Whiteboards

• Description of data found on whiteboards: Whiteboard Theories
• Throughout the game there are numerous whiteboards with various things written on them.
• Two of these whiteboards have been determined to contain cipher messages, c2a4x_labboard1 and c0a1x_labboard_am6.
• The files are valve texture files (.vtf) stored in bms_textures_dir.vpk -> materials\lab for the earthbound whiteboards, and bms_textures_dir.vpk -> materials\xen\lab for the Xen whiteboards. The bms_textures_dir.vpk file is located in <Steam library folder>\steamapps\common\Black Mesa\bms and can be opened using GCFScape. The .vtf files can be easily opened and converted to standard graphic formats using VTFedit.
• In the 2012 legacy mod version, the earthbound whiteboards are stored in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\sourcemods\BMS\materials\lab.
• The filenames for the earthbound whiteboards are all in the format <map number>_labboard<ID>, where the ID's are sometimes a reference to the chapter names (_am# = Anomalous Materials, _uc# = Unforeseen Consequences, or sometimes a purely numerical reference.)
• The filenames for the Xen whiteboards are in the format xen_labboards_<chapter name><map number>_<NN>.

Earthbound Whiteboard Gallery

c0a1x_labboard_am1

c0a1x_labboard_am2

c0a1x_labboard_am3

c0a1x_labboard_am4

c0a1x_labboard_am5

c0a1x_labboard_am6

c1a1x_labboard_uc1

c1a1x_labboard_uc2

c1a1x_labboard_uc3

c2a4x_labboard1

c2a4x_labboard2

c2a4x_labboard3

c2a4x_labboard4

c2a4x_labboard5

c2a4x_labboard6

c2a4x_labboard7

c2a4x_labboard8

c2a4x_labboard9

c2a4x_labboard10

c2a4x_labboard11

c2a4x_labboard12

c2a4x_labboard13

c2a4x_labboard14

c2a4x_labboard15

Xen Whiteboard Gallery

xen_labboards_xena_01

xen_labboards_xena_02

xen_labboards_xena_03

xen_labboards_xena_04

xen_labboards_xena_05

xen_labboards_xena_06

xen_labboards_xena_07

xen_labboards_xena_08

xen_labboards_gonb_01

Hi-res scans of original whiteboard sources

Higher resolution scans of the whiteboard originals have not been officially published. Stormseeker has stated that he wants to create new higher resolution scans of the whiteboard paper originals and then publish them when time permits. However, some of the old high resolution scans of the whiteboard paper originals have been made available on the Internet through different channels.

• Most of the images below were published in an article on the Russian science news site Nplus1.
• The two partial whiteboard images and the xen_labboards_xena_07_hi-res_scan image were posted by Stormseeker on Discord.
• The c2a4x_labboard7_lo-res_scan, c2a4x_labboard10_lo-res_scan and c2a4x_labboard12_lo-res_scan images were posted on the official @BlackMesaDevs X/Twitter account.

c0a1x_labboard_am1_hi-res_scan

c0a1x_labboard_am2_hi-res_scan

c0a1x_labboard_am3_hi-res_scan

c0a1x_labboard_am4_hi-res_scan

c0a1x_labboard_am6_hi-res_scan

c1a1x_labboard_uc1_hi-res_scan

c1a1x_labboard_uc2_hi-res_scan

c1a1x_labboard_uc3_hi-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard1_hi-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard2_hi-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard3_hi-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard4_hi-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard5_hi-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard6_hi-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard7_lo-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard10_lo-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard12_lo-res_scan

c2a4x_labboard15_hi-res_scan_part_Biodome_reference

xen_labboards_xena_01_hi-res_scan

xen_labboards_xena_02_hi-res_scan

xen_labboards_xena_03_hi-res_scan

xen_labboards_xena_04_hi-res_scan

xen_labboards_xena_06_hi-res_scan_part_Team_2_and_3

xen_labboards_xena_07_hi-res_scan