inaccurate to claim most people who play Skyrim would enjoy or dislike it.

When folks say "you have to try this," it's more about their excitement over discovering something that made the game more fun to play (for them). We are all eager to share our little discoveries and tips, etc.

I refuse to turn off the HUD because doing so hurts immersion for me, simply because it separates me from my character. I no longer have the information I should, like how much I'm hurt or how tired I am, or even the cardinal directions, something I memorize whenever I wind up in a new area so I have at least a basic understanding of where I am in the world.

The only things I'd like to remove is the black icons on the compass telling me that something's just over the hill unless it's been marked by an NPC. Even the red dots on the compass don't bother me that much because it's a way of translating visually information I should have access to but don't because of limitations (your character has NO peripheral vision, I don't have surround sound, etc).

The compass + markers are among the most detrimental features you can include in an open-world. It completely undermines the whole concept of being in a believable world.

If people buy TES games just to "have fun killing everything" that's fair enough, but the game should primarily be aimed at fans of open-world RPGs. Hand-holding features like compass markers should be an option that can be turned on, not a feature of the game by default that quests are designed around. Having such features on by default really is like shipping the game out in inferior mode.

It's got absolutely nothing to do with elitism. Stop acting so threatened.

There's nothing 'hardcoe' or 'elite' about playing without compass markers. It's just how the game should be by default.

I don't think I would enjoy playing without the HUD, either, as it's helpful to know when your magicka, stamina or health are low, or when your shout cooldown has expired. I find the HUD to be rather unintrusive as the bars disappear once you are at full strength.

If you are playing on PC, you can disable the compass by itself by changing one line in your SkyrimPrefs.ini file.

I'm on the PS3, although I'm toying with the idea of getting a new desktop and one that could run this game reasonably well with a few mods if the stars align.

i tried but did not like it. picking up objects are annoying and i dont know if i steal or take them when i do. Also having no health bare is annoying as all of sudden i would just die by an enemie finishing move even when my screen was not red. If i was on PC i would just take off the compass but sadly i play on my xbox :/ I wish they make more options regarding this. Tod said the expansions were also made to make the gameplay better and maybe they will do something about it

My only wish is to turn off compass but leave everything else on

I'd like to turn off the directions, but not the where the enemies are coming from.

If I could do it without getting rid of everything I would turn it off.

Also turning down the brightness makes the game more immersive IMO

To be fair, there is a difference between being excited about/sharing something and saying that they discovered the way the game was truly meant to be played by all. I respect an opinion, but to say that the default settings should be adjusted to accomodate a minority opinion is ridiculous. I agree that it annoys me when people decide to play their game in a particular fashion and proceed to wave it around like they play the game true to how it is meant to be. Also, calling a standard game feature that nearly ever game of this fashion has (the compass) a "serious game flaw" is quite preposterous.