Superbus via Inscientiae

SUPERBUS VIA INSCIENTIAE

On the floor and the wall of the lobby of the Advanced Biological Research Lab (Biodome Complex) can be seen a logo featuring the Latin phrase "Superbus via Inscientiae" and a DNA double helix in the middle.

The logo and the phrase have been tied to the ARG due to its occurrences near pizza boxes and/or "The Pizza is a LIE!" graffitis in hidden locations throughout the Black Mesa facility.

Earlier in the ARG, when the Code D puzzle was still unsolved, it was theorized that the "Superbus via Inscientiae" phrase could possibly be the 20 character phrase required for a VIC cipher. But this turned out not to be the case.

The logo with the Latin phrase is originally from Half-Life 1 but has been recreated with a higher graphical fidelity in Black Mesa. The phrase has an approximate translation of "arrogance through ignorance". More information about the origin of the logo and the phrase can be found on the Combine Overwiki.

Locations

Below is a table listing the all the locations where the logo is found in both the 2012 mod release and the 2015 Steam Early Access release of Black Mesa.

The locations have been found by searching in all the .vmf source files of the maps for every instance of the decal texture "decals/lab1_flr8d" as well as the model versions of the logo: "models/props_questionableethics/qe_logo_sign.mdl" and "models/props_questionableethics/qe_logo_sign_200.mdl". For the mod release of Black Mesa, the maps were decompiled in order to get the .vmf's. For the Steam release, the original .vmf's for the single player campaign included with the game were used, and just the multiplayer maps were decompiled.

The logo can also be seen on several plasma TVs around in the Biodome Complex. The model file for these are "models/props_questionableethics/qe_tv_plasma.mdl" with the skin texture file containing the logo in "qe_tv_plasma_screen2.vtf". However, these only appear in the Questionable Ethics chapter and are therefore not considered out of the ordinary, and thus not included in the table below.

Chapter	Map	Asset	Coordinates	Notes
	background07	lab1_flr8d	568 952 -192
	background11	qe_logo_sign_200.mdl	2960 -1184 61
	background11	qe_logo_sign_200.mdl	1856 -1184 61
	background11	lab1_flr8d	2408 -1512 -272
	background12	lab1_flr8d	-2376 -3136 1854.72
Black Mesa Inbound	bm_c0a0a	lab1_flr8d	3020 3532 -298
	bm_c0a0b	lab1_flr8d	-704 2728 -1824
Anomalous Materials	bm_c1a0a	lab1_flr8d	1624 3712 416
Unforeseen Consequences	bm_c1a1b	lab1_flr8d	-1120 -1024 384
	bm_c1a1b	lab1_flr8d	-1536 440 480
	bm_c1a1d	lab1_flr8d	-5088 -4912 -3713.88
Office Complex	bm_c1a2b	lab1_flr8d	-1991 -862.715 321.965
"We've Got Hostiles!"	bm_c1a3a	lab1_flr8d	-1824.02 928.28 -128
	bm_c1a3b	lab1_flr8d	-2838 178 176
	bm_c1a3c	lab1_flr8d	-2368 172 -959
Blast Pit	bm_c1a4a	lab1_flr8d	-1963.68 -3788 -1240
Power Up	bm_c2a1a	lab1_flr8d	1073.05 1515 35
On a Rail	bm_c2a2c	lab1_flr8d	-2272 -4880 68.1817
Apprehension	bm_c2a3b	lab1_flr8d	3662.59 511 83.0824
Residue Processing	bm_c2a4b	lab1_flr8d	-617.767 -2920 -741.628
	bm_c2a4c	lab1_flr8d	-1078 -270 112
Questionable Ethics	bm_c2a4e	qe_logo_sign.mdl	-80 -768 592
	bm_c2a4f	qe_logo_sign_200.mdl	2960 -1184 61
	bm_c2a4f	qe_logo_sign_200.mdl	1856 -1184 61
	bm_c2a4f	qe_logo_sign.mdl	440 -1240 -208
	bm_c2a4f	lab1_flr8d	2408 -1512 -272
	bm_c2a4h	qe_logo_sign_200.mdl	2960 -1184 61
	bm_c2a4h	qe_logo_sign_200.mdl	1856 -1184 61
Surface Tension	bm_c2a5a	lab1_flr8d	-2376 -3136 1854.72
"Forget About Freeman!"	bm_c3a1b	lab1_flr8d	-1760 1312 -1560
	bm_c3a1b	lab1_flr8d	-1984 2172 -258.195
	bm_c3a1b	lab1_flr8d	-967 1338.51 -1395.75 -976 1339.82 -1392.44
Lambda Core	bm_c3a2a	lab1_flr8d	3097 -1323 -2496
	bm_c3a2c	lab1_flr8d	-87 1262.61 1046.35
	bm_c3a2h	lab1_flr8d	1808 -284 64
	bm_c3a2h	lab1_flr8d	1018 -1536 72
Notes:

How to jump to a location in-game

Main article: How to jump to a location in-game

See also

• Pizza box
• The Pizza is a LIE!