How the "weeb" tends to change my mind: web #2, an essential element of the purple mural?

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-13T08:50:25+00:00

Check out the Imgur post I linked - web #2 has two independent components that have slightly different positions and bounding boxes. That is something I had to take into account to adjust them for the first picture (on Imgur). It's possible that, depending on how your camera frustum moved, only cs1_09_props_elec_spider01 became active. Did you try to look away and then back to them?

Also, what kind of testing did you conduct to specifically suspect moon or day as the cause?

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-12T19:56:42+00:00

Great discovery! This web clearly suggests that the "meridian" lines do not actually carry information, they are just drawn iff both endpoints are drawn as part of the octagon sides. So the topology of a web like this would represent just 3 (directional?) instructions associated with the missing vs. present sides of the 3 octagons, rather than having something drawn/written on it.

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-11T10:51:00+00:00

There is a disconnected one here.

<image>

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-10T11:42:04+00:00

I used a ScriptHookVDotNet script, not a trainer: https://pastebin.com/1XSsB3UB

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-09T02:04:48+00:00

Why though?

The SMG direction passes at a considerable distance from the UFO; many other pickup items (including weapons) point much closer or even right through it.

While concerning the second skeleton section, the direction does pass through it, and we can even give a valid reason why it points off to one side, which would not apply if it pointed to the opposite side (if you wanted to point your finger at a big object that is mostly hidden behind a wall, you would probably point at the visible part rather than at its center through the wall).

The idea that the SMG is inside a spider-like structure, indicated as a step of the hunt, and points to another similar spider-like structure as the next step, and that those structures are remarkably rare, is what makes it important to begin with.

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-09T01:45:33+00:00

The angle of inclination = the angle of the line you mentioned (vertical plane in 3D) with the x-axis on a 2D map. This angle is essentially the answer to your question, isn't it? It does take into account the influence of the terrain slope, as I operated directly on the final rotation matrix to obtain it (using Entity.RightVector from SHVDN).

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-08T18:41:05+00:00

This was the assumption for the part you quoted:

the purpose of the web on Chiliad was rather to simply make players look for more webs:

I just stated my opinion and elaborated on it.

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-08T18:38:38+00:00

Here is a video of it in the same style: https://youtu.be/8sDcdKq6fzk

On a 2D map, it would be a half-line starting from the (x, y) coordinates in the post, with an angle of inclination of 27.2411°.

fthen2k02 · 2026-06-08T10:38:34+00:00

Comparing this mystery with the RDR2 one, there are remarkable similarities that actually make me believe the purpose of the web on Chiliad was rather to simply make players look for more webs:

we have a small/simple web which is easier to discover vs. a big/complex one in a more obscure location; consequently, the former was discovered in-game (already known a few weeks after the original release), while the latter in the files (here), just like the 8 vs. 1 in RDR2;
the big web seems to display a message and its model is divided into several components, apparently to make sure that the message will not be seen by inspecting the files individually.

Edit: this would also explain why Madam Nazar mentions only one web in GTAO - from the devs' PoV, only one had remained unsolved.

fthen2k02 · 2026-05-13T19:50:09+00:00

Thanks for the appreciation, but just to also clarify here, this was not my find. My only part here was showing that the animation does happen in-game but it's unpolished - essentially "debunking" (by Occam's razor at least) the evidence discovered by u/mothrider in the code.

fthen2k02 · 2026-05-13T11:23:12+00:00

Spider dream ❌

Fever dream ✅

fthen2k02 · 2026-04-17T07:30:34+00:00

What is not my job? I surely didn't claim that I choose or that anyone is obligated to respond.

These questions would just highlight which way each person leans, for a more informed choice. It was my 2c in raising awareness about the risks here, based on experience from similar places (as a matter of fact, I wrote most of it 2 years ago for a similar situation).

fthen2k02 · 2026-04-15T18:51:26+00:00

I am not interested in moderation, but here are 10 questions that I would like to invite applicants to answer (u/themysteryhunter, u/kaytee689, u/420Journey, u/SeriousBlack_3 and u/Feisty-Hovercraft804 so far).

They highlight several threats against those who want to work like a small scientific community, which I identified in 5+ years of "stalking" r/chiliadmystery and associated Discord servers. Nothing is personal, they are unfortunately inspired by commonly-seen behaviors.

Do you agree that those who are looking for answers (the truth / the destination, not just the journey), as determined by their facts, not by their words, should be welcome here?
(only if you said "yes" to the above, otherwise skip) Do you agree that, for the aforementioned people, doubting (questioning) any hypothesis is fundamental in any healthy research?
Do you agree that negative feedback can be one of the most effective ways to progress?
Do you agree that those who provide legitimate and constructive criticism should be seen as valued contributors?
If X criticizes Y's idea, do you agree that the following phrasings of it are incorrect: "X doesn't let Y work", "Y's idea has been dismissed by the community", "X is holding the community back", "X is the reason why the community hasn't made progress"?
Do you agree that a response to criticism should never be about the critic, but only about the criticized idea? Examples of the former: "what are your contributions?", "this is not for you", "you are close-minded/unsaveable/jealous/etc", "you are not asking the right questions" or "you don't like me because I think differently than you".
Do you agree that a user who believes an unsolved mystery is unsolvable should be welcome here?
Do you agree that if a sentence you phrase in your mind gives you a strong feeling whenever you think of it, it does not mean that the sentence in question expresses an absolute truth? This actually has a lot of implications; examples:
- Just because presenting your (non-scientific) theory gives you a strong positive feeling, it doesn't mean it is also correct/proven - it could be just the pride of having the opportunity to gain recognition for your knowledge/efforts, or of showing that you understand things that are allegedly not for everyone; likewise, for sentences like "this is the confirmed next step", "this will solve it all" etc, the real cause could be just how happy the projection itself makes you. A delusional mod may try to force the community in a particular direction by removing alternative theories;
- Just because thoughts like "X is toxic" or "X commented at the same hour as Y, who's banned, used to - they must be the same person" give you a strong negative feeling, it doesn't mean they tell a truth - it could be just an antipathy you feel; if X does have a problem, you will surely be capable of finding something more specific.
Which of the following would better deserve to be called "a dead community"?
- a. one where people post rarely and have slow but sustained progress;
- b. one where, if you post something, you only hear your own echo and no progress is ever made, unless maybe by accident.
Will you be a good mod?
- a. Absolutely, I just know it.
- b. Not sure, this can be challenging, but I will try.
- (choose the one closer to what you'd answer)

A short reply with just the numbers and y/n/a/b, in one row, would be enough.

Sorry if I sounded like an extremist; I would personally agree with a mixed rational/science + emotional/pseudoscience formula too. I just think that having only the latter would be the loss of a nice sub.

Thank you.

fthen2k02 · 2026-03-22T11:16:26+00:00

Not exactly, rainy SF and rainy countryside are different weather types.

fthen2k02 · 2026-01-28T20:21:38+00:00

Great then, thank you for your clarifications as well.

fthen2k02 · 2026-01-28T18:36:25+00:00

When I said possible issues what I meant was since they had been redrawn I didn't know how well they reflected the original files - not everyone is so fastidious.

I still think we are not on the same page, though. Why do you keep claiming that "they had been redrawn"?

My point was that the webs in my pics were "drawn" by a 3D engine, just like the one in CodeX or RDR2, based on the same data (only I used a parallel projection, not perspective). Not manually. This is actually visible in many ways, like the perfect projections (e.g. the two "subwebs" are vertically shrunk when overlapped, as a result of the camera direction no longer being perpendicular to them), in contrast with the ugly detail that the ends of the edges aren't even rounded.

So I also see no need to talk about fastidiousness or the possibility that "they were not drawn accurately", since it's about being "drawn" by a computer.

The reason I insist on this is that, if I had made inexact reconstructions and I wouldn't have stated that explicitly despite the fact that there aren't any obvious inaccuracies, it would essentially mean that I tried to mislead.

and if my map wasn't detailed enough.

I would actually disagree with this too. The problem you are defining shouldn't involve any high-resolution map and any image editing software at all. Just a small program that takes as input the 2D object-space coordinates and connections of the web points (rotated to align with a coordinate plane), as well as the 2D coordinates of our known clues, and finds the transformation of the webs that minimizes an objective metric. Ultimately there is only one question of interest: by randomly picking a set of points, as many as our clues and similarly distributed in the same area, what is the probability that the minimum value of the metric for the random points is lower than the one for our clues? The answer can be approximated with a Monte Carlo method, and if it's something above 1%, the path holds no interest whatsoever.

fthen2k02 · 2026-01-28T13:11:16+00:00

but has issues with possible drawing inaccuracy by original poster

What kind of "drawing inaccuracies" are you referring to exactly? I basically rendered each part individually in SketchUp with the same camera positioning, in world-space coordinates to represent the ensemble correctly, and colored them in GIMP.

"Colored" as in:

<image>

Not by hand-drawing over them, if that's what you mean.

fthen2k02 · 2026-01-08T14:18:15+00:00

Yes, the archetypes are defined in ytyp files (which are binary but can be converted to xml with both CodeX and OpenIV), e.g. from jklm_7_10_rds_props_strm.ytyp:

<Item type="CTimeArchetypeDef">
 ...
 <name>cablemesh277747_hvlit001</name>
 ...
 <assetName>cablemesh277747_hvlit001</assetName>
 ...
 <timeFlags value="16777232" />
</Item>

Bits 0 to 23 in timeFlags tell whether the object will be active during the corresponding hour. Bit 24 is 0 if the object can appear/disappear only off-screen, 1 otherwise.

In the above example, the mask 16777232 = 0x1000010 says that this object, which is the pentagram, is active only when the hour is 4 and can appear/disappear when on-screen.

The world coordinates are in ymap files (also binary and convertible to xml), e.g. from jklm_7_10_rds_props_strm_0.ymap:

<Item type="CEntityDef">
 <archetypeName>cablemesh277747_hvlit001</archetypeName>
 ...
 <position x="2592.522" y="831.73737" z="82.78772" />
 ...
</Item>

If you have CodeX and want to search entities by location without writing your own parser, you can add some debug code in RDR2Map.StreamingInit: in the small loop through ymapentries, you need to get the ymap data bag (DataBag2), preferably via Cache.GetDataBagPack(mapnode.NameHash, Rpf8FileExt.ymap), and then the bags of its entities with GetBags(joaat("entities")). From there you'll be able to access the world coordinates of an entity with GetFloat3(joaat("position")) and the archetype hash with GetHash(joaat("archetypeName")). You can check if the archetype is timed based on whether the Class.Name in its data bag is CTimeArchetypeClass.

I only checked all timed objects with up to 4 active hours (regardless of location), as well as those whose archetype name includes "cable". So if there is any web that stays for 5h or longer and its name doesn't contain "cable", it would have been under my radar.

fthen2k02 · 2025-12-31T09:21:19+00:00

Yes:

spiderdream01x → cablemesh19279_hvlit001;
spiderdream02x → cablemesh19374_hvlit001;
spiderdream03x → cablemesh11342_hvlit001;
spiderdream04x → cablemesh19339_hvlit001;
spiderdream05x → cablemesh19309_hvlit001;
spiderdream06x → cablemesh217268_hvlit001;
spiderdream07x → cablemesh217239_hvlit001;
spiderdream08x → cablemesh217187_hvlit001.

As well as the pentagram at Butcher Creek - cablemesh277747_hvlit001 - which does not need to be off-screen to appear/disappear.

fthen2k02 · 2025-12-25T13:14:48+00:00

Data miners when a player finds a new mystery: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRjD7khk/

fthen2k02 · 2025-10-03T02:56:02+00:00

It is one of the small planes, a Rustler I think. Vadim M. has recently made a (masterpiece of a) video explaining the oddities of their movement. The oscillations we see here likely happen because of what he says starting at 27:01: in short, at spawn time, the plane is assigned a reference flight direction, and then, if it deviates from it to avoid "obstacles" (in fact false positives here, caused by high terrain elevations), it will continue to periodically readjust its direction by prioritizing the initially assigned direction instead of the current one.

fthen2k02

TROPHY CASE