Some users of recent Nvidia graphics cards have reported flickering graphics. Our older games use OpenGL, and Nvidia appears to have made a change which keeps OpenGL graphics from displaying correctly. Until they fix their drivers, we do have a few workarounds. You can choose between these three workarounds:

1. Play the game in windowed mode instead of fullscreen. In Settings, you can set the game to ask whether to be in windowed mode or not, at launch.
2. If you have an Intel chip, you can force the game to run using built-in Integrated Graphics instead of the Nvidia graphics card. You should still get good performance.
   To make this change:
   
   1. Open C: / Program Files (x86) / Spiderweb Software / Avernum - Escape From the Pit
   2. Right click on Avernum.exe
   3. Select Run with graphics processor - Integrated Graphics
      (From this list, on systems with Nvidia graphics cards, for each executable you can set which graphics card it uses.)
3. Run the DirectX version of the game. The DirectX executable will be in the game folder in C: / Program Files (x86) / Spiderweb Software. If you have any issue finding it, contact us to get a download link to the DirectX version from our own site.

Occasionally, the versions of Avernum being sold on 3rd party sites (like Steam and GamersGate) for Windows do not work correctly. This can be because of a system incompatibility with their software or problems running OpenGL.

Should you purchase the game from Steam/Direct2Drive/GamersGate and find that it does not work correctly, take the following steps.

1. Download and install the Avernum demo from our web site. The DirectX version ships with this version of the game.
2. Go into your Avernum folder (Located in: Program Files/Spiderweb Software/Avernum - Escape From the Pit") and run "Avernum DirectX.exe". This version should work.
3. If you are still having problems, contact us at support@spiderwebsoftware.com.

We apologize for the difficulty and inconvenience, and we'll do what we can to get you up and running.

If you are using 64-bit Vista or Windows 7, it is very important to make sure that you have the latest graphics drivers for your video card. Many video cards are having problems with the new operating system. If the game is crashing or the graphics occasionally look wrong, go and get and install the newest graphics drivers for your card. If this doesn't help, watch for new drivers to be released for your card.

Avernum is, graphically, not a very demanding game. However, some systems, due to hardware or video driver problems, have been having trouble running it at an acceptable speed. Other systems have displayed odd or corrupted graphics. Should the game not run correctly for you, follow the steps below:

• If you are using the newest version of Avernum, you might have a corrupted game file. Uninstall the game, redownload the installer, and reinstall. Don't skip uninstalling!
• Open the Settings window on the title screen. Set Game Area Size to Small and Graphics Extra Details to Don't Draw.
• If these steps don't help, try running the DirectX version of Avernum. The DirectX version ships with the game. Go into your Avernum folder (Located in: Program Files/Spiderweb Software/Avernum - Escape From the Pit") and run "Avernum DirectX.exe".
• Download the newest versions of your video card drivers and install them. Do this even if you think you have the newest version. Driver files and settings can sometimes become damaged or corrupted.
• Don't run any other applications at the same times as Avernum.
• If your system is fairly old or underpowered (particularly if it has 256 MB RAM or less, an Intel GMA graphics processor instead of a video card, or a video card over six years old), the game will probably always run slowly. Using Fast Graphics Mode will help.

Download and install the Avernum demo from our web site. The DirectX version ships with this version of the game. Go into your Avernum folder (Located in: Program Files/Spiderweb Software/Avernum - Escape From the Pit") and run "Avernum DirectX.exe". This version should work. If you continue to have problems, contact us at support@spiderwebsoftware.com.

It is possible to kill the dragon Khoth before learning a certain ritual he can teach you. If you engaged in this ethically dubious activity but would like to complete all three endings of the game anyway, press Shift-D (on the iPad, select Enter Cheat Code from the File menu), enter

sdf 55 14 1

and press the OK button. You will now know that ritual.

If you launch the game and the graphics don't appear or look wrong, quit the game. Then go into Steam and turn off Steam Overlay. This fixes problems with a number of Macintosh games on Steam.

If you are using a Macbook with a Retina screen and choose a too-large resolution to play the game, the game may be drawn with a large portion of the play area offscreen. That is because the largest resolutions can only be drawn in Retina mode, and games written with OpenGL technology (which is almost all Mac games) don't handle Retina correctly.

One workaround for this is to play the game in Windowed mode. Another is to pick as a resolution the size of your monitor is ordinary (not Retina) pixels. This resolution will be half the size of the largest resolution the game offers. (For example, it will be 1280x800 for 13" MacBooks and 1440x900 for 15" MacBooks.)

If you have already chosen for the game to always open in full screen mode, you can undo this by deleting the settings file. Open a window in the Finder. Type Command-Shift-G and enter "~/Library/Preferences". Throw away the file com.spiderwebsoftware.Avernum. Launch Avernum, and the resolution selection window will appear again.

Some of our older games run into trouble with the new security features of the Macintosh OS. Fortunately, there is a very easy workaround:

1. In the Finder, locate the game application in the Applications folder.
2. Press the Control-key, then click the app icon.
3. Choose Open from the shortcut menu.
4. Click Open.

More detailed information can be found here.

Avernum's graphics needs are modest, but they might put some strain on older machines. Fortunately, Avernum has been tested and shown to run properly on even Macintosh G4s. However, some steps might be necessary to help it to run better.

To see how quickly Avernum is running, load a saved game, press Shift-D, enter "fps", and press return. The FPS (frames of animation drawn per second) will appear in the upper left hand corner. That number should be at least in the teens to give a good play experience.

If Avernum is running slowly, try these steps:

1. Run as few other programs as possible in the background. Quit web browsers and other unneeded applications. This frees up memory and computing power.
   
2. The best way to make Avernum faster is to reduce the size of the play area. On the Video Mode window that comes up when you launch the game, choose to play in a window and then select a small size for the window. Alternately, run the game, select Game Options on the title screen, and set Game Area Size to Small.
   
3. You can turn down the graphics detail, which can result in speed increases. Run the game, select Game Options on the title screen, and set Graphics Extra Details to Don't Draw.

There seems to be a very rare problem where players emerging from the tutorial caves under Fort Avernum are instantly attacked by guards.

We have been trying to get a saved game we can use to see what is going on in the game when this happens. If you have a saved game in which this problem happens, please contact us.

As a workaround, should this happen to you, start the game over and play through the tutorial again. The problem generally doesn't happen twice.

If you play the demo of Avernum from Spiderweb Software's site and then purchase the version on the Macintosh App Store, your saved games from the demo will not be visible. You can, however, move them so that the App Store version can see them.

The "Locating Your Macintosh Saved Games" section above says where the two versions of the game locate their saved games. Open the two folders described above and drag your saved game folder from the old location (for the version not from the App Store) to the new location (version from the App Store).

It is possible to kill the dragon Khoth before learning a certain ritual he teachs you. If you engaged in this ethically dubious activity but would like to complete all three endings of the game anyway, press Shift-D (on the iPad, select Enter Cheat Code from the File menu), enter

sdf 55 14 1

and press the OK button. You will now know that ritual.

There is a bug in Game Center in iOS 6 that causes crashes when logging into a game that runs in landscape mode (like Avadon HD and Avernum HD). If you had a crash when trying to log into Game Center from our game, this is why.

Apple is aware of the issue and a fix is hopefully forthcoming. Until then, as a workaround, run the game without using Game Center, if you are given the option. Alternately, run a different game app, log into Game Center there, and then run our game.

We are sorry for this inconvenience, and we hope that the issue is resolved quickly.

It is possible for Avernum HD to, from time to time, play very slowly. The reason for this is generally lack of memory. The iPad has less memory than PCs or Macintoshes, and Avernum requires a lot of memory to store its creature and terrain icons.

The problem is that, when you run a different app and then exit it, it tends to keep running invisibly in the background. Thus, after you exit an app, it can still eat up a lot of memory. Quitting these dormant apps will free up memory and enable Avernum HD to run faster.

To quit apps running in the background:

1. Double-press the Home button. You will see a list of running apps on the screen.
2. To close an app, swipe upward, flinging it away. This shuts down the app.

If this does not help, try forcing a reboot of your iPad. Hold down the Power and Home buttons at the same time until the device resets. This can fix a number of odd problems.

We're sorry about the inconvenience of this. Low memory can be a frustrating problem, and the process to quit dormant apps is kind of obscure and confusing. Happily, newer iPads have far more memory, so problems of this sort will become less common as time goes on.

Saved games for Avernum HD on the iPad are fully compatible with Avernum for Macintosh or Windows. The tricky part is moving the saved games onto and off of the device. Fortunately, there is a free program called iExplorer that can be used to access your iPad saved games.

Go to Macroplant's web site and download and install iExplorer. (The demo of iExplorer is capable of copying your saved games onto and off of the device.) This is a free app that can move files onto and off of any iPhone or iPad.

When the program is showing the files in your device, open the Avernum HD folder. Enter "Documents/Spiderweb Software" and then the saved games folder. The saved games are in the 7 subfolders. Be sure to pull out all 3-4 files that make up the saved game (data, header, items, and maybe journal).

If you are having weird problems with Avernum (unable to talk to characters, script errors, unable to leave zones, general bad behavior), your copy of the software might have become corrupted. It is rare, but it does happen. As a first step, try forcing a reboot of your iPad. Hold down the Power and Home buttons at the same time until the device resets. This can fix a number of odd problems.

If this doesn't help, reinstalling the game can fix these problems. To do to, follow these steps.

1. If you want, back up your saved games. To learn how to do this, read the section on transferring saved games. Bear in mind that software corruptions can also damage the saved games. If, after reinstalling, problems continue, try starting a new game.
2. Power up your iPad and find the Avernum HD app icon. Rest your finger on it until it starts to vibrate and an 'X appears. Push the 'X' and choose to delete the application.
3. Run iTunes on your computer. Find Avernum HD and delete it. Make sure to choose to move it to the trash.
4. Download a fresh copy of Avernum HD from iTunes.

If this does not fix your problems, contact us.

It is possible to kill the dragon Khoth before learning a certain ritual he can teach you. If you engaged in this ethically dubious activity but would like to complete all three endings of the game anyway, press Shift-D (on the iPad, select Enter Cheat Code from the File menu), enter

sdf 55 14 1

and press the OK button. You will now know that ritual.