Is it in the .ini? I've read the posts of players who say that Skyrim is more enjoyable without having to eye a quest marker instead of the land before you. This does make sense, Grand Theft Auto suffered the same problem. Also, learning to recognize the landscape sounds challenging and rewarding to me.

I can turn the hud off by making it transparent in settings, but I lose the health meter and can't see the name of the person I'm speaking to. Not ready for that step, yet. Just want to turn off the compass for now. And then later, maaaaybe the hud as well.

Good luck. Some quests don't even name your destination...

bShowCompass=0

This line is in the [Interface] section of SkyrimPrefs.ini.
If you having problems just download this simple mod:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1914

yep totally I do not know how people play hudless maybe If you wander it would be fine but if your doing quests it would be very frustrating

Nothing to do with turning the compass off.

He could just use the claravoyence spell

This is from a post by Elricwulf from another thread. Hope it helps.

set "ShowCompass = 0" in SkyrimPrefs.ini
set "Immersive HUD" option on in game prefs
get this mod -> http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11135 (hope Whickus appreciates all this advertising!)
Set your HUD opacity on whatever you want (mine is set to 40-50%)
(oh, and turn your crosshair off, if you so choose)

Going without a compass is rewarding. No more red dots and no more icons lets you focus on your environment. Glad you are giving it a try.

No need to go completely HUDless if you are on a PC. I am on a console and I have found the benefits of no HUD to be worth sacrificing the status bars. But if I were on a PC, I would definately just fine tune the HUD through the ini and mods.

You can always check the Quest Arrows in your Map if you get lost. You don't need Quest Arrows in your Compass/HUD to play the game. I don't. And I've never used the Clairvoyance spell either.

I've modded my map to be better than the default one though: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/ActionDragon/Skyrim/Map.jpg (No clouds blocking the view etc.)

Yeah, the claravoyance spell is a lot more enjoyable with no compass. Plus it fails sometimes which is a nice touch to make you feel like it is a "spell" and not just another form of quest arrow.

Here's a link to the http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3222. When you install it using the Nexus Mod Manager, it'll present you with a variety of options for turning on or off the HUD features. It's a great mod!

Job.

the markers are still shown on the map. so you look at that and then figure it out.


the only downside is the detail in the quest log is pretty lacking too.

Double post.

...the op said he was turning the compass off. And you're saying that the markers still show on the map and I can keep the rest of the hud?
whoops. Double post. Let me clarify. Is it possible to JUST turn off the compass and not the rest of the hud or the map markers? Edit: I see the op is on PC. I'm console.. I think our only option is hud or no hud. We can turn off quest markers but then there is often no way to know where to go.

I also went with no compass/crosshair last night. You can still see quest objectives from the map, but to me, that is realistic. You have to 'pull your map out' and look at it to get an idea of where you are going if you don't know the surrounding area.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3222&navtag=file/images.php?id=3222&tab=3]Download Immersive HUD[/url]

I gets rid of the HUD when you don't need it, but when you're in a fight, it will show your health, stamina, magicka.

Also, when you enter sneak, you'll see the compass, so you can head off to your destination that way. IF you have NMM and you want to be hardcoe, you can disable it all permanently!!

Unfortunately on a console your choice is HUD or no HUD (or turn the HUD down so you cannot see it very well, but that doesn't work well for me). There is no way to turn just the compass off on a console.

If you leave the HUD on, you can turn quest markers off, but you still get the icons and enemy red dots on your compass and you have got no way to know where you are going most of the time due to inadequate in-game directions. One solution for folks who like to explore is to turn quest markers on just long enough to do a map check and then turn them off while you explore.

If you turn off the HUD, you can leave quest markers on and either use Clairvoyance or do periodic map checks to figure out where you are going. The drawback is you loose your status bars and all on screen text if you turn off the HUD.

Instead of more kill cams (or in addition to them), I really wish the DLC would give us better options to fine tune the HUD because there are a lot of folks playing on a console who would like to enjoy the benefits of going HUDless without loosing the status bars.

So far (since I need my health bars, I tried NO HUD and all I do is worry about health) low opacity works well. I can still see things I want and ignore the things I don't want to see.

That works for some folks. I tried that for a while but found it did not work for me. I could still see some of the stuff I did not want to see against certain backgrounds. And when I wanted to see my status bars I had to squint instead of keeping an eye on them subconsciously with my peripheral vision.

Just putting out there as an option (since we have few) if someone still wants to see there health.

Someone should make a mod so it just marks the spot on your map and not on the hud. I like how Two Worlds 2 does it and you can just put a flag marker on the spot where you need to go. Following arrows everywhere is so dumbed down and for the simple people.

Yep, I turned mine down a little but found that too much just made things worse -- for me -- becuase it made it so much harder to see the things I want to see. Personally, though, I don't have much of an immersion problem with the compass. I frequently just activate a quest long enough to see where it is on the map, then turn it off so it doesn't appear on the compass.

To be honest, I don't really pay that much attention to the compass unless I'm lost, so most of its "cheat" aspects (enemies, undiscovered locations, etc.) aren't relevant for me. That's also one of the reasons (the other being simple immersion) I have the music turned off -- I don't want to know enemies are around unless my character does. I'm too busy looking at the world and listening to its sounds to find a small box at the top of the screen terribly relevant.

I might try hudless. I hate the compass. I wish there were a way to turn off my location indicator on the map. It's more fun to flag a location and figure out where you are relative to your objective, using the landscape rather than GPS.

I'd agree with you if you could actually zoom in a reasonable amount when looking at the map.

I know some people hide the compass with tape or stuff. I'm actually thinking about it. Maybe tape a sheet of paper on the top of the TV that covers the compass only and can be easily removed. Haven't tried it though. I still want to have the health bars.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11135

the lack of explanation is fixed in a large part of that mod.