BetterF3 Guide: Hiding HUD Elements and Managing Startup

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BetterF3 is a utility mod that replaces the standard Minecraft debug screen with a customizable interface. To access all of its configuration options, press F3 + Q at any time. This opens the main settings panel where you can adjust every feature described below.

Hiding Interface Elements

When the F3 debug menu is open, you can choose to suppress several on-screen components that would normally remain visible.

Hide the Debug Crosshair – This option removes the small crosshair marker from the center of the screen while the F3 HUD is displayed. Toggle it on to get an unobstructed view of the debug text.
Hide the sidebar – Enable this to make the scoreboard sidebar disappear whenever the F3 menu is active.
Hide the bossbar – Use this to conceal the boss health bar that appears at the top of the screen during boss fights or when a wither is present. It only hides the bar while the debug HUD is open.

Adjusting Animation Speed

The mod includes a visual effect when the F3 HUD opens or closes. You can control both whether this animation plays and how fast it runs.

Add an animation – Turn on this setting to make the debug menu slide or fade in and out instead of appearing instantly.
Set the speed of the animation – Once animations are enabled, use this slider to determine how quickly the HUD transitions. A higher value makes the movement faster; a lower value makes it slower.

Controlling Auto-Start and Profiler Options

Several settings determine what happens automatically when you launch the game or press F3.

Automatically starts the debug menu – If enabled, the F3 HUD will open by itself as soon as the game world loads. You do not need to press any key to see it.
Always enable the profiler – This forces the profiler (the performance measurement tool) to run every time you open the F3 menu, rather than requiring you to activate it manually.
Always enable the TPS graph – With this on, the ticks-per-second graph appears in the debug HUD whenever F3 is pressed. Note that you cannot have both the TPS graph and the ping graph active at the same time.
Always enable the ping graph – Similarly, this forces the network ping graph to show in the F3 HUD. It is mutually exclusive with the TPS graph, so enabling one will disable the other.

Other Useful Options

The settings menu also provides several general toggles and adjustments for how the HUD looks and behaves.

Disables the mod – If you turn this off, BetterF3 stops working entirely and the vanilla Minecraft F3 screen returns.
Adds a space after each module – This inserts a blank line between every section of the debug text, making it easier to read.
Makes all characters have a shadow effect – This gives the text a dark outline or drop shadow for better visibility against bright backgrounds.
Set the scale of the font – Adjust this to make the debug text larger or smaller on your screen.
Memory Color Toggle – When enabled, the memory usage value changes color based on how much memory is currently in use. Low usage shows one color, while high usage shifts to a warning color.
Set the format of the system time – This controls how the clock in the debug HUD displays the current time, such as 24-hour versus 12-hour format.
Enables this module – Each individual section of the HUD has its own toggle. Turn off any module you do not want to see.
The number of empty lines to display – This lets you add extra blank rows between specific modules to space out the information.

Additional Hotkeys

Beyond the main settings key, the mod supports several other quick actions that are listed in its help section:

F3 + F cycles the render distance, and holding Shift reverses the direction.
F3 + F + Ctrl cycles the simulation distance, also reversible with Shift.
F3 + M opens the BetterF3 options menu directly.

You can rebind any of these actions in the standard controls menu if the default keys do not suit you.